Tycoons Row

Gotta Bet is a service based out in the U.K., which provides a social networking platform for gambler-holics. You can bet pretty much anything and get your bet voted on by the community of users. You can bet “Peanuts”, which is the free social icon at Gottabet. You can also bet for money as well as prizes.

Unfortunately, in some countries Gambling is illegal. For example, the U.S. will not allow you to bet. Gottabet was first featured here at Techcrunch.

While analyzing Gottabet, I noted that not only is this an interesting service, but it definitely can be a viral outlet for users. I also thought of additional ways that Gottabet can be used. One way how this service can be optimized is using it to make scorecarding more dynamic and fun. A perfect example are all the “Top 10″ & “Top 20″ predictions for 2007. Companies, and even bloggers can use Gottabet as a dynamic Scorecarding tool which will not only gain the opinions and insights of the community but also can provide more insight into the validity of ones predictions. For example, I noticed one questioned posed by user: asmega, bet that they could get 1000 users on their facebook. Given a certain timeframe, user asmega can be judged by the masses and hopefully win her bet.

Gottabet will appeal to those who love to bet, and to areas that have the ability to bet, especially when it comes to money. But I bet a competing service may pop-up that is more business oriented which will take a look at a social network that will allow one to Scorecard and gain insights from their community. I’m definitely looking forward to this service being widgetized or even mashed up.