Betting with friends on sports is made even more convenient when you take the wagering to your smartphone. With mobile sports betting apps, you and your friends can bet while on the go. Bet anyone on anything, anytime, anywhere. Don't just bet– Tedbet. Make wagers, challenge your friends, and take on bets from others. The first site to let you bet with your friends on anything you want.

If you have ever wondered if that bet on the Super Bowl with your friends was legal, you are not alone. Though billions of dollars are spent on sports betting each and every year, there are still questions concerning just how legal your March Madness office pool or friendly wager on the NBA Finals really is. Betting with friends on sports at your home or at the bar falls into the category of social gambling. Many sports enthusiasts do not realize that this activity falls into its own legal category in many states. There are some states that permit social gaming, others that strictly prohibit it, and a few that draw no distinction within their laws. If a state does have a social gambling carve out, you will typically find it within in the same chapter that pertains to gambling.

The simplest way to bet on sports with friends- or even by yourself - is to use an online sportsbook. The laws for online sports betting are typically more cut and dry, and using offshore sites does not carry the risks that land-based sports wagering can. Still, it is worth understanding the legality behind betting on sports with friends at your home or in a social setting. As you continue reading, you will be able to get an overview of how social sports betting works in the U.S.

The definition of social gambling will differ slightly, but it is generally considered wagering amongst friends in a non-public area. Participants must compete on equal terms and no player can be a professional gambler. A $10 bet that you with your buddy while watching a football game at your home would constitute a social wager. On the other end of the spectrum, running books and creating a large-scale operation crosses into standard gambling territory, which is illegal and punishable by law.

Here is an example of social gambling as written in the Arizona Revised Statutes:

“’Social gambling’ means gambling that is not conducted as a business and that involves players who compete on equal terms with each other in a gamble if all of the following apply:

• (a) No player receives, or becomes entitled to receive, any benefit, directly or indirectly, other than the player's winnings from the gamble.
• (b) No other person receives or becomes entitled to receive any benefit, directly or indirectly, from the gambling activity, including benefits of proprietorship, management or unequal advantage or odds in a series of gambles.”

There are certain states that permit social gambling, however the exact laws can vary drastically from state-to-state. Some states will have clearly defined laws on the terms that players must compete on, while others will limit the amount that can be won and wagered. There are other states that have rather vague laws where the types of social contests permitted to wager on are not clearly defined. The one commonality between all states that allow social gambling is that there cannot be a house cut, meaning that the host or a certain individual does not make a profit from the pool. It is best to research the individual social gaming laws in your particular state to ensure that friendly sports bets are legal in your state. That being said, here are the states that do have social gambling laws that permit betting with friends in some capacity:

Betting with friends on sports online is legal as long as you use offshore betting sites. There are certain federal laws that prevent sports betting sites from operating within the United States. The Wire Act of 1961 makes it illegal for those in the business of gambling to accept bets or provide assistance with the placement of sports wagers via wire communication facilities. Being that the law has been interpreted to include the internet, you will not find state-regulated online sports betting sites. The legal sports betting sites that US citizens use every day are those that are regulated overseas. Though headquartered in locations such as Antigua and the United Kingdom, these sites are licensed to accept players from the USA. You can join a legitimate sports betting site and not have to worry about the often times confusing social gambling laws that apply to land-based sports betting.

Betting with friends on sports is best done in a regulated, online environment. Let’s say that you make a bet with your friend and win, but they decide not to hold up to their end of the deal. In some states, you will have no way of recovering your funds. In some jurisdictions, the loser may be able to sue the winner and recover losses. With murky social gambling laws, many sports fans prefer to just use an online sportsbook. You can all place bets online and see who comes out on top.

You and your friends can join an online sportsbook to get started with placing wagers. When you visit a sports betting site, you will be asked for basic contact information such as your name, address, telephone number, and email address. After registering, you will be presented with several deposit options and be prompted to fund your sports betting account. You can choose a fast and reliable method like bitcoin that will have your account credited within minutes. Or, you may opt to use a Visa, MasterCard, or American Express for your sportsbook deposit. One of the major benefits of betting with friends on sports online is that each person can choose their own preferred deposit method.

There is no denying that you have more betting options at a legal online sportsbook that you will anywhere else. You and your friends may be interested in different sports, and online sportsbooks will have a wide selection of sports to choose from. You can bet on NCAA basketball, NFL, MLB, NHL, MLB, NCAA football, and more. Some of the available wager types include moneylines, totals, point spreads, parlays, teasers, and if-bets. Rather than having to come up with a system to track all of your friends’ bets, everyone will have their own bet slip where bets are automatically graded and payouts instantly calculated.

