The EPL Betting contest has now been running for a steady 15 weeks. The initial reason for hosting this contest was to get more exposure on Steemit. I figured it would cost me 190$ to give away 5$ each week to cover the entire season which I could partially fund by payouts from other Steemit sports contest. The idea was to have this contest open for everyone on steemit who wanted to join.
It has never been an objective to make the contest itself profitable and I started seeing it more as a way to give something back and help others and the community grow along with myself. Unfortunately, the theory of using the contest to help the community grow and the reality have not really matched. First in week 5, I spotted very suspicious double accounts. I rejected their entry, but the same accounts along with a 3th double account entered the week after. My main frustration was the time it took to play police and investigate all the links between these accounts, so I added a rule that states that suspicious double accounts can get entry rejected.
With the jackpot growing to 25$+ I noticed more suspicious accounts and found someone was scamming the system with 5 different accounts which all got rejected and banned.
Last week the 27$+ jackpot was won. With the rise in SBD it was worth around 200$. The SBD $ amount never was stated as a condition in the rules, so 200$ worth of SBD was paid out to the winner as promised. I assumed it would at least partially be used to power up, but instead all of it was quickly cashed out while the account itself didn't even have 10 Steem Power. Off course everyone is free to do what they want, but these taking mindset accounts is not where I prefer to see the guaranteed prize pool and jackpot that was build up by contributing accounts end up going to.
I have been thinking about a rule to solve all of these issues as I really want to continue the contest as a way to give back and help those who want to grow on this steemit platform without it being taken advantage of and getting my time wasted. Looking at all the accounts over time that I had to reject or that have a rather taking mindset, they all have one thing in common. Slim to none of these accounts are in any way invested in the platform with a little bit of Steem Power. Setting the bar to enter the contest at a minimum of 50 SP and 0.01$ upvote would pretty much remove all the entries that try to take advantage instantly. Most of the regular active steemit accounts that play weekly easily meet this requirement and the ones just below right now should have a really easy time getting there with current SBD price.
The main downside of this rule is that it is very unfriendly towards new Steemit members with good intentions. I could start making exceptions, but I'm not really willing to go down that road as it will overcomplicate things. The 50SP rule can also be seen as a incentive for new Steem members who want to join to get some initial steem power.
So more than ever, the contest will be about supporting active members that want to grow on this platform. The guaranteed prize pool will remain around 5$ worth of STEEM or SBD and 100% of the liquid SBD will be used to grow the Jackpot.
I'm also thinking about including a @steembasicincome sponsorship into the prize pool. they are a new project who are aiming to provide a daily guaranteed upvote based on shares in the program.
Please let me know your thoughts about this 50SP rule to prevent scammers and if the @steembasicincome sponsorship being part of the weekly prize pool sounds interesting. I'm always open for discussion and willing to change my mind if solid arguments are presented to me!
I think it's a good idea, I think I'll introduce it to my competitions.
You'll find no complaints here. I need to get with the program and convert some of the SBD i have accumulated into SP, and/or throw some fiat into the mix. I've just never done that, so I have a learning curve to deal with. But you've given me some good motivation to do so.
Sorry you have to deal with all of the crap when it's obvious to me that you're just all give and no take. The whole multiple accounts stuff is one of the main issues that I have that has kept me from really taking Steemit all that serious. It's a curse to this platform, imo. That and all of the bots.
Thanks for understanding sminchow !
Right now is actually the easyest time to power up with SBD using the internal market
5 SBD actually gets you 30+ STEEM
Woohoo! Look at me go! Well, that was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I was going to do that a while ago, but I've been travelling so much lately, and I didn't have my key handy. Now, that's feels better. :)
I won't be able to participate?
The contest is aimed towards members that aim to grow on Steemit. I'm not saying everyone should power up with 100% of their earnings here on steemit, but when only really playing contests on the platform and cashing out nearly 100% of the winnings there is quite a big gap between taking and giving which is not helping Steemit move forward in any way. That's one of the reasons for the new rule which kicks these type of members out. I'm sure you can understand from this point of view.
