The path of Lee Hong. How we come up with a sports betting
The history of this startup does not begin in the well-fed Scandinavia, but in the dirty restrooms of Guangzhou. It was there, in one of the small Chinese firms, that a small employee worked, let's call him Lee Hong (Hitman!). We had to work a lot - 12-hour working day without interruptions, and the only opportunity to rest was to move to WC. It was there that Lee Hong sat for long minutes trying to figure out how to do this so as not to wipe his pants for the rest of his life in this company. And invented. He began to deal with arbitration bets on sporting events.
The arbitration rate is a win-win rate. Imagine that there is a match going right now. And the bookmaker has the outcome of this match, for example, “in this match will score more than 3.5 goals”. There is a coefficient that the event will come true. For example, “2.05”. The coefficient means that by putting 1 ruble, you get 2.05. And there is a coefficient that will not come true. For example “2.00”. Putting on it, we get 0 * 2.05 + 1 * 2.00 = 2.00 (this is equal to the amount we set)
There is no third, because no one can score exactly 3.5 goals in a match. Unclear? - Then you under the cat.
')
The attentive reader has already noticed that by putting 1 ruble at 2.05 and 1 ruble at 2.00, we always win. If the first outcome wins, we will spend 2 rubles and win 2.05. If the second outcome wins, we will spend 2 rubles and win 2 rubles. This is the arbitration rate!
The bookmaker does not like to lose money and will never give you 2.05 and 2.00 right away, but! if something important happens (breaking the rules, quickly changing the initiative, and so on), some bookmakers have time to update the odds, while some slow down and keep the old numbers over 9000 seconds. These are the situations that Lee Hong caught and, by the way, he became a dollar millionaire.
We met Lee Hong in 2009, when he came to order us [closed NDA] in an outsourcing company, where I then worked as a PM. He was a talkative client and he loved to share success, so without thinking twice, we and our acquaintance decided to sip a similar system that would automatically catch arbitrage rates. The system was washed down, and I even bought a refrigerator with a profit (!!!), but then the bookmakers started hunting for us, so I had to bury the project.
During the operation of the system, we brought out with a friend that it would be nice to have such a service where anyone within the time killer could play candy wrappers and try their luck at the matches going right now. Here comes the Nedbank Cup, Maritzburg United and Kaiser Chiefs (who are all these people?), And what will happen if I put on Kaiser? Studying the online bookmakers market later, I was only more strongly convinced that the actors do not play a special role - the majority of players are “lunatics” - the match is not particularly important for them, they don’t know anything about it, and most importantly for them to check their chances for success: will I guess the result?
As usual, the idea became overgrown with Wishlist. First, we saw this service social inorder not to buy a bookmaker license in order to be an arbiter between players. When you sit one on one with the bookmaker, it’s boring. You can't even send a smiley to him. Another thing is when you are in a room with other players, here you can find friends and praise your winnings. Second bright thought: reduce the duration of the session of the game. The match lasts 2 hours, all this time the bet is hanging. While the average casual game should last no more than 15 minutes. Nestykovochka Need faster!
Therefore, we decided to introduce the concept of “tournament”. In essence, a tournament is basically a time limit. For example, we score room from 15:00 to 15:30. At 15:30 we are already finishing, and it doesn’t matter whether all matches have finished in time or not. We count all the matches on the situation at 15:30. So it became even more fun: some matches are already ending, some are just beginning, we immediately had a whole heap of different strategies, how to beat each other in these 30 minutes.
It was no longer a sports betting, but a strategic game in which, as on a stock exchange, analysts make predictions, and then the best analyst picks up the bank. We developed this idea by adding rounds to the tournament: now the player could not just bet and wait for the result, he could skip one or several rounds to see what happened to others.
After the service was written (just in 2013), we threw it at the masses ( Windows Store ). As usual with everything new, people completely did not understand the idea. The most common question: how to play? Despite the video tutorials. Despite contextual clues. Despite the simple and thoughtful UX.
Then the startup went dusting on the shelf, and I began to look for investments and communicate with investors. I must say, they fundamentally fixed my brain, and most importantly, I understood: we made a complex strategy, and people need a "one-armed gangster." And the funny thing is that with a ready-made engine, this transformation can be done quickly enough.
