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I am a member of StepBet, a younger sister of DietBet in the WayBetter family.
I am doing three member games now. I paid $49.95 for a year’s membership. In return I get to do up to 3 games concurrently and none of the member-only take a skim off of the winnings.
If you are not a member, you can only do 1 non-member game at a time. For the non-member games, WayBetter takes a 15% skim off of the pot before distributing it to the winners.
An quick aside: Healthy Wage Step Challenges
In the Healthy Wage step challenges, a 60-day step target is calculated. The general method for calculating the target is defined in the rules: take the median step count over the last 45 days as measured and recorded by your fitness tracker, multiply it by 1.25, and multiply it again by 60. (With insufficient fitness tracker data, the target defaults to 600,000.)
You can walk like Clark Griswold in the Arizona desert on one day and stay in bed the next, and can win as long as your 60-day target is reached.
Lots of people meet their target. Hence, the profit percentages tend to be low. Expect to make $0 to $10 profit on a $60 bet. But don’t let that deter you if you believe staying on your feet will help you meet your weight loss and other fitness goals (and concurrent bets).
How to win at StepBet
The StepBet games are significantly different than the Healthy Wage step challenges, when it comes to the requirements for winning the games.
StepBet calculates things much differently. You have to meet DAILY targets—not a long-term average, as with Healthy Wage.
For any particular game, when you connect your tracker to the StepBet app, a proprietary algorithm will deploy to set for you two daily targets.
The lower target is called the Active Day target, and the higher target is called the Power Day target.
For the “classic” games, the rules are as follows:
- You will compete for 6 weeks, with each week running from Monday to Sunday.
- The first week of competition is a “warm-up” week. It is designed for players to get acclimated to the routine. Although the daily targets are specified and tracked, the requirements are not enforced, and nobody gets eliminated in that week. If you decide to quit the game, you can do so during this week and get a full refund of your fee.
- In each of weeks 2 through 6, the following requirements are enforced:
- Each player must reach their Power Day step target on two separate days
- Each player must reach their Active Day step target on four separate days—not the same ones as the Power Days
- One day can be designated as a rest day—as few as 0 steps are allowed on that day
So by the end of Tuesday of Week 2, it becomes possible for players to be locked out of the winning money—you have to at the very least have met your Active Day step goal on either Monday or Tuesday. On later days of the week, more players may become eliminated.
Two of the three challenges I joined were of this classic type—4 Active days and 2 Power days every week after the first one. I joined both on Monday Week 1, October 28. The challenges are called:
- StepBet Maintainer
- Member Classic
The remaining challenge had actually started the week before, on October 21. I had missed the first week—the warm-up week—except for the last day of it (Sunday, October 27). It didn’t affect my winning chances, but I had to start stepping for real on the next day.
That last challenge is called “Fit and Friendly – 2 Free Days!” It requires only 3 Active days and 2 Power days. I took it over the other member game choice that was totally concurrent with the two classic ones: that one had very extreme Power day goals.
If this was a public game, there is a 15% pot skim by WayBetter, and at this moment there would not be enough losers yet to make the winners whole—the money back guarantee would still be in effect.
Variations of Rules for Members
Public games all seem to have the standard rules: 6 weeks, 4 active days / 2 power days per week, week 1 doesn’t count toward elimination. This includes player-sponsored games. All of these have a 15% skim by WayBetter, which cuts down on the payouts. Non-members must choose from the public games, and can only do one at a time.
If you are a member, you can do 3 games at a time. The member games all have different rules. Some of the games appearing on my app today include:
6 Power Days per week! Get some good walking shoes for this one!
If you like StepBet, expect to become a member
I am not certain yet, but StepBet may beset up so that if you really, really like it, you have no practical choice but to become a member.
If you win a non-member bet and get hooked, your step goals for your next non-member game will likely be higher. If you win that game, the following game’s step goals will be even higher. And so on until the payout is no longer worth the effort.
As a member, you can triple your game volume and eliminate the 15% skim. Not only that, you can enroll is games with shorter or longer duration. You can also take on step goals that are relaxed or more challenging—for the latter, you can load up on intensity or go for stamina.
Next month I will see what my payout is. It will be interesting to see what my $49.95 member fee paid for. I think it will pay dividends over the course of a year, though. I do plan to maintain my weight loss in 2020, and I think StepBet will be a big part of that.
Weight Betting Odds 