Two Ideas for the Bookmakers to Steal

Always my first thought when I head the term "fantasy football".

When you come up with a good idea you typically want to run with it. At the very least, sell it to someone who can do the running.

When you come up with a mediocre idea, you want to put it in your blog and wait for someone else to steal it. Sure, you make nothing for the idea, but let’s be honest; it really wasn’t worth anything in the first place.

My two ideas aren’t going to be game-changers, but I’m pretty sure there’s a bunch of punters out there who would love to see these offered on their favourite betting site.

Idea 1: Let Punters Create Their Own Bets

It’s a fact: those who like to bet, like to bet on anything. The novelty markets have the potential to be some of the most popular bets offered by a bookmaker, but they currently have one major problem:

All of the Novelty markets are made by the bookmakers; with the punters often left clueless as to what the bet is about, and what side of the line they should put their money.

Instead of just providing random novelty markets, hoping they garner some bets, the bookmakers should open up their novelty markets to the punters themselves.

You come up with the bet, and the bookmaker will come up with the odds or line. Once the bet has been approved you, and everyone else, can place their bets as they see fit.

This one feature will bring back the most important part of prop betting: inside knowledge. More often than not, someone will make a bet because they believe they know something the other person does not. This is the whole idea behind sharking a pool table, a golf course, how many push-ups you can do, or even the number of grapes you can fit in your mouth.

Once we have the ability to pitch bets to the bookmakers, we can do our damndest to dupe them into taking a sucker’s bet. This, in my opinion, is the whole point of betting. The bookmakers reserve the right to refuse any bet they want, and they always set the lines.

Idea2: Betting on Fantasy Football

To be honest, I’m surprised this one hasn’t been done yet (or maybe it has been, and I just don’t know about it). But the idea is simple, allow betting on Fantasy Football.

This can be done in two ways:

1. The bookmaker sets two teams, and the punter gets to pick which team to back.
2. The Punter gets to choose their team from isolated player pools.

The bookmaker will allow you to choose your players, but only one player from each pre-determined pool. This way you have to pick between the stars, rather than stacking up a team like we did playing FIFA 96. The players you didn’t choose will make up the bookmaker’s team.

If they want to spread 2:1 odds across the board, they can make up the edge by keeping an extra player or two on their team. The other option would be to have larger player pools, and have the wagers go into a pool, the top performing teams taking the prizes (much like your regular football pool).

This simple feature will allow punters to customize their bet, and always find good odds and a tough fixture. It will allow the serious football fans a chance to earn a consistent profit, and actually create the team in which they’re betting on.

More ways to bet and more customizable options; these are two ideas which every bookmaker should be constantly trying to adapt into their sites. I feel betting should be a two way street, bets and prices open for negotiation. Since that simply can’t happen, this is as close as we’re going to get.

If you have any of your own ideas for the bookmakers to steal, post them below.

-Lind