‘Legal’ betting app Bait pivots to free-to-play

Chicago start-up Bait, which claimed to offer legal US sports betting, has dropped its original concept and pivoted to become a social sports betting app.

The original Bait app facilitated peer-to-peer wagering with the loser of any specific bet voluntarily paying up to the winner.

Bait founder Ian Peacock said the voluntary pay-outs meant the app was legal under US law, but payment processors Venmo took a different view and threatened legal action against the company if it continued to use its system.

Following a review of Bait’s 2,000 users, Peacock decided to relaunch the app as a free-to-play sportsbook called Linedrive, to help people looking to learn more about sports betting.

“We realized people are intimidated by sports betting for one reason or another,” Peacock told Americaninno.com.

“Most of it revolved around people just not knowing how to bet. Just how people can be intimidated by the stock market, they don’t want to invest money in things they aren’t familiar with.”

Linedrive, which went live on the App Store earlier this week, will offer a global leaderboard ranking users on their winnings, and monetize by selling virtual currency.

Bait and Linedrive founder Ian Peacock