Isaac Rose-Berman was playing poker with a friend on a Sunday afternoon when the two decided they weren’t doing enough gambling.
They wanted to bet some football, heads-up, but couldn’t find opposite sides of a bet they could agree on. A small problem, certainly. But it’s one that eventually resulted in NoHouse.bet, a free site Rose-Berman built where friends compete to pick the longest-priced winner.
He has no plans to make money from the site. From his friends, yes. From the site, no.
“I’ve always loved gambling, especially with my friends, but I generally don’t love gambling companies,” Rose-Berman said.
A sports bettor and poker player, Rose-Berman is a fellow focused on gambling research and policy at the American Institute for Boys and Men. He also writes the How Gambling Works newsletter and sits on the Sports Traders Union’s advisory board. His writing has appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, including criticism of shortcomings in the sportsbook industry’s responsible gambling campaigns.
Now he’s built something for the part of gambling he does enjoy.
The game is simple enough: Everyone chooses a bet without revealing it to the other players. Whoever has the winning selection with the longest odds wins.
The strategy involved is where the competition gets less simple.
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A +500 winner beats a -200 winner, obviously. But this is where the game becomes an exercise in game theory, because if everyone is throwing their dice hoping for a longshot, that -200 favorite might just get the job done. Rose-Berman said he’s seen that type of result while testing the game with friends and running simulations, even with larger fields.
And just like when sitting at the poker table, knowing your opponent certainly can have its advantages.
“If I know that you’re choosing a +500 bet, I should just choose a -1000 bet,” he said. “Then if I know you’re gonna choose a -1000 bet, I should choose a -900 bet.”
Of course, the other guy can think through the same thing, and before you know it, we’re in the iocaine powder scene from The Princess Bride.
“I wanted a way for people to be able to gamble with their friends in a way that you’re not paying any house edge, and there’s no company on the other side trying to take your money,” he said.
To be very clear, any “betting” is taking place off-site, as NoHouse doesn’t handle any cash. If people want to put down some money on the results, that’s taking place in real life, not digitally. And Rose-Berman says there are no plans to turn this into a real-money site.
Pool organizers can choose the sports and available markets, which for now include spreds, totals, and moneylines for all the major sports, and touchdown scorer props for the NFL. They can make the contests winner-take-all or set up tiered payouts, similar to traditional DFS.
The prices come through an API that blends odds from multiple sportsbooks, Rose-Berman said, and the site offers individual, one-day contests, with groups and leagues in beta.
As for whether NoHouse might eventually become a business, Rose-Berman isn’t making a lifetime bet on the “no” side. He could charge organizers of large leagues, although the idea doesn’t currently appeal to him. But he allows himself some wiggle room, noting that if 500,000 people were using NoHouse every day in six months, he might reconsider.
“I’ve got other things I’m working on that are trying to make money,” he said. “This is not one of them.”
Besides, he already has a use for it: pools with five to 15 friends, usually winner-take-all.
“There’s no better feeling than winning money off your friends, especially when there’s no house taking a cut at all,” he said.
