Gambling and Video Games try to marry…again

Good morning my friends,

I have quick couple of things for you today. One: TechCrunch broke this story about BringIt, a very web2.0 site combining gaming and gambling. Seems to make sense…I love video games, I love gambling, what’s not to love about this? Devin over at TechCrunch makes a good point though; the obvious concern is with cheating/bots/exploitation…etc… Granted the site integrates feeback about its users and you can do some vetting before playing, but it might be hard to convince casual gamers they aren’t getting bamboozled by some savvy and jaded geekvet. I’m taking a wait and see approach before making any sort of deposit. And who knows what sort of legal issue this raises in the U.S, with online gambling pretty much banned. Will the new legislation crack down, or will there but a rush of gambling gamers galavanting gloriously? (sorry, couldn’t help myself.)

Another cool idea that lacks traction is GameWager. The site is pretty much all flash and no function and is currently in beta mode, with no real prizes, but the idea is that you play Team Fortress or Counterstrike and earn credits which can be used to purchase raffle tickets. I’m not sure I like this either, but it does have the groundwork for stat tracking (if you play on enabled servers.) Again, I’m just not sure gamers are going to really pick this up, either. Too many sites out there, and again I’m blatantly stealing from TechCrunch but the writer makes a valid point; integrate these features in games and you’ll get people to use them. Otherwise, think of a new revenue stream.

Speaking of revenue streams, I’m going to go read some financials about some VC firms and maybe I’ll have something good for you later today.