WTF is StepBet? A How To Guide +Evaluating My Data of My 1st Year
Okay now this is what I will call this.....eh I don't know but I'll come up with a catchy name hopefully. This will be a nice intro for those who aren't in the know before we get to the nitty gritty.
StepBet is an app which in simple terms: you can earn money from just walking! You connect your fitness watch of choice - with free options available - and the app automatically calculates 2 goals based on your personal activity history. One Active Goal which is your minimum # of steps and then Power Goal which adds about 2k additional steps to your Active. Then, there is a list of active games which you can choose a max of 3 at a time. For every $1, StepBet converts to 1 point. Every game varies on your intial wager - points to enter a game - anywhere from $10 to $60 worth of points per game. Each game can differ in your personalized steps before you accept the game.
You know the saying: Gotta spend money to make money. So yes, you do the initial wager entry fee for a couple games. These initial wagers come straight from your own pocket. More on that in a bit. Here's an example of one of my past games:
Pay attention to your requirements. Even if you do like 7 days of Active Days (green) days you won't win unless you do a Power Day (Lime Green) in the your To Do section:
However, you know you are locked in to win the week or game when you see this:
You can also do as MANY Power days as you want even if you are over your requirements. If you need 2 Power Days and make 3, 4 or even 5 those extra Power Days is obviously credited as an Active Day, therefore you're still in the running to win. If that's obvious to you than you get a gold star!! You have no idea how many people comment and post about this "potential issue" thinking they will somehow be disqualified for overachieving. REJOICE!
BUT HOLD UP!
Disclaimer: You do have the ability to profit but it will be a long wait. Games last anywhere from 3 to 8 weeks and in order to win the pot, you have to make your goals EACH AND EVERY SINGLE WEEK. Except the 1st week, that is. Every single game as far as I know have a Warm Up Week which means you will not be kicked out of the Winners Circle if you don't make your goals for that first week only. You can take advantage of it and do nothing or prep for the steps you will be taking for the foreseeable future. That's a huge relief for ya, eh?
Skipping forward to when the game is over, they give all the players an extra day to sync up their steps and then the day AFTER is when you will have the profits automatically credited to your account. This money is paid for by the people who did not make their requirements and therefore lost their wager/bets. If you win YOU WIN BACK YOUR WAGER + ADDITIONAL MONEY PAID BY THE NON-WINNERS! It's usually a few bucks. Don't look at it like it's your next rent payment. More like beer money. And profits vary a lot.
The game you just finished will still linger in your My Games section for a few days until it times out. So don't freak when you still see it chilling despite finishing that game. It will disappear in about a week.
Now that I got that part out of the way, let's get to the main part of this post. I honestly want to see just how much I can profit. The beginnings will obviously look grim but I believe you can profit! Just be patient and win each and every game. Maximize which game you enter as well. I took a few hours out of my day to whip out Google Sheets to dissect and evaluate my own StepBet data from my 1st year on StepBet. Buckle up, there's going to be a lot to digest and I have a lot of charts to get through. If you want to see my 2nd year (the cycle that just ended) then CLICK HERE for the extended stats for both years. It's on Google Sheets and for some reason you need to click on your own Google account to view it but rest assured there is now way for me to know you (or anyone) viewed it. Believe me, I tested it on a burner account.
Alright so here is how I did on my 1st year on StepBet. So this is the simplified version with emphasis on the comparison of starting game bet to what I ended up winning alongside with what I ultimately ended up profiting at the end of the year after the yearly membership fee got taken out.
Tap and zoom for closer inspection
When all is said and done, including fees, I ended up profiting $47.18 after losing 3 games. Yes, it is possible to profit after losing 3 games ðŸ˜. However, it's not as simple as entering a game and boom...win money. For this next chart, I included exact dates for you to see how long time has passed to actually winning the money. It's usually a few weeks, even over a month long sometimes.
