The entire sports betting operator vs prediction markets debate right now is basically one giant Spider-Man meme.
Iāve worked in sports betting for 6 years. Iāve built a multi million dollar business across multiple products and business models. I know a lot of the major operators, founders, sharp bettors, and people behind the scenes.
And the question I keep coming back to is: why is everyone building extraction traps for consumers?
Almost every company in sports betting is fundamentally designed to maximize how much money the average user loses over time. Different wrapper, same business model.
Everyone keeps missing a major point: the average sports bettor is not trying to become a professional trader. Theyāre not trying to battle quant firms or optimize EV all day. Most people just want skin in the game while watching sports with their friends.
And honestly, most users donāt even care that much about profitability. But after nearly a decade of legalized sports betting, the pushback is starting to build as more people realize the system is largely designed for them to lose.
Yet every new platform just keeps pushing further in that direction.
Itās a completely backwards paradigm, and I truly believe thereās going to be a consumer company built in the next 5 years that completely flips this model on its head. A platform that captures the upside of sports engagement without financially destroying its users on the downside.
I started building in this space because my mission was to help bettors win more and lose less. But the bigger this industry gets, the more it feels like many of the people building it simply want consumers to lose as much money as possible.
Thatās not a sustainable long term relationship with users, and eventually somebody is going to build something people actually want to root for.