Amazon Prime Day 2019: Now you can bet on a site outage
- Skeptics of Amazon Prime Day can place bets on whether the site will experience an outage on this year's sale, which will run July 15 and 16.
- The odds are against an outage, with bets offering higher returns for those willing to gamble the site will suffer a crash.
- The two-day sale has become one of the biggest shopping events of the year.
Amazon Prime Day proved not-so-ready for Prime time last year when the site crashed for some U.S. shoppers. While Amazon has vowed that it'll be better prepared when Prime Day kicks off on Monday, pessimists will find an outlet for their skepticism: an online bettor that's taking wagers on whether the site will once again go down.
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Oddsmakers at online betting site Bovada released a betting proposition on whether Amazon.com will experience a site outage during the 48-hour event, which will be held on July 15 and 16th.
Right now, the money is against any crash of the site. According to Bovada, a $100 bet that Amazon.com will suffer an outage will return $325. That indicates the odds are against an outage because an event that's viewed as less probable will pay higher returns. People who bet that the site will not suffer an outage would have to bet $550 to win $100, signifying no outage is considered the more likely event.
Amazon said it plans to offer more than 1 million items on sale during this year's Prime Day. The site will also dangle some "Lightning Deals" throughout the two days, which offer a limited number of products. That can create the illusion of scarcity and prompt some consumers to rush to the site.