Pop Culture Fantasy Betting

Fantasy betting sites around pop culture have been becoming a popular new social networking niche. These types of sites let you bet with friends or others of the communities around things like “How many people will Jack Bauer kill in season 6 of 24?” or “Another Paris Hilton sex tape will be released by June of 2007.”

I think these types of sites which include Fafarazzi.com, PicksPop.com, and GottaBet.com have interesting potential. They cover topics that draw in the average person and appeal to the masses. But the most promising aspect is that most open the door to other types of monetization.

Most of the communities involve some type of virtual currency you can bet with. But what happens when someone runs out of this currency? This is a situation where the site can ask the user to take a specific action that earns the site money, and gives the user more of the virtual currency. This is exactly what new survey network PeanutLabs has done.

PeanutLabs is the creation of the founders of social networking site Xuqa.com. When a user wants to earn more of the virtual currency, a user can take a survey that earns them more. Everytime a user takes a survey the site gets paid anywhere from $1 - $15. This has been highly succesful for Xuqa. Once implemented, Xuqa turned profitable almost over night.

Fantasy Betting Sites:

Fafarazzi
Fafarazzi is a fantasy celebrity league, similar to how fantasy football works. You sign up, join a league, and draft your celebrity team. Fafarazzi then monitors a number of news sources for mentions of celebrities. The more your celebrities are mentioned, the more points you earn.

PicksPop
From the creators of sports fantasy betting site, PicksPal. PicksPop allows you to predict and pick certain pop culture events. Includes one on one betting, as well as groups.

GottaBet.com
I find GottaBet.com the most interesting, and the most promising. Not only do they allow you to bet with fake virtual currency, but you can also bet between friends with real money (250 pounds or less). The company is located in england where certain types of betting are legal, and only allow you to bet in Pounds. GottaBet lets you bet on almost anything imaginable. Just see their listings here.

[tags]Social Networking, Online Communities, Fantasy Betting, Pop Culture, Fafarazzi, PicksPop, GottaBet, PeanutLabs, Xuqa, Brian Balfour[/tags]