Its sad that rules like these even have to be considered, but in order to root out the scammers some rule changes are probably necessary. Your idea for an sp minimum is probably the best solution that i have heard anybody recommend. Good thinking.
Hi @costanza,
I can't tell you how sorry I am about all this.... If it's any comfort, your contest helped me a lot when i just getting started here in steemit and is still my fovourite one.
I organized some contests on soccer like you, but i stopped pretty quick for your own suspicion...
I fully agree with your thoughts, 50SP and sponsorship.
As you know 'm a supporter of @steembasicincome ;-)
Thanks miti!
I've been thinking more about the steembasicincome, I really liked the idea when first reading it because a couple similar projects really helped me (make-a-whale |quarator | feedyourminniws | ...)
Pure economically it should be possible to lay down all the numbers and I'm affraid they don't really add up and even look like a ponzi.
I don't think it look like a ponzi scheme, for two reason:
P.S. i trust @josephsavage and I have no doubt he he will get things right ;-)
Lets say all Steem is used to power up. 0.5 Steem equals 1 share which gives 100SP to upvote 200 shares. This means 1 share which costs 0.5 STEEM brings an upvote worth 20% of a 100SP upvote. based on the upvote calculator this equals 0.00$. Looking at it from an investment point of view it gives no real benefit unless some outside sponsoring comes in and and there is a sustainable way to get a SP lease. The gain in SP by curating and upvotes won't really do much to increase the upvotes.
The project highly incentivises promotion in a similar way ponzi schemes do. Pretty much anyone can set this up with some basic steem power and lease to kick start things off and get people to send steem over. I'm juct lacking a clear plan and roadmap economically,
I'm probably not going to go forward unless I see some clear numbers that show this model is actually viable.
https://steemit.com/basicincome/@steembasicincome/initial-enrollments-completed
Please consider that we don't start from 0SP but from at least 100SP + 345SP delegated.
The 100SP and delegated 345SP show that it's unlikely to be scalable, 104 shares are in which means 52STEEM has been send. 1000%/104 = a 9.61% upvote for 1 share. A 10% upvote from an account that has 500SP insead of 52SP only gives a 0.01$ upvote.
lets say there are 10000 shares, each share is worth 1000/10000 = 0.1%
= 0.01$ at current level 500SP sponsored +10.000SP. to make this a 0.02$ upvote for each share they would need 25.000SP.
(I used the upvotecalculator</> to estimate the votes.
Pure from and EV point of view it's a bad deal. I do really like the idea of the sponsorship and being able to donate regular upvotes in this way, but the numbers don't add up with current format.
I saw you made the same question in @steembasicincome post.. let's see the answer.. especially because I was about to send 1 STEEM to sponsor you
I fully understand the reason for doing this. This rule would definitely kick me out although I never use two accounts. Can I recommend using reputation score? I don't think this accounts have very high reputation scores. Thanks.
I've looked at the reputation score solution, but all accounts that got an entry rejected were not 25 reputation accounts. (49|42|41|42|38|59|49|42|44|41). So a 50 reputation requirement would leave a lot more out and won't be a solution to the contest leechers. The main idea for the contest is to help people want grow on steemit without asking for any crazy high requirements.
It sucks you have to do that and people take advantage, but I absolutely agree. I appreciate every contest whether I participate on a regular basis or not, but would wish everyone would follow this to make it fair for everyone. Thanks for all of the time and effort and I definitely want to make more of an effort to participate!
I think it is a good idea. For the new people or those who are genuine who wanted to join, they can possibly drop you a note and you can review them base on that. Thanks for hosting this, I thoroughly enjoy it.
I've been thinking about it and might do something just like that in the near future.
well, the rule is importan, but you must be find the good rule! i don't think that a good rule
Give another solution with some solid arguments and I'll be happy toch adopt it when it's better.
I think it's good rule, but for sure you will have to make exceptions when account is real but not have 50 SP. For example I barely have 50+ SP
I'm not planning to make any exceptions and get things overly complicated. I do plan on adjusting the amount if the price of steem goes up or when the SBD go back to 1$ so new members can get there quite quickly with a bit of effort.