On just another regular day in the rapidly evolving world of prediction markets, it appears the COO of Betr created a slot machine on Kalshi.
Alex Ursa, Betr’s COO, posted Wednesday on X what amounts to … well, as he put in his post, “I’ve built a slot on top of their APIs.”
Here it is, in all its glory:
What it appears to be, to the best of our understanding — Ursa declined an interview with InGame — is nine random contracts are purchased, held for five seconds, and then sold. Add up the wins and losses, and that’s the payout.
One wrinkle that is sort of obvious to see right from the jump is this is a “slot” with pretty lousy odds, as you’re buying the ask and selling the bid, all within five seconds. Unless lightning is caught in a bottle, these spins (trades) will almost certainly be losers.
In fact, looking at the tweet itself, the crack research team at InGame pegged the results at 0-3-42 (profit, break even, and loss).
When reached for comment, Kalshi representatives declined to weigh in at this time, though they said they were not aware of what Ursa built.
Rules and regs
Whether this is allowed under Kalshi’s rules — or for that matter the CFTC’s rules — is unknown. One industry observer noted that what one does with someone’s else product is usually not something that would be illegal, noting that, “Home Depot is not responsible if I purchase a rope, gloves, a hatchet, a lawn chair, and a tarp and commit a crime.”
Ursa also noted in the post that he built a roulette version.
On LinkedIn, Ursa’s bio reads, in part, that he is a “seasoned gaming executive with over a decade of senior leadership experience,” who has a “proven track record” of “driving product innovation.” He’s certainly proving that last part accurate.