1. Make it easier.
We introduce the basic rule: the forecast is now always done only 7 minutes ahead. Made a forecast - in 7 minutes it will be calculated. The forecast is always on whether or not a goal will be scored in a match. All the coefficients are also pulled up from the bookmakers, the magnitude of the forecast (which is always the same, for example, 100 points) is also multiplied by them.
2. Make it spectacular
2.1. Due to the introduction of new dynamics with +7 minutes, it is possible to beat the forecasts graphically. For example, to depict matches on horizontal strings, a match, along with an increase in time, crawls along the string from the left to the right. When adding a forecast, the match “spits out” the checkbox, which is set at +7 minutes. When a match hits him, the forecast is calculated (here you can immediately come up with sounds and animations, both with spitting and hitting, as well as beating up a situation where the forecast will not exactly play).
2.2. Because of the same dynamic with +7, you can make the leaderboard very entertaining - because The top 3 will change frequently (constantly some of the predictions are calculated), you can animate the players' transition between positions, animate a separate leader shift, and animate your withdrawal from the top 3.
2.3. Add rewards for achievement. For example, I made three correct predictions in a row - I received a medal and + N points.
3. Make a non-stop.
There is always only one tournament for a given time, for example, 30 minutes. It serves to determine the winners, you can join or watch. This tournament has passed - the next 30 minutes immediately begins, and so on.
Monetization is supposed to be simple here: money from the people for points that they will spend on battles with each other. At the same time, develop a direction, invent new games (for example, cooperative tournaments, clan wars, single-player missions), add artifacts, develop supported platforms.
There are many ideas, but investments are needed. We will be very happy if you understand what you are talking about here, too, will like this idea, and you will be able to help with references, means, thoughts, or just rays of support. Thanks in advance and thanks to VCStart for the opportunityto speak out!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ITS PROJECT: Dmitry Nosov, co-founder of the Betflok project - a multiplayer game in which players compete with each other in predicting the outcomes of live matches in real time. The game has already been written, tested and published in the Windows Store. At the moment, work is underway on localization and translation into Chinese and English. In the future - the development of mobile applications for iOS and Android.
TECHNOLOGY
Server: Python Tornado Web server (as in Facebook Friends Feed), withstands up to 10K active connections, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, Celery (everything is perfectly clustered)
Client: HTML5 + CSS3 + Javascript using WinJS
The game is easily portable to social networks (requires only adaptation for browsers). Contains social features (now authorization through Windows or Facebook, in the future we plan to expand the list of social functions) and chat for communication between players, bots for the game have already been written, so that players will always compete with anyone.
You can buy a stake in the Betflock startup on the VCStart collective investment platform .
The arbitration rate is a win-win rate. Imagine that there is a match going right now. And the bookmaker has the outcome of this match, for example, “in this match will score more than 3.5 goals”. There is a coefficient that the event will come true. For example, “2.05”. The coefficient means that by putting 1 ruble, you get 2.05. And there is a coefficient that will not come true. For example “2.00”. Putting on it, we get 0 * 2.05 + 1 * 2.00 = 2.00 (this is equal to the amount we set)
There is no third, because no one can score exactly 3.5 goals in a match. Unclear? - Then you under the cat.
')
The attentive reader has already noticed that by putting 1 ruble at 2.05 and 1 ruble at 2.00, we always win. If the first outcome wins, we will spend 2 rubles and win 2.05. If the second outcome wins, we will spend 2 rubles and win 2 rubles. This is the arbitration rate!
The bookmaker does not like to lose money and will never give you 2.05 and 2.00 right away, but! if something important happens (breaking the rules, quickly changing the initiative, and so on), some bookmakers have time to update the odds, while some slow down and keep the old numbers over 9000 seconds. These are the situations that Lee Hong caught and, by the way, he became a dollar millionaire.
We met Lee Hong in 2009, when he came to order us [closed NDA] in an outsourcing company, where I then worked as a PM. He was a talkative client and he loved to share success, so without thinking twice, we and our acquaintance decided to sip a similar system that would automatically catch arbitrage rates. The system was washed down, and I even bought a refrigerator with a profit (!!!), but then the bookmakers started hunting for us, so I had to bury the project.
