Beating The Bookmaker

Being a devoted football fan isn’t that cheap.

Football is a religion and fans are devout – and now, more than ever before, that devotion comes at a hefty price. Fans are … milked … by the clubs they support and by the bodies that govern the sport. From merchandise to match tickets, TV & content subscriptions as well as adjunct pursuits like gambling. Fans pay.

Through this devotion, fans accumulate knowledge – knowledge about their team, players, their league etc. Fans like to showcase their knowledge in all manner of ways – on Twitter or Tiktok, playing games via Fantasy leagues, Super 6 and not forgetting gambling.

Testing football knowledge is a popular pastime – 9m+ people signed up for Fantasy Premier League (FPL) last season & ~2m+ play Pick 6. It’s also big business – in 2021, ~4m football bettors in the UK&I lost €2b+ gambling on the worlds favourite sport. Including Europe, its €7b+. The risks with gambling are well documented in terms of the social problems it can create & the associated costs.

Existing options have issues & don’t appeal to everyone. FPL is complex & time consuming, Super 6 is a lottery, relying heavily on luck – it should be called Super 12 as you need to predict 12 exact scores. Gambling is expensive, unsafe & non-social. Often portrayed as a harmless leisure activity, gambling is increasingly being recognised as a public health concern. The numbers can no longer be ignored. A GambleAware survey in the UK estimated that up to 5m people are, directly or indirectly through a family member or friend, impacted by problem gambling. In the first half of 2023, the number of people self-excluded from gambling via GamStop topped 330,000. In Ireland, 250,000 (~5%) of the population suffers from a serious problem with gambling. Following the COVID pandemic, these numbers are likely to be much higher.

What if fans could valorise their football knowledge, and get something back? Well, now they can. Futnut rewards loyalty & devotion, enabling fans to turn their knowledge into tangible rewards, like discount offers from top brands.

Futnut is reimagining how we engage with the sports we love, building a safe, socially inclusive game that makes sport work for people & communities. Futnut enables fans to test their knowledge in a fun, challenging & safe.

Playing the odds

Playing the odds is synonymous with gambling, however, we use odds every day. In finance to make investment decisions, in sports to make key decisions – pass or shoot? Every time we make a decision, we evaluate the odds – will I bring a jacket? Is it likely to rain? Or, what are the odds that it will rain? Odds are simply a way of expressing the implied probability of something happening – you don’t have to wager to use odds.

Futnut is reclaiming odds & introducing choice where previously there was none.

Why odds-based?

Why not binary/ternary options e.g. ‘Will Man City win – Yes/No? Well, Man City win most games! Predicting Man City to win is not really proving knowledge. This doesn’t enable people to prove their knowledge in a meaningful way. An odds-based system factors in the real probability of something happening – as such, Man City are usually short odds. Predicting City to win on Futnut will not win you many points. To succeed, players must challenge themselves by predicting additional markets e.g. Both to Score – Yes/No, or prove their knowledge by predicting less obvious outcomes where the implied probability (odds) are bigger – meaning you can win more points.

Innovative gameplay enables fans to play the odds, without wagering money. Thrills without the sp-ills – the thrill of playing the odds, without exposure to the ills of gambling. Predict with points instead of real money – if you win, you earn points based on the odds. If you lose, you lose the points you risked. Your overall P&L is your score – compete with other players, for fun & bragging rights, or for prizes.

Futnut is free to download & free-to-play here . Download today & start turning your football knowledge into rewards. Can you climb the ranks from Academy, all the way to GOAT?