Startup's App Lets You Bet Your Friends On Sports
Thanks to a Bloomfield Hills startup, sports fans across the country have an easy-to-use entertainment mobile app to use to bet their friends on the latest game.
The founders of Blue Ox Entertainment, who are both sports fans and friends, created SideBets -- a new mobile application and social game that has been introduced to the Apple App Store to automate the process of friend vs. friend sports betting.
Using an iPhone, iTouch or iPad, sports fans can instantly connect with one or more friends and place a bet on the day's biggest games.
The only game in the Apple App Store that allows fans to bet against their friends on sports, SideBets provides year-round action on college and pro football, college and pro basketball, professional baseball and hockey.
"SideBets offers a hassle-free alternative or companion to sporting past-times such as fantasy football," said Randy Leff, Blue Ox co-founder. "With this application, there are no tedious office pool spreadsheets or countless hours spent analyzing player match-ups and injury reports. All you do is turn on the app and start picking games."
Leff added that "the most exciting part is the social aspect of the game -- instead of betting against an anonymous sports book, you are betting against your friends. SideBets provides the thrill of gambling in a completely legal format, without the cost of traditional sports-book betting."
Players can download the App for 99 cents and receive 100 SideBet Dollars to begin placing wagers. Users can then purchase more SBDs to replenish their virtual currency as needed. No real money is exchanged through the application, but SideBets keeps track of your betting record against each friend.
The partners said an Android version will be released in the coming months.
SideBets integrates game schedules, sports book odds and live scoring updates, which allow you to monitor your bets in real-time. Players can also send messages and "trash talk" with friends via the "Banter" utility.
Like Leff, Blue Ox's other founders, Jon Goldstein and Jason Page, are sports fans and University of Michigan alumni.
More at www.sidebetme.com.
