The Exchange is located at sports.ibkr.com or via mobile software application “IBKR Sports”. It operates as a simulated peer-to-peer market where participants can buy, sell and trade bets on real sporting events including tennis, soccer, baseball and later, other sports.
“We expect this promotion to attract customers who may be new to the Interactive Brokers platform, and who are more familiar with spectator sports than they are with the financial markets,” said Thomas Peterffy, Chairman of Interactive Brokers.
“Our intention is to teach people about the probabilistic nature of markets, trading and investing. We are illustrating this by our Simulated Sports Betting Exchange where each winning bet pays 100. A player who assesses a team’s chances to win at, say 40% may want to buy a bet at less than 40 or sell it at more than 40. As more information emerges and as the event gets under way, these odds will change and the price of the bet will begin to fluctuate, similar to the price of a stock,” Peterffy said.
“By partaking in this promotion, our players will learn about our platform, how to trade and make investments and how to keep track of their finances, all while being entertained. We are betting that many of these participants will also try our free demo brokerage account and that eventually many will become Interactive Brokers’ clients,” he added.
This is how Simulated Sports Betting by Interactive Brokers works:
The first 2.2 million participants who open a Simulated Betting account will be provided with an account balance of “$1,000” in virtual USD (or its equivalent in virtual Euro, GBP or CAD). Participants will then be able to use this virtual currency to buy (place), sell (take) and trade simulated sport betting contracts.
Each winning simulated betting contract will pay 100 virtual dollars (or 100 virtual Euro, GPB or CAD where applicable). Just like with trading stocks, bonds, options or futures, on the Simulated Sports Betting Exchange, participants can buy and sell bets with each other by placing bids or offers for a specific outcome. Valid bids and offers will range from 0.05 to 99.95 in virtual currency, reflecting the bettors’ estimates of the percentage probability of outcomes. Simulated Betting accounts will be credited with any virtual winnings and debited with any virtual losses. A virtual commission per contract will be deducted on each trade equal to the lesser of 1% of the bet amount or (100 - the simulated bet amount). Participants may not have more than 3 open betting contracts at a time per event, but open bets may be closed out and new contracts may be bought or sold continuously.
Winnings in Simulated Sports Betting accounts may be converted into up to $1,000 commission credits (the PRIZE) to be used in an Interactive Brokers brokerage account. Such conversion may be made only one time and commission credits may not be transferred or withdrawn. Any unused credits will automatically expire with no value after five years. Participants cannot make deposits or withdrawals in Simulated Betting accounts.
All money in Simulated Betting accounts is virtual, non-transferable and has no cash value.
If any virtual account balance dips to zero, it will be closed, and no other Simulated Betting account may be opened by the same player. Opening a brokerage account is subject to Interactive Brokers’ eligibility requirements and its terms and conditions.
This promotion is available to participants over 21 years of age, located in permitted jurisdictions. No purchase or payment is permitted or necessary, and participants cannot wager, win or lose real money. Persons holding a brokerage account at Interactive Brokers at any time between January 1st and June 30, 2019 are not eligible to convert their winnings into commission credits. Promotion ends at 12/31/2020 or when all prizes are distributed, whichever occurs first. See Official Rules at https://sports.ibkr.com/ibg/#/ext/rules for full terms and conditions.
We are momentarily releasing 1,000 simulated betting accounts to individuals who have tried our free demo account in the recent past as a test group. We expect that by the quarterfinals of Wimbledon anyone who is eligible will be able to open a simulated betting account.
Visit https://sports.ibkr.com to learn more.
About Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.:
Interactive Brokers Group affiliates provide automated trade execution and custody of securities, commodities and foreign exchange around the clock on over 125 markets in numerous countries and currencies, from a single IBKR Integrated Investment Account to clients worldwide. We service individual investors, hedge funds, proprietary trading groups, financial advisors and introducing brokers. Our four decades of focus on technology and automation has enabled us to equip our customers with a uniquely sophisticated platform to manage their investment portfolios at the lowest cost according to Barron's Best Online Brokers review, February 25, 2019. We strive to provide our clients with advantageous execution prices and trading, risk and portfolio management tools, research facilities and investment products, all at low or no cost, positioning them to achieve superior returns on investments.