BECOMING A BETTER BETTOR

Travis Geiger of WagerWire speaks to Gaming America about the brand’s attempts to launch a new concept, a social media community and a Bet Value Calculator, through the ethos of ‘being a good hang.’

Thanks for joining us. To start with, can you tell us about the launch of your app and Bet Value Calculator?

The Bet Value Calculator tells you the fair market value of any bet in real time, automated in the app. You can then compare it to a cash-out offer. What we found is no one’s ever really known if they’re getting a fair cash-out because they have nothing to compare it to. The Bet Value Calculator gives you a baseline, like the free-market price. We see the cash-out like an eBay ‘buy it now’ price. We empower people to take control of their bets to treat them as assets – investments that have intrinsic value –not a shot in the dark that’s going to win or lose.

About that asset mentality, how popular is your concept regarding buying and selling previously placed bets? Do any other companies do this?

A company called Prop Swap did it in the paper ticket market. Paper tickets are only about 10% of overall handle, so we’re attacking the digital side. We’re of the opinion that once a bet is placed, it’s now the same as a title for a car or a deed to a house. We did a US survey with Leger where 90% of people said they would sign up for a sportsbook that had a resale market over one that did not. We had to double check these numbers because we thought, “people are going to think we’re lying!” It becomes a big part of the appeal when this industry is so commoditized. For example, if I want to buy your bet, I have to sign up for the book that it originated from. It then becomes a retention thing, because now I’m going back and checking my portfolio. We also think people are going to make more bets and put more down because now they have an out.

There’s a social aspect of it, too. This is how the concept started. My roommate had a bet I wanted to buy into. I started to realize there was something lacking in the experience, the education and the way we talk about betting. We’re trying to make an app we want to use and a sports betting experience that’s fun. Our three Co-Founders were all UCLA roommates. We never expected people on Twitter would be putting our logo on top of their faces. It’s hard to do anything new in this industry, but we feel like this is inevitable. They don’t have this in Europe yet – but I think they will.

We’ve noticed you have a whole online media community with daily content, which includes everything from March Madness to mental health. How do you pick your contributors?

This was a totally organic process, which we loved. We slowly grew this over time as we were interacting and getting to know our fans on Twitter before we even told them what our brand was. When we announced our brand, they lined up and said, “How can we be part of this?”

Whenever we put out content, the creators support each other, which grows the concentric circle of the algorithm each time. We see some of these casinos sitting on hundreds of thousands of followers with a tweet that gets two or three likes. We want our content to be a conversation, not just a post.

You have the conversation going on TikTok, as well. Is TikTok a genuine source of paying players for you?

Our TikTok is only a month old, but we’ve been able to get over 100,000 likes in the first 30 days. We just want to be a good hang. They love sports, they love sports betting and if they love hanging out with you, they’ll stay in your ecosystem. We’ve never spent a dollar on a paid ad. We want to put our money into product, engineering and creating a best-in-class user experience. MaximBet chose a lifestyle lane, but they never really invited anyone into it. People don’t care about your parties; you’re not changing the game for me in the way you’re telling me you are. The cool thing about having this community is immediate feedback. We’re able to show them our app and say, ‘does this make sense to you?’ People might come as creators and stay for betting, or come for betting and become creators. We have a built-in community who are going to be our core users.

If people feel like their ideas are actually being incorporated into your company, that’s empowering. The community site and the community page create a way to interact within the ecosystem. Whereas, if I go on FanDuel, I’m signing on, I’m doing my business and I’m getting out.

How does your catchphrase of "bets no longer have to win to make money" work? And how well does the community know what that means?

The people that have gravitated toward it want to get educated. They have good instincts but probably won’t hit all their bets. They don’t want to put $100 down just to lose it. If they know the Cowboys are going to have an easy first five games but they might not win the Super Bowl, they can put money on the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl,.. knowing at a five-game hot streak somebody who’s a Dallas diehard is going to win it all this year. You can make money betting on momentum plays. Yes, there’s the downside protection, but there’s also capitalizing on things in a new way.

How does your rewards system work?

Our WagerWire app has a universal wallet. All of your bets and all of the books you play are synced. We’re plugging in the partner rewards where possible. We’re talking to people like Fanatics. You placed five New York Jets bets this year? Here’s a coupon to buy a Jets jersey. We’re able to do that in a way that books can’t. We can incentivize people in different ways because this is a storefront for the books.

The last question we have was based on a quote in your website bio,“WagerWire turns your risks into assets.” Since there is some inherent risk, have you made any efforts through WagerWire to address problem gambling or responsible gaming (RG)? 100 – It’s one of our biggest priorities. We’re compliant with all the RG and exclusion checks. Because of the way our system works, nothing can be done on WagerWire that couldn’t be done through a casino system. If they’re banned or excluded, they’re not going to be able to buy on WagerWire. We’re also working with the Ohio Institute for Responsible Gaming. It’s their opinion that WagerWire is part of a healthy marketplace and consumer protection.

Travis Geiger

You should be able to sell your bet and not just for pennies on the dollar to the casino. We are an out, but on the educational part of things, we don’t have a misaligned incentive. These casinos' business model is to make money on losses. We make money whenever a bet changes hands or you sign up for a sportsbook. We actually want you to become a better, more mature bettor.