Micro-betting sports wagering company Betr has taken an unprecedented step in the US sports betting industry. This week at the Global Gaming Expo, Betr co-founder Joey Levy announced that his app will not allow customers to deposit with a credit card, making it the first sports betting app in the United States to install this restriction.
Levy added that Betr will also be the first sports betting operator in the US to impose deposit limits on customers who are 21-25 years old.
“Sports betting should be about enhancing the way the mass market fan consumes & interacts with sports,” Levy wrote on Twitter. “The experience should be like going to the movies & paying $20 for 2 hours of entertainment. Watching a live game & spending $20 on Betr to make that game more entertaining.”
“….we have the responsibility as leaders to get this right,” he added.
Why ban credit cards? The most likely primary reason is because it is much easier to overspend with a credit card than it is with a debit card or a direct transfer from a bank. Even with credit limits, people can spend more money than they actually have. Then, to make things worse, when people can’t pay off their credit card balances, they start accruing interest, making the hole deeper.
Of course, debit cards also have risks. Many don’t come with the consumer protections that credit cards do, though that has started to change in recent years.
Some respondents to Levy’s tweets are not thrilled with the deposit limits on people in their early-20’s, but that move makes sense, as well. Young adults are still learning about life, about financial responsibility, and are among the most vulnerable who are of legal age to gamble. There is no need to allow people – of any age, really – to spend as much money as they want on gambling. The deposit limits only hurt Betr (though help in the long run if they foster a healthier customer base), while adding a layer of safety for its users.
Betr is not a traditional sports betting app, but rather a micro-betting service. The overall concept is not necessarily new, as it is a version of live betting, but Betr specializes in small, frequent wagers. Using the app, customers can bet on individual, incremental events during games, such as if the next pitch will be a strike or the next play in a football game will be a run or a pass.
The idea is to allow sports fans to engage more fully with an event, to make the minutia of the contest more interesting. I might have more fun watching a game I wouldn’t otherwise care about if I put money on who wins, but if I have tiny amounts riding pitch to pitch, that could keep my attention throughout the entire game.
Betr, of which Jake Paul is the other co-founder, is not currently available for real-money wagering in the US; it is waiting for license approval in some states. The app, though, is live, able to be used for play money.