For New Jersey sports bettors, Sporttrade promises to be the greatest thing since…salt water taffy? Boardwalks?
“This is all about New Jersey, this is about proving this can work, this is about demonstrating that customers are adapting to what we’re doing and that they like the tighter spreads, the zero delays, the approachable user interface,” said founder and CEO Alex Kane.
The Sporttrade product is day-trading for sports betting, said gambler — and New Jerseyan Captain Jack Andrews. “They’ve created a very low-friction environment to do just that. It will appeal to those with a financial background. It will appeal to those who want to approach sports betting with less of a ‘buy and hold’ approach and more of a ‘get in, get out, move on with my day’ approach.”
Instead of wagering on the Mets, you buy shares of the Mets at about 54.5 cents (roughly -120 odds). The value of those shares will go up or down depending on the flow of who’s ahead and by how much, and it will close at either a dollar (the Mets win!) or zero (the Mets lose). And you can buy and sell in and out, according to NJ Online Gambling.
“No spinny wheels and loading screens. We have zero delay transactions, no five-second in-play countdown where the odds change,” said Kane. “Plus the odds are better, the friction is a lot lower, and I really think we’re going to invent, discover, define, and call first dibs on trading in-play.”
Sporttrade makes its money by charging a 2 percent commission on profit; if you lose, you pay nothing. For some, it’s a much better deal than the typical vig charged by the traditional sportsbooks.
“I didn’t think I’d like trying to adapt to the Sporttrade odds displaying in implied probability, but I quickly found it very easy to understand,” Andrews said. “I didn’t think I’d like selling out of a position in-game, but the low margin and the reasonable commission make it viable and exciting. In before Aaron Judge comes up to bat, out after he gets a double. In before Zack Wheeler faces the weak end of the Nationals lineup, out when he mows them down on nine pitches. Buy at 30, sell at 35. It’s very intuitive.”
Kane, however, isn’t sweating. He believes the groundswell will be there to attract bettors.
“We don’t have to get the average bettor on day one,” Kane said. “There is so much volume out there, and not just from professional bettors, but also the avid, aspirational bettors. These are folks who are sufficiently bankrolled, not messing with same-game parlays. About 20 to 30 percent of the volume in New Jersey is avid bettors.”
