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My idea:
I went to a party last year where we would all be betting on the outcomes of various fighting matchups on N64's (classic) Super Smash Bros.
The game allows you to select up to 4 CPUs to compete against each other on a randomly selected battlefield. We placed bets (1) once the CPUs were picked and (2) after the battlefield was randomly selected.
For anyone who has played this game before, you will know that different players have different advantages, especially depending on the battlefield that is selected.
It ended up being really fun and addictive. People were screaming and some of the matches were extremely entertaining and dramatic.
It wasn't as easy to predict the winner as you might expect. I also think it's elegant how vast the amount of permutations are for potential character matchups on different battlefields.
I immediately thought that the internet would probably love this, especially since this game is such a classic. I thought doing so on lightning would be even better.
I just want to see this happen. Happy to help out.
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I became somewhat obsessed with this idea about a year ago. I wouldn't be of help on the technical side of things, but I have ideas and some sense of the market.
This idea of online sports betting with lightning fits reasonably under the umbrella of online gaming and eSports - especially "real money games" (RMGs).
An RMG is any online "game" (ie. Card games, betting, etc.) where participants contribute time and money in hopes of a greater ROI. Apparently, around last year RMGs captured nearly 50% of the online gaming market in India, mainly through online card games.
I summarized the following article for the Alby team (and added my own points) about lightning gaming, and it's future:
Here is a doc of my summary:
In the doc, I contend that, "Lightning can expand the potential for RMG by reducing the friction of payment flows"
Pretty straightforward.
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i would be no help in building it, but it would instantly become my go-to sports betting option once built
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Would love to see someone take a crack at a Lightning-powered sports betting platform by building off @super_testnet’s work.
There is a big addressable market and the average sports bet size is typically around $8-$10.
Would be cool to be able to instantly settle a bet and withdraw to a Lightning wallet.
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I am also surprised this wasn't done yet but the bigger goal is prediction markets. I think sports betting is just one type of a prediction market. Not sure about the details though.
So much opportunity just laying there, I think I'm going crazy just from thinking about it, haha
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yeah it really does feel like an obvious product that nobody has even touched yet.
prediction markets would be fun, but i believe HODL contracts have a max duration of 7 days, so wouldn’t really be suited to long-term predictions like federal elections.
perfect for sports betting though.
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utilizing DLC would allow for those longer term predicition bets.
DLCs were alot of fun to play around with. typical centralization issues with the oracle tho.
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DLC would allow for those longer term predicition bets
Not on lightning
Lightning DLCs and hodl contracts have the same problem with HTLC max timeouts being pretty short by default
Many routing nodes won't route a payment if it could lock up their capital for more than 7 days, and if wallets can't find routing nodes willing to do it, they just return a failure
DLCs do allow longer terms on the base layer, but then it's quite common for fees to become a significant portion of your bet size
I doubt very many people will make a $10 wager if the fee is typically more than $0.25
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I was wondering about a few things regarding HODL contracts ...
  1. HODL contracts and HODL invoices are the same right? I've seen the interview and iirc, you mentioned that no one uses them. But I think RoboSats is just an example where HODL invoices are indeed used (they use it for escrow). Were you not aware of this?
  2. For longer durations, why not just use regular payments? Afaict, hodl contracts also depend on the good will of the service so I don't see much of a difference than just paying the service and hoping they refund you conditionally?
  3. HODL contracts lock up funds in a channel right? So there is not only the HTLC max timeout issue but also the max HTLC in flight, no?
I love gambling
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i thought someone was building something with the DLCs
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Suredbits has a DLC system, and that's great. But DLCs might be a bit ungainly for smaller wagers, so something like this could be a good compliment.
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if you want to take this project on, but need help with getting capital/pitching investors, reach out on twitter.
happy to help.
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