What is Stakehouse Sports?

Stakehouse Sports has created a new type of sports competition that is way more fun than your regular old pick 'em games.

Instead of just one team over the over, you predict the scores and earn points based on how good you predict the results.

How do I play?

Playing the Stakehouse Sports pickem game is easy. Just enter the scores for the home and away teams for each game.

Does it cost money?

NOPE! The games on Stakehouse Sports are totally free. The units you wager are completely virtual, and there is no cost to keep playing, even if you hit an epic losing streak.

PREDICTION SCORE

How does the prediction score work?

You earn points 4 ways:

• Picking the winner
• Picking the side against the spread
• Picking the over/under (i.e. the total)
• Making any exact predictions

So, when you predict the scores for a game, you are predicting the winner, the side, and the over/under. You earn two points for each correct prediction, and you earn one point for any exact prediction which include the score of either team, the actual spread, or the actual total.

For example, in the NFC Championship Game in 2019, the Rams defeated the Saints 26-23. If you have predicted the Rams to win 20-17, you would have earned 7 points: 2 points each for predicting the winner, spread (Rams +3), and the over/under (under 55.5), plus a bonus point for predicting the exact spread of Rams by 3.

10 points is the maximum score; 7 is an outstanding score; 6 is great.

Why does an exact prediction earn only 1 point? Isn’t it more difficult?

It is rarer to predict an exact result, but given how many factors go into a final score, it’s hard to argue that it’s not simply lucky. We think that it requires more thinking and skill to get the winner, the spread, and the total predictions correct, and we don’t want our users to spend too much time trying to get the scores exactly right.

Do I have to predict every game?

No, you don’t have to predict every game, but there is no penalty for incorrect predictions, so to have the best chance at competing in the weekly and overall prediction score leaderboards, it’s in your best interest to predict as many games as you can.

How do the prediction score leaderboards work?

For prediction score leaderboards, we calculate the prediction score for each game and sum up all of the games for the week and the season. Users compete for the weekly and overall leaderboards based on their cumulative prediction scores.

In the event of a tie, the tiebreakers will be (in order):

1. The higher number of winners predicted correctly
2. The higher number of spread sides predicted correctly
3. The higher number of totals predicted correctly

STAKES

How does wagering work?

Wagering stakes is totally free, and it works just like betting at the sportsbooks.

First, you predict the score to set the moneyline, against the spread, and the over/under. Getting a wager correct in the same way you earn points towards your prediction score.

Why are multiple sportsbooks listed for each wager?

Each sportsbook includes a vigorish or "vig" on each wager. A negative vig is the amount you would need to wager to net 100. So a win on a wager with a -110 vig would result in 210 stakes.
Meanwhile, a positive vig indicates how much you would net with a 100-stake wager. So a winning 100-stake wager with a +105 vig would result in 205 stakes.

We give you 10000 stakes just for joining, and if you empty your bank roll, you can earn more stakes if you watch an ad or two.

After each game, we calculate your return on investment by subtracting the units lost from the units won and dividing that by the units wagered.

What if I don’t want to wager any units?

You don’t have to! Just like the experts, you can stay away from a game if you don’t feel confident in a particular prediction.

In fact, unlike the prediction score leaderboards, it’s actually better for you to stay away from wagering units if you’re not sure about them.

HOWEVER, in order to qualify for the weekly leaderboard, we are following the super contest model and requiring 5 wagers per week. For the overall leaderboard, you have to make 85 wagers over the course of the regular season (average of 5 wagers per week.

How do the ROI leaderboards work?

The ROI leaderboards are ranked based on the user’s ROI, and the users have to make 5 wagers per week to qualify for the weekly leaderboard, and 5 wagers per week on average to qualify for the overall leaderboard.

The ROI is determined by subtracting the total units lost from the total units won and dividing by the total units wagered. In the event of a tie, the tiebreakers will be (in order):

1. Who won more total units
2. Who made more wagers
3. Who lost fewer total units

About Stakehouse Sports

Stakehouse Sports was built by Chris Aronchick and Paul Cullin.
We are both huge sports fans who also love fantasy sports, and we came up with Stakehouse Sports when we started talking about how we'd like to compete against each other.

Got ideas or questions? Send us an e-mail!