If you hadn't noticed, Blackie from RebateWager has been dangling carrots regarding a new exchange product for some time now.
Because the idea of improving upon the existing exchange model has been a serious interest of mine since well before I started with SBR, I took the opportunity (provided by P. Loshak) to get together with the Black-Man in order to toss around some exchange ideas.
Wouldn't you know it ... we were very much on the same page.
So shortly after our meeting (and after checking the weather in Hell -- it was in fact warm and sunny) I started working with Blackie on our exchange project.
Well, fast-forward to the present and he and I have put together a betting exchange release candidate that's primed and ready for your comments, criticism, and testing.
The exchange's name is XMarketsExchange.com, and not surprisingly you can find it at http://www.xmarketsexchange.com/. SBRforum posters are invited to sign up for test accounts through that website.
Broadly, our primary software goals are twofold:
In other words, we want our recreational players to have fair and open access to better prices than they'd find at traditional low-juice sports books, while sharing our own technological expertise and resources with market makers so they can profitably provide liquidity.
These goals are obviously highly correlated -- the further along we get with one, the more we'll see improvements in the other. The more recreational players we bring aboard, the more profit opportunity there will be for professional players. The more professional players we have adding liquidity, the more compelling and straightforward the betting environment will be for recreational players.
Now with that said, I do want people to realize that we're taking the long view here -- we want to make sure that our core exchange software works smoothly and properly and only then start to introduce features and enhancements so as to cultivate suitable Pro/Rec liquidity across covered markets. We do aim to start running some free contests within the exchange, shortly, which we'll ask SBR to announce, but we're not going to begin taking deposits before we feel completely confident in the usability, stability, and overall excellence of our product -- this won't happen until I can honestly say that I personally would play there.
Because it's still in its early stages of development and because the UI is in such flux there currently exists no comprehensive documentation on the website. As such this phase of testing is geared towards players who already have some familiarity with betting exchanges.
For the next week or so I'll probably limit the number of new accounts, increasing it slowly as I become more confident in our setup.
If you want play around with the software I recommend an up-to-date version of FireFox, Safari, or Google Chrome. In a pinch, IE7 or 8 will also work (although I'd strongly discourage the former). IE5.5 and 6 are unsupported, and although they should work for the most part, performance will be sub par with rendering unpredictable at best. I expect that Opera should work as well, although I've not tested it.
As I’ve said, we have a lot more improvements in the pipeline, but at this point my focus is on core functionality. This is early in the development cycle so there will no doubt be bugs. Please post any you might find in this thread (no PMs, please) or e-mail me at ganchrow AT xmarketsexchange DOT com. (Posting is greatly preferred.)
A bit later I'll post more about how we aim to address the goals I mentioned earlier as well as start to introduce some pf the features we have in store for upcoming releases.
But right now I'm just hoping for as much feedback as possible on core functionality as well as any suggestions for improvements to the user interface or any other reactions, comments, or criticisms that come to mind.
Because the idea of improving upon the existing exchange model has been a serious interest of mine since well before I started with SBR, I took the opportunity (provided by P. Loshak) to get together with the Black-Man in order to toss around some exchange ideas.
Wouldn't you know it ... we were very much on the same page.
So shortly after our meeting (and after checking the weather in Hell -- it was in fact warm and sunny) I started working with Blackie on our exchange project.
Well, fast-forward to the present and he and I have put together a betting exchange release candidate that's primed and ready for your comments, criticism, and testing.
The exchange's name is XMarketsExchange.com, and not surprisingly you can find it at http://www.xmarketsexchange.com/. SBRforum posters are invited to sign up for test accounts through that website.
Broadly, our primary software goals are twofold:
- Provide an intuitive, easy-to-use interface for recreational players to bet at market leading prices across a wide swath of primary and derivative singles and parlays.
- Continuously develop, enhance, and support a technologically cutting-edge market-maker/trading framework that empowers new market makers, while maintaining a highly flexible, easily accessible, and open source platform for more advanced users.
In other words, we want our recreational players to have fair and open access to better prices than they'd find at traditional low-juice sports books, while sharing our own technological expertise and resources with market makers so they can profitably provide liquidity.
These goals are obviously highly correlated -- the further along we get with one, the more we'll see improvements in the other. The more recreational players we bring aboard, the more profit opportunity there will be for professional players. The more professional players we have adding liquidity, the more compelling and straightforward the betting environment will be for recreational players.
Now with that said, I do want people to realize that we're taking the long view here -- we want to make sure that our core exchange software works smoothly and properly and only then start to introduce features and enhancements so as to cultivate suitable Pro/Rec liquidity across covered markets. We do aim to start running some free contests within the exchange, shortly, which we'll ask SBR to announce, but we're not going to begin taking deposits before we feel completely confident in the usability, stability, and overall excellence of our product -- this won't happen until I can honestly say that I personally would play there.
Because it's still in its early stages of development and because the UI is in such flux there currently exists no comprehensive documentation on the website. As such this phase of testing is geared towards players who already have some familiarity with betting exchanges.
For the next week or so I'll probably limit the number of new accounts, increasing it slowly as I become more confident in our setup.
If you want play around with the software I recommend an up-to-date version of FireFox, Safari, or Google Chrome. In a pinch, IE7 or 8 will also work (although I'd strongly discourage the former). IE5.5 and 6 are unsupported, and although they should work for the most part, performance will be sub par with rendering unpredictable at best. I expect that Opera should work as well, although I've not tested it.
As I’ve said, we have a lot more improvements in the pipeline, but at this point my focus is on core functionality. This is early in the development cycle so there will no doubt be bugs. Please post any you might find in this thread (no PMs, please) or e-mail me at ganchrow AT xmarketsexchange DOT com. (Posting is greatly preferred.)
A bit later I'll post more about how we aim to address the goals I mentioned earlier as well as start to introduce some pf the features we have in store for upcoming releases.
But right now I'm just hoping for as much feedback as possible on core functionality as well as any suggestions for improvements to the user interface or any other reactions, comments, or criticisms that come to mind.