Just to note that the running balance is real time. Despite me actually having an overall profit as pictured in the 1st chart, this 2nd chart is accurate in the sense that there was overlap between receiving my winnings for the last games of the cycle before I got charged for the yearly membership for the start of my 2nd year. To clarify that further, there are 2 charges of the membership fee in that chart. As you can see, it takes a while to get out of the negatives which means you really do have to go all in with your commitment. I admittedly did better and gained profit quicker in my 2nd year as I only lost 1 game. Is it a lot of work? Maybe. If you were already active with your steps then this will be effortless passive income. However, if you started as a sedentary person as myself then you will struggle and maybe even become obsessed with this app woth numbers and goals. Not a bad thing per se as this app has potential to form healthy habits and all. It can teach you accountability and being rewarded for it. So the answer to that question is really how you perceive it to be. Worth it? Is sure is to me.
Something else I wanted to see is some specifics for each game which led me to this:
I had to manually type out a lot of this data painstakingly. I did a simple formula for the last 2 columns which gives you insight to see if just because a game has a higher pot or most # participants have any effect of how much you can win. That answer is inconclusive as these stats have volatile variables that depend entirely on the participant and how dedicated they are to make their goals. Entirely possible for 100% of participants to win a game but just as much for 100% to lose. While the # of participants or the huge pot may be tempting for you to enter said game, it doesn't necessarily mean you will win a big amount of money. There are a lot of very determine people out there.
People can lose for a myriad of reasons. Speaking as a loser of 4 games total in the entirety of my time in StepBet so far, my reasons I lost a game was from (1) having a super busy day and not paying attention to my steps. Another reason why I lost was because (2) I traveled and the time zone change made me lose an hour and I didn't realize it before it was too late 😠A third reason why I lost was because (3) I over estimated my steps...one game I lost by less than 500 steps...equivalent to 5 minutes worth of walking. That can often make all the difference. My 4th loss was from one of the previous reasons.
Another thing to note is that there are 2 types of games. The members are ones who pay the yearly $50 membership fee and can enter whatever game they want. The added bonus is that Member-Only games is that everyone splits the pot. These are marked as orange in the above chart you just saw.
Now, Non-Member Games (yellow) is when StepBet takes a 15% cut of the pot before it gets split with the Winners. Less money to win for these. Non-Member games are ideal for those who want to test drive the app before committing. I have no experience with being a Non-Member so I cannot speak with how it is like being one. Every newbie to StepBet starts out as a trial but if you want to cancel, emailing them is super easy otherwise you will be charged and become a member. Members can also join Non-Member games as they choose as well. The more the merrier, yo! I literally had no idea that there was even an option of contining StepBet past the trial but HEY the more you know. You just have to email them to cancel so you won't be charged the membership fee.
I do have a few more charts and stats not included in this post so if you would like to view mine (including data from my 2nd year and the start of my on-going 3rd year) you can view my Google Sheets here. Don't worry, despite Google needing you to confirm your account, before viewing, I honestly will not be able to see ANYONE who views my public Google Sheets. Believe me, I tried with a throwaway. So you can view as many times as you like with no worries.
Yes, you can make some money off of StepBet. It will take months and a handful of games. It requires diligence, patience and most of all YOUR STEPS. It's a fun way to pass the time but only recommended for those who can make the initial investment. I personally don't think it is any hard work at all whatsoever but that doesn't mean it may be that way for some. You need to not only achieve your steps but to sync in time; daily is optimal to ensure your goals but at the end of each game they give players an extra day to sync up their trackers. This extra day does not count at all towards your daily requirements.
As far as I know, there is no referral program. So no benefits to me or anyone else who promotes is (to my knowledge) BUT I learned that there is an option to create your own StepBet game either private with your friends and family or make an open to all. It is obvious which ones they are. I am just making this post to hopefully shed some insight to how this app works and proof that you can indeed profit. Just not right away. I hope you do try this out if you have the means to do so. This is far from a get rich quick kind of thing and never advertised as such. It's fun and it encourages healthy habits so only proceed to join StepBet if you are motivated enough to accomplish these goals!!