During the operation of the system, we brought out with a friend that it would be nice to have such a service where anyone within the time killer could play candy wrappers and try their luck at the matches going right now. Here comes the Nedbank Cup, Maritzburg United and Kaiser Chiefs (who are all these people?), And what will happen if I put on Kaiser? Studying the online bookmakers market later, I was only more strongly convinced that the actors do not play a special role - the majority of players are “lunatics” - the match is not particularly important for them, they don’t know anything about it, and most importantly for them to check their chances for success: will I guess the result?
As usual, the idea became overgrown with Wishlist. First, we saw this service social in
Therefore, we decided to introduce the concept of “tournament”. In essence, a tournament is basically a time limit. For example, we score room from 15:00 to 15:30. At 15:30 we are already finishing, and it doesn’t matter whether all matches have finished in time or not. We count all the matches on the situation at 15:30. So it became even more fun: some matches are already ending, some are just beginning, we immediately had a whole heap of different strategies, how to beat each other in these 30 minutes.
It was no longer a sports betting, but a strategic game in which, as on a stock exchange, analysts make predictions, and then the best analyst picks up the bank. We developed this idea by adding rounds to the tournament: now the player could not just bet and wait for the result, he could skip one or several rounds to see what happened to others.
After the service was written (just in 2013), we threw it at the masses ( Windows Store ). As usual with everything new, people completely did not understand the idea. The most common question: how to play? Despite the video tutorials. Despite contextual clues. Despite the simple and thoughtful UX.
Then the startup went dusting on the shelf, and I began to look for investments and communicate with investors. I must say, they fundamentally fixed my brain, and most importantly, I understood: we made a complex strategy, and people need a "one-armed gangster." And the funny thing is that with a ready-made engine, this transformation can be done quickly enough.
We want to come to something like this:
1. Make it easier.
We introduce the basic rule: the forecast is now always done only 7 minutes ahead. Made a forecast - in 7 minutes it will be calculated. The forecast is always on whether or not a goal will be scored in a match. All the coefficients are also pulled up from the bookmakers, the magnitude of the forecast (which is always the same, for example, 100 points) is also multiplied by them.
2. Make it spectacular
2.1. Due to the introduction of new dynamics with +7 minutes, it is possible to beat the forecasts graphically. For example, to depict matches on horizontal strings, a match, along with an increase in time, crawls along the string from the left to the right. When adding a forecast, the match “spits out” the checkbox, which is set at +7 minutes. When a match hits him, the forecast is calculated (here you can immediately come up with sounds and animations, both with spitting and hitting, as well as beating up a situation where the forecast will not exactly play).
2.2. Because of the same dynamic with +7, you can make the leaderboard very entertaining - because The top 3 will change frequently (constantly some of the predictions are calculated), you can animate the players' transition between positions, animate a separate leader shift, and animate your withdrawal from the top 3.
2.3. Add rewards for achievement. For example, I made three correct predictions in a row - I received a medal and + N points.
3. Make a non-stop.
There is always only one tournament for a given time, for example, 30 minutes. It serves to determine the winners, you can join or watch. This tournament has passed - the next 30 minutes immediately begins, and so on.
Monetization is supposed to be simple here: money from the people for points that they will spend on battles with each other. At the same time, develop a direction, invent new games (for example, cooperative tournaments, clan wars, single-player missions), add artifacts, develop supported platforms.
There are many ideas, but investments are needed. We will be very happy if you understand what you are talking about here, too, will like this idea, and you will be able to help with references, means, thoughts, or just rays of support. Thanks in advance and thanks to VCStart for the opportunity
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND ITS PROJECT: Dmitry Nosov, co-founder of the Betflok project - a multiplayer game in which players compete with each other in predicting the outcomes of live matches in real time. The game has already been written, tested and published in the Windows Store. At the moment, work is underway on localization and translation into Chinese and English. In the future - the development of mobile applications for iOS and Android.TECHNOLOGY
Server: Python Tornado Web server (as in Facebook Friends Feed), withstands up to 10K active connections, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, Celery (everything is perfectly clustered)
Client: HTML5 + CSS3 + Javascript using WinJS
The game is easily portable to social networks (requires only adaptation for browsers). Contains social features (now authorization through Windows or Facebook, in the future we plan to expand the list of social functions) and chat for communication between players, bots for the game have already been written, so that players will always compete with anyone.
You can buy a stake in the Betflock startup on the VCStart collective investment platform .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/361891/
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