Betting with friends on sports is made even more convenient when you take the wagering to your smartphone. With mobile sports betting apps, you and your friends can bet while on the go. You will have the same selection of sports and wager types at your fingertips. Easily fund your account or request a payout while waiting in line or watching the game. With no download required, no one in your group has to worry about space being taken up on their mobile device. Simply visit the sports betting site from your iOS, Android, or BlackBerry device to be automatically directed to the mobile-friendly sportsbook.

Betting with friends on sports is best done in a regulated, online environment. Let’s say that you make a bet with your friend and win, but they decide not to hold up to their end of the deal. In some states, you will have no way of recovering your funds. In some jurisdictions, the loser may be able to sue the winner and recover losses. With murky social gambling laws, many sports fans prefer to just use an legal online sportsbook. You can all place bets online and see who comes out on top.

Back to Sports Betting States

[toc]With football season quickly approaching, sports gaming apps are queuing up once again for fans’ second-screen attention.

In-game options for consumer engagement won’t just stop at daily fantasy sports products offered by the likes of DraftKings and FanDuel.

They’ll also include games like the Chicago-based app Bait, which aims to offer viewers and fans something closer to a traditional wagering experience.

How it works

Friends Betting App Online

Bait is a sports betting platform for iOS that will allow users to bet on spreads of games across a variety of sports. It syncs with your phone’s contacts, identifying other Bait users who might want to take the opposite side of a bet.

For example, say you’re a Carolina Panthers fan who thinks your team will cover the minus-3 spread against the Denver Broncos in the season’s opening game, you can make this wager (Bait uses lines from Vegas sportsbooks). You can challenge your buddy to bet the opposite side, that the Broncos will either win or lose by fewer than three points.

As ChicagoInnonotes, Bait wants to provide users with not only a legal betting alternative to DFS, but one that customers feel comfortable engaging in.

It avoids pitting bettors against strangers over the internet, and it steers clear of any sort of unregulated, offshore sportsbook. Furthermore, an app purchasable from recognizable online retailers like the Apple Store could lend an air of legitimacy to the product.

The app is still in beta. Bait founder Ian Peacock said he expects the app to release during the NFL preseason, which begins with the Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 7.

Friends go further

By pairing two bettors up on opposite sides of a bet, Bait functions similar to a betting exchange, likeBetfair, except users who are paired up to bet ostensibly already know one another.

Pairing acquaintances to make bets could go a long way toward furthering this level of comfort, and not just out of a sense of familiarity.

After an underlying game is completed, the app directs users to each other’s Venmo accounts in order to settle up, while offering a unique twist: Losing bettors don’t have to pay up.

If this sounds like a platform rife for abuse and unpaid winnings, there are a few details to consider:

• First, a person could be more likely to pay out in a bet with someone they know as opposed to an anonymous name on the Internet.
• Second, there will be some measure of transparency with Bait. How do you know if your buddy reneges all the time on bets? All users will have a rating that notes when they don’t pay up.
• Third, by eliminating the obligation to pay up, Peacock says the site eliminates users from having to take a risk. Without risk, he says, there is no gambling consideration.

Ads are the new vig

There is another key difference, however, between Bait and a traditional betting exchange. The app doesn’t take a cut, or “vigorish,” that a bookmaker traditionally takes.

According to ChicagoInno, the site will use advertisements to make money instead of monetizing through vig.

While this is an interesting idea, it could prove challenging to pull off.

Research firms estimate mobile advertising click-through rates are generally better for in-app ads than for mobile web ads. Jupiter Research projects nearly $17 billion will be spent on in-app advertising in 2018, up from less than $4 billion in 2013.

Those percentages and revenue figures won’t mean much for Bait, however, if it can’t scale its user base.

Expanding through the tree-map of users’ cell phone contacts is a good start, but that type of exponential expansion can take time, consistency in the marketplace, and can be dependent on a positive user experience.

Golf Betting App

One app with a similar model is that of WinView Games. It also targets the friend-to-friend betting space and is also fueled by ad revenue. But WinView offers live, in-play prop selections (e.g. “Will Cam Newton throw at least 3 touchdowns today?”) as opposed to spread wagers, and uses its own virtual dollars system rather than real money. It received $3.4 million in venture funding earlier this year.

