Amaya Releases Spin & Bet for BetStars

The online giant, Amaya, have just released a new game on its sports betting platform BetStars - called Spin & Bet – which as the name suggests is a variation on their immensely popular Spin&Go poker game.

The company is pushing their way into the hugely competitive sports betting market, and this latest offering seems destined to create a ‘Spin’ brand throughout their online holdings, which include PokerStars and DraftStars, as well as BetStars and PokerStars Casino.

"We're really excited by the launch of Spin & Bet, which we believe is set to be the game-changing innovation in sports betting this year," said Guy Templer, Director of Group Business Development and Strategy, following the introduction of Spin & Bet.

He added:

The game itself is based on a fairly simple mathematical model which can be applied to almost all of a gambler’s sports bets.

As explained on USPoker.com and elsewhere:

For example, if you bet $10 on team x at 10/1 odds and elect to activate the Spin function your bet is reduced to $9, with the odds changing to 15/1 – 100/1 odds 20% of the time, and remaining the same 80% of the time.

If you were to play out this scenario 200 times the now $9 bet would:

• remain at 10/1 odds 160 times
• be increased to 15/1 odds 20 times
• be increased to 20/1 odds 17 times
• be increased to 50/1 odds two times
• be increased to 100/1 odds once.

The maths behind this should be easy-peasy for veteran sports-bettors, but the real question will be how attractive this new game will be to those recreational players who have seen massive jackpots in poker’s Spin & Go games. In BetStars version of Spin&Bet, the windfalls will be much less, and therefore may not have the same appeal of the ‘life-changing’ lucky wins which poker offers.

The poker version Spin&Go has been so successful that Amaya’s PokerStars brand now devotes a huge chunk of their advertising and marketing budget into its promotion. However, many critics say that it is merely a gambling game designed for mass appeal, as opposed to the more skillful poker games which PokerStars was once famous for.

Spin & Bet can be found on the home page of the BetStars websites and iOS and Android apps. To use the new Spin & Bet feature, bettors simply choose their bet from the available markets, enter their stake, and click 'Spin & Bet'.

The bet will be placed and an animation will display the potentially enhanced odds and potential winnings, with the result being one of five multiples: 1x, 1.5x, 2x, 5x or 10x. When playing Spin & Bet, 10% of the bettor's stake goes towards an enhanced odds jackpot.