A social site for gambling lays eyes on US market

As many states make their moves toward legalisation, the winner may prove to be Fanhood

The liberalisation trend for online gambling is presently sweeping through a number of states in the US and has given hope to many for operations of social gaming like fanhood, which permits social gamblers to purchase tokens while wagering on sports events with their friends but does not allow them to withdraw cash.

In the most adrenaline pumping Facebook sports application one can play sports trivia, experience sports betting and extend challenge to the teams of other fans. This is what urges the dotcom site's landing page as meanwhile in the United States starts the frenetic betting session Feb Madness.

Brandon Ramsey, the CEO and former Yahoo and Zynga engineer says that the aim of Fanhood is the millions Americans opting to make casual bets on sport events with for bragging or just for fun. As many as 50,000 active users have already been attracted by the enterprise on Facebook. They can use virtual currency to make bets on whatever they wish from NHL hockey games to the Superbowl.

"A similar kind of psychology is used to take $5 from a friend," this week said Ramsey and claimed that the on-going discussions on betting outcomes and the social networking facilities of Fanhood are what keeps the users coming back.

Under the present day US laws Fanhood is legal. This is so because players are not allowed to cash out. If at a state level these laws were to be changed, the situation could well be improved from the perspective of a player, although an option for sports betting can be tricky in particular because of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 2026 existence which restricts the betting on sport events to only 4 US states.

Since then PASPA has been challenged twice unsuccessfully by both the states of New Jersey and Delaware, with the former desiring to make its way into sports betting. Earlier this year New Jersey has also appealed a negative judgement against the state by Michael Shipp, the federal judge.

It looks as though Fanhood in the meantime will have to make himself content with the income of present, unless one of the major gambling groups decides on a takeover.

Obviously, during the last two years there has been a trend towards convergence to social gambling. It has been illustrated in the sector through acquisitions by firms such as Caesars Entertainment, IGT, Bally Technologies and Aristocrat, as well as a number of cooperation deals and partnerships between companies that have more expertise in social gaming, and the ones who look forward to harness it.