Peacock says that while Bait is entirely self-funded so far, it is in the process of raising money.

Illinois gaming landscape

Attorney General Lisa Madigan made (perhaps overlooked) headlines late last year, when just hours before Christmas Day she opined that FanDuel and DraftKings illegal gambling sites.

Those parties have been in a court battle ever since, and the gaming landscape for operators in Illinois hasat times felt uncertain.

Bait, though, is not a daily fantasy sports product. It is a sports betting product — one where the “book” doesn’t take a cut and wagers may or may not be paid out.

So does that make it legal?

Section 28-1(a) of the state’s criminal code lists (among many others) three such violations of wagering that theoretically could pertain to the game:

“A person commits gambling when he or she: (1) knowingly plays a game of chance or skill for moneyor other thing of value, unless excepted in subsection (b) of this Section; (2) knowingly makes a wager upon the result of any game, contest, or any political nomination, appointment or election;…. (5) knowingly owns or possesses any book, instrument or apparatus by means of which bets or wagers have been, or are, recorded or registered, or knowingly possesses any money which he has received in the course of a bet or wager.”

One of the many exemptions to subsection A, however, are “games of skill or chance where money or other things of value can be won but no payment or purchase is required to participate.”

Peacock says this exemption ensures Bait’s legality.

To book make, or not to book make

Illinois defines bookmaking as follows:

“A person engages in bookmaking when he or she knowingly receives or accepts more than five bets or wagers upon the result of any trials or contests of skill, speed or power of endurance or upon any lot, chance, casualty, unknown or contingent event whatsoever, which bets or wagers shall be of such size that the total of the amounts of money paid or promised to be paid to the bookmaker on account thereof shall exceed $2,000. Bookmaking is the receiving or accepting of bets or wagers regardless of the form or manner in which the bookmaker records them.”

Bait, it would appear, does not accept or receive wagers. Its software allows two potential bettors to connect. Bait provides the lines, sourcing Las Vegas sportsbooks.

Similar logic, however, did not stop one state supreme court from finding a similar company guilty of bookmaking.

A Washington state-based exchange that also allowed bettors to opt out of bets was found in 2010 to be in violation of state betting law because it operated as a bookmaker. Peacock said the site, Betcha.com, served as inspiration for Bait.

The ruling came despite its lawyers’ insistence that the pairing up of two bettors on a platform did not amount to “accepting” bets.

Familiar federal triumvirate

The federal frameworks governing sports betting are all too familiar: PASPA, the Wire Act and UIEGA.

As one industry source noted, NFL attorney Paul Clement commented during oral arguments earlier this year in the New Jersey sports betting trial that, under the Professional And Amateur Sports Protection Act, which outlaws single-game wagering in all states but Nevada, casual bets between friends of up to $1,000 could potentially be legal.

The same industry source noted that the Wire Act, which prohibits the transmission of betting information across state lines,pertains not only to gambling, but often refers to bookmaking specifically. This reinforces the potential importance of a favorable interpretation of the state’s bookmaking statute.

It’s unclear if Bait, individual bettors, or others would be found in violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibits payment providers from knowingly accepting funds for unlawful gambling-related transactions.

Bettors on Bait will be prompted to facilitate payments through Venmo. Venmo is a subsidiary of PayPal, which for the past several years has tried its best to identify and stop all NCAA Tournament pool-related payments made using its service every March.

Tracking informal P2P betting

Of little doubt, however, is that betting between friends remains popular.

One in four Super Bowl viewers surveyed earlier this year by the Mellman Group said they’d placed a bet with a friend on a sporting event the past year. One in three said they had bet on the Super Bowl itself at some point.

Tennessee Sports Betting App

Casual betting between friends, which likely comprises a significant portion of the $145 billion the American Gaming Associationestimates was wagered illegally in 2015, is also difficult to track. Bait could be among the first apps to help do so.

Even if regulators were to make a case that Bait violated state or federal law, they would likely only do so once the app gained significant exposure and took in sizable amounts of money on bets. That could be a ways off.

Regulators and attorneys general raised claims with DFS operators, for example, in 2015 — nearly a decade after the industry first formed.

Friends Betting App Free

One thing remains certain: If Bait establishes itself in the mobile sports gaming space, it could be well-positioned in the event a forthcoming federal, sports betting legalization effort is successful.