[bookie]

Hi Guys,

I've been following your project from when you first opened. I haven't been a customer, but have long been looking to the day when P2P betting would be a reality.

I recently saw you had an ad on Don Best and decided that since you were doing your part I would do my part and join. So since I've just spent some time on your website I thought I'd offer a few comments of friendly criticism.

I question your strategy of offering twenty percent bonuses on max $250 deposits. I know you think you have to compete with the regular sportsbooks who do this, but your potential customers are value oriented and your place (which takes 5% of winner's share, though capped at $20) does not offer value to small bettors. Unless someone is betting a minimum of $800 a game they will be better off at one of the reduced vig shops listed on the SBR home page. On the other hand the value you offer to those betting $1000+ is phenomeonal, and it seems to me you'd be better off fronting that fact.

Also when I tried to download your software I got a "Preparing to Install" dialogue box for about 20 minutes, so I just gave up. I understand the security issues that lead you to take the non-browser based approach, but again you're requiring quite a commitment on the part of your customers to sign up and the guy depositing $250 to get a $50 bonus isn't going to go through the extra hassle. I think the most powerful thing you could do to convert potential customers into real ones is show them the offers that are up without making them go through a cumbersome download.

Finally the tutorial you had on your site looked pretty good, but it was too small for me to read easily--let alone study. You might want to consider setting it up so that it would run in a seperate window where it wouldn't be framed by the rest of your site.

I ended up not joining, and wanted to give you a little feedback on why. Please feel free to be in dialogue with us here at SBR if you're so inclined.

Regards,
Bookie

[pags11]

it's always interesting to see if books like these even take the feedback...most don't even bother to respond...let us know what you hear back from them...

[BetBug]

Hi Bookie,

My name is Jason and I'm the GM here at BetBug. A friend of mine alerted me to your post so I thought I would take the opportunity to respond.

First off thank you for the comments. I appreciate all comments good and bad as it helps us continuously improve the product. I'll address these below:

Bonuses - We thought we would offer a small bonus to see how people responded to it. We asked people to email in and request the bonus and we found that most people actually did not even request one. We're developing both a loyalty and a cashback program and depending on the response we get, we may replace the signup bonus. I have always felt that people will play with you as long as you offer value and treat your players fairly and with respect.

Downloading - Most people have had no issues downloading the application but occassionally some do. If they email or call in a member of our tech team always gets them up and running. It's usually a quick fix involoving a setting on your computer. As an aside we are launching an improved download process next week which we think will all but eliminate future issues that 1st time users might have. As far as showing prices, I've always wanted to but as of now there is no way to see prices without downloading. We do give a sample that we call "Best Bets" on our homepage that we update daily to give people an idea of what they might find when they download.

As far as value, I think you'll find that we offer some value to the small player due to markets that have very competitive odds when compared to both the reduced juice shops and the standard -110 outs. As you say, for the bigger bettor, there is even more value as our commission ends at $400 in win ($20 cap).

Admittedly, we are trying something different here. We think that we can build a product that offers value, safety and a unique legality to offshore gaming.

Again I appreciate the comments. If you or anyone would like to email me directly, please feel free. You can reach me at jason@betbug.com.

Thanks again and good luck.

Jason

[bookie]

Jason,

Thanks for responding. I'll try to download again next week after the latest upgrade. I would urge everyone who who is a value conscious bettor to keep an eye on this betting exchange and their unique pricing structure. We can help them and they can help us.

Bookie

[pags11]

I think it's cool that Jason came here to respond to the post...very nice...

[BetBug]

Pags, it's my pleasure.

Inveterate, lines are up for TUF2.

Bookie, thanks for the kind words.

Jason