The House Always Wins

"The House Always Wins". It's a phrase without a firm origin. An adage that's held true for centuries.

More and more, it feels as though this phrase has become the mantra for the modern day business in gambling industry, and I believe its stifled the innovation and creativity, leading to apps bound to business models that embody the phrase. Sportsbooks have reached the pinnacle of this, employing in-game practices that encourage users to bet on unlikely outcomes, while penalizing users that are consistently finding edge and winning. They've reached beyond their house and into ours, buying up ads anywhere and everywhere. If you're not a gambler, you've no doubt seen ads for sportsbooks on your phone, on your computer, on your TV, and on your social media feeds. If you are a gambler, your algorithm is probably dialed in. If you're a problem gambler, good luck.

More and more, I've been thinking about this phrase and how it applies to state of the internet economy as whole; this idea of having a unbalanced power dynamic that focuses on extracting the consumer's wealth without providing any lasting value in return. It's something that warrants a whole essay of it's own.

This preface leaves you wondering, what is the solution? I don't believe regulation is the answer, but rather innovation. It's a path of optimism that relies on the population to wake up and buy in. A path of more resistance no doubt, but a much more sustainable path, that provides real options to the consumer.

If you got this far, you've probably been waiting for me to plug SoBet. I'm definitely going to do that. Not because I have to, but because I believe it is an innovative solution that provides a refreshing alternative to the status quo. The House doesn't always have to win; sometimes you can too.

The contest model we've built has been constructed around that mindset. It leverages the excitement of betting, with the competitive nature of sports. With a contest model, you're not focusing or chasing the outcome of a single bet, but rather the outcome of your betting actions over a period of time. The contest provides guard rails to ensure you're not playing the lottery by hoping for insane parlays to cash. The leaderboard provides the competitive driving force that keeps you engaged and motivated to continue betting. Your involvement in the game moves betting activity out of the dark, and allows you to engage socially with your wins and losses. Most importantly, our focus as a business is not ensuring that the House always wins, but rather finding ways to produce more winners within the community.

Technology has made it easier than ever to create apps and this has led to proliferation of apps in this space that all seem to be doing the same thing. I'm proud to say we're on the innovating edge of the industry with a product roadmap full of features each more exciting than the next and business incentive aligned with that of the consumer.