As efforts to bring sports betting to California continue to fail, residents are looking for legal alternatives. Betr Gaming hopes its new DFS prop bet platform, Betr Picks, will fill the void.
Betr Picks is a daily fantasy sports platform that allows users to wager real money on their favorite sports. The company aims to get around California laws against sports betting by using an entry fee system that rewards users on prop bets.
It remains to be seen if that will work in The Golden State.
Betr Picks is in the existing Betr app
Conventional California sports betting does not exist. Two propositions were voted down in November.
As of July 31, Betr Picks is operating in 24 states, including in California. The company is marketing it is as “a differentiated pick ’em experience.” Basically, users select “more” or “less” from a list of player projections. They then build a lineup from two to eight players. Depending on results, winnings can climb as high as 100 times the entry fee.
Betr Picks is housed within the existing Betr mobile app, which is restricted to users 21 years or older. The app does not allow deposits from credit cards, just debit cards and PayPal.
Betr CEO and founder Joey Levy is confident the unique product will help Betr grow its nationwide footprint.
“We are thrilled to expand the Betr Gaming business by introducing our real-money fantasy sports vertical with the launch of Betr Picks. Betr Picks allows us to acquire and engage real-money gaming users across the United States, enabling Betr Gaming to more fully capitalize on the nationwide presence of Betr Media for the first time, all while providing a complimentary pre-match experience to our in-play-focused OSB product. We believe Betr Picks already features a strong core user experience relative to existing pick ‘em products, and we have several material enhancements that will be released over the coming weeks and months, including more sports, game modes, media integrations, deposit and withdrawal capabilities, and more.”
To add fuel to the launch of Betr Picks, the company offered a promotion for the fight between Jake Paul and Nate Diaz on Aug. 5. Paul is a co-founder of Betr. The promotion featured a free-to-play game with $1 million in prizes. The system was identical to how Betr Picks functions: More correct selections lead to more winnings.
Betr Picks hopes to succeed where others have failed
Many wagering platforms have avoided daily fantasy sports prop bet options due to the volatility of the market. Others that have attempted to make a dent in that market have either folded – like Monkey Knife Fight – or face litigation like the social sportsbook Fliff.
Bishoy Neshim filed a complaint with the US District Court for the Central Division of California against Fliff. He stated in the complaint that he lost over $7,000 using the Fliff app and is seeking $5 million in damages for himself and others affected.
Neshim claims Fliff operates as an illegal sportsbook because no prizes can be won without depositing real money.
“Alleged sports prediction games are nothing more than online sports gambling. Indeed, Fliff gives every user, regardless of local, state or federal law, the option to bet with ‘Fliff Cash,’ which has a dollar-for-dollar equivalence to actual money and that can be withdrawn and wired directly to users’ bank accounts. That’s the epitome of an online sportsbook.”
Neshim filed the complaint in Riverside County. The county is home to many Native American tribes opposed to any expansion of gambling in the state. To make matters worse for Fliff, the case was randomly assigned to Judge Sunshine Suzanne Sykes, who is a member of the Navajo Nation in Arizona.
These are the treacherous waters Betr Picks will have to navigate if it hopes to succeed in California.