Betting on gaming, just don’t call it gambling

Gaming site BringIt is hoping gamers confident in their mad skills are willing to put money on being the best.  VentureBeat is reporting that BringIt, a social site for gaming, will let players bet against those they are looking to challenge.  Now, don’t be mistaken, this isn’t gambling.  According to them (BringIt) gambling is when you bet on “games of chance”.  This is betting on “games of skill”.  Um, okay?  Define it however you like, you’re still betting on something and the players are taking a “chance” based on how great or crappy their gaming skills are.  Technically, BringIt is correct in their assertion about the difference between the games, but this is still gambling.

That said, if you’re looking to put some money on the table (virtual though it may be) to defend your status of “Extra awesome super Guitar Hero of this universe and every other one in existence” then BringIt is definitely for you.  The site uses data pulled from networked console platforms (e.g. Playstation 3, XBox360) so the challenges have vetted winners to claim their cash price (a portion of which goes to BringIt):

“…BringIt extracts data from games or networks such as Xbox Live to get verified game results. Players also verify the scores themselves. If there’s a dispute, BringIt will resolve the disagreement, based on evidence such as shots of a game screen that show the results. BringIt displays results for others to see and brag about when they win.”

At first I didn’t think this company stood a chance of making any money.  I mean, how many people out there are willing to put real money down on winning a video game?  Mind you, if the target audience for this site is college students then I can’t think of a better group to have disposable income.  The challenge, however, will be getting them to spent that loose cash on “games of skill” and not beer.

You can read more details about BringIt in CrunchGear’s article back in 2008 when the site launched.