Q: What is CentSports.com?
A: CentSports.com is just one of many places on the Internet where you can place bets on major sporting events.
What makes CentSports unique is that we're actually legal. Currently you can't running a gambling website from inside the U.S. This site is more like a fantasy-football game ... we give you a small amount of play-money to start out with ... you make bets with this, just like you could in Vegas ... but, again, you're just betting with 'play money'.
However, if you do well enough ... i.e., if you win enough of your play-money bets, we'll actually let you 'cash out' your play money for real money ... and maybe other stuff like t-shirts, CentSports gear, etc.
Q: Who developed / manages CentSports ... and why?
A: CentSports is being developed by a group of students and professionals based out of College Station, Texas. Given the location, most, though not all of us, are associated in some way or another with Texas A&M University.
The project started in response to last year's Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (which, shamefully, was officially termed the "Security and Accountability for Every (SAFE) Port Act of 2006" by congress ... look it up on Wikipedia). That bill made it illegal to use any online betting or gambling site that you could deposit money into, effectively shutting down all such sites which existed at that time.
For those of us who enjoyed sports betting, this was bad news. This project was our response to that. True, not as fun as real gambling, but it's still fun to play with free money, and hey, if you do well enough, we even reward you by paying out real money to our users.
Q: So how does it work?
A: It's simple ... when you first sign up for CentSports, we give you ten cents ($0.10) play money to bet with. You can use this to bet on almost any major college or professional sporting event (MLB, NBA and NFL games, etc.). Anything you win you keep and can use to place more bets, accumulating money as you go.
You can cash out whenever you want (as soon as you have a balance of $10.00 play money or more) ... we're actually gracious enough to send you a check for your play-money account balance ... just straight up, dollar for dollar.
We've tried to replicate what you can do at real sports betting sites ... i.e., you can make standard line-type bets such as over/under, point-spread, and moneyline bets. In fact, we get our lines straight from Vegas ... any bet you make on CentSports could be made with any sports bookie in Vegas for the same odds if you were betting for real money.
Overall, the site makes more from advertising than people cash out ... though one of our goals in creating the site was to make sure that as much of the site's advertising revenue goes back to CentSports user as possible (after all, they're the ones who earned it by viewing ads in the first place!).
Q: Ten cents doesn't seem like much money ... why should I care?
A: On an average sports bet, you can usually come close to doubling your money if you win. Think about it ... if you start with 10 cents, after you win your first bet, you'll have about 20 cents. If you bet those 20 cents and win again, you'd have about 40 cents, and so on.
If you keep doing this, doubling up and re-betting your winnings each time, you can accumulate some significant winnings. When you sign up, check the top cashouts ... in particular the people who have cashed out $100+ on the site with this strategy.
Q: What if I lose all my money?
A: Then we give you another 10 cents play-money for free so that you can keep on betting. Your balance can never fall below 10 cents ... you'll always have at least something to keep making bets with.
Q: Can I deposit money into my account?
A: NOOOOOOOOOOOO. You can't buy play-money ... the only way you can get more is just by making good sports picks. You always have $0.10 to bet with (again, thanks to our advertisers), but you can't put money into your account.
Q: Can I get money out of my account?
A: Yup. Any time you have a balance of $10.00 or more in your account, just click the 'Cash Out' link on the CentSports.com main page and we'll mail you a check (again, or PayPal transfer if you prefer) for your account balance.
Historically, most people cash out soon after they get over $10, but there's no restriction on how much you can win and cash out.
Q: Which games can I bet on?
A: Generally we have lines for most professional and college sporting events. Almost every college and professional baseball, basketball, football, and hockey game has lines on the site. We're working hard to add more sports (soccer, horse racing, etc.).
Stanford, overrated as usual.
