Startup Dunia

LordsOfOdds is a Pune based startup, which enables you to “bet” on outcome of Indian events.

Here’s how it works.

The site will float a new entry for an event and start accepting bets on the outcome of the event. Users offer their wager for the outcome they think is most likely. As the support (demand) for a particular outcome increases, so does the bet increment for that outcome. Conversely, the less the support for a particular outcome, the lower the asking price. At the end of the actual event, the bets are calculated and the user accounts tallied.

Of course, all this happens using virtual currency, aka ‘Loots’.

As an example, they have an open pool for the outcome of MTV Roadies 5.0. At the time of this writing, majority of the people think that Aashutosh Kaushik is the most likely winner of this season.

The top users (ie, with the best predictions) get bragging rights. I wont be surprised if they follow a business model similar to PicksPal, where for a small fee, users get access to the collective wisdom of the top users of the site. But considering that betting is illegal in India, it’d be interesting to see what other monetization avenues they come up with.

They are currently looking for angel - VC funding.

What do you think about LordOfOdds ? Will it click ? Will such a ‘wisdom of the crowds’ based startup be able to sustain itself ?