My fellow TG editors and I are in one of those online fantasy drafts, only instead of drafting buff dudes who can kick a ball real good, we’re drafting video games. Fantasy Critic is popular among gaming sites like ours, butwith a friend group, if you’re that kind of nerd.
It’s fun to build a roster of upcoming games you’re looking forward to and try to guess what their Metacritic scores will be. Having a little bit of a personal stake in the release of upcoming games makes those releases that much more exciting.
We just play for bragging rights at TheGamer, but there are plenty of fantasy leagues out there that play for money. I can only imagine how much more exciting watching a football game would be when you know every first down or interception could mean you’re going to make cash. Itmustbe, becausethe sports betting industry posted nearly $14 billion in revenue last year. Today, while making some bids on a few upcoming games in my fantasy league, the thought crossed my mind: if you can bet on sports, can you bet on video games too?
If You Can Think It, You Can Gamble On It
The answer is yes. Of course the answer is yes. But you’re not going to believe how it works. There are no bookmakers for video games like there are for sports, obviously, so if you want to bet on upcoming games, you’ll have to go to the place where you may bet on anything - and I do meananything.
The platform is called Polymarket, a cryptocurrency-based prediction market where you can place bets on future events. It initially became popular for election betting. Letting people bet on who would be voted in as the next president gave them a way to put their money where their mouth is, but it also gave pundits and content creators another metric for analyzing voter data. Who do all the degenerate gamblers think is going to win the election?Polymarket had Trump leading by 30 pointsa week before the election. I guess that’s something.
The appeal of Polymarket is that it lets you bet on just about anything. you may bet on legislative outcomes, the weather, the Oscars. You can bet on whether or not the next pope will be gay (one percent chance) or if aliens from outer space will make contact this year (three percent).
Why Just Play Games When You Can Bet On Them Too?
You can bet on anything, so of course, you can bet on video games. Will Grand Theft Auto 6 launch in 2025? 69 percent of investors say yes. Will GTA6 cost $100? Polymarket has about six to one odds saying it will, and honestly,I’d take that bet.
I’m surprised to see that no one is betting on Metacritic review scores for upcoming games right now, but there’s plenty of bets for Rotten Tomatoes scores and box office returns. If you think A Minecraft Movie will be the highest-grossing film of 2025, you could double your money if you invest now. If you think Thunderbolts is going to score a 90 or above on Rotten Tomatoes, well, I may have an exciting financial opportunity for you.
You won’t believe how deep this stupid rabbit hole goes. You can bet on how many views the next Pewdiepie video will get in the first 24 hours. You can bet on whether or not Twitch CEO Dan Clancy will get fired before Apple’s Tim Cook. Ten to one odds say Microsoft will buy Tiktok. There’s a three percent chance we’ll be in another global pandemic by August, and an equal chance that the Earth is indeed flat.
I haven’t been able to decide if this is all a fun little hobby, or the most dangerous platform in the world, but it’s probably a good way to stay away from the temptation to turn every facet of life into a get rich quick scheme. I’ll stick with playing Fantasy Critic with my friends for bragging rights. Unless they want to throw a couple bucks in the pot just to make things interesting, in that case, I’m totally down.
