For this server, let's implement game betting. This will make games more exciting, and will attract players that IGS and KGS have failed to attract.

For example, we can use betting points. Points will be bought with a donation to the server, but can never be cashed out. In this way, we can support the server easily.

In the future, we can have gifts that can be bought with points. The gifts could be baduk books or teaching lessons. They would be much more expensive to purchase with points than their real monetary value, so that the idea that the server gets the lion share of the money is preserved.

In conclusion, this benefits everyone. The server receives cash and supports the maintainers, the community is strengthened by migration of players who enjoy this feature, and everyone has a fun side-sport to participate in.

I don't know but are there webcams on games? If so - why not just straightforward betting? One player offers another a game and number of stones. If the player accepts the bet then the game starts.

House would take a rake of 5%.

There is turnkey software for this sort of thing..

A typical game might come in at $20 - It would earn money... and give those with a desire to become "professional" a shot at it. (Unless they were American)...

Something tells me involving actual monetary stakes in betting would be a terrible idea. Not sure about the laws in Costa Rica, but I suspect there are regulations for such things.

Currency without actual relation to money (for example, from playing games) for betting might be interesting.

Yes, online betting is forbidden in several countries and probably states within the USA. But betting points, exchangeable for prizes is usually OK, and very interesting!

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Costa Rica.. is Kaya based there? If it is..... then there's no problem.. Costa Rica is a home for online gambling...

Europeans would be able to play. Americans couldn't..

Not only can the players bet on themselves, but the observers should be able to bet as well.

We can set up betting on pro game replays as well. This can also produce interesting graphs, such as bet % vs time as game is played.

Money betting is a big monster, so lets not get into that discussion.


Play-betting is a nice idea, and i hadn't seriously thought that those points could be purchased. It could prove a rather important point in the server business model eventually, which means i wont do it right away. I should know better how it would fit into that.

However i definitely want to make it, and i never really understood how they worked on the Asian servers so its a good place to discuss.

What i liked about Batoo was that playing games also gathered you points. That can be a simple motivator for people to play more: if a player runs out of points he plays some to get some back.

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