An open-source platform
providing a decentralized
shared bankroll on the blockchain.

The future of online betting is here.

What is EdgeFund?

EdgeFund is a platform consisting of a decentralized bankroll of EDGE tokens, accessible solely via betting functions written in smart contract code. The platform accepts and pays out fixed odds bets without the need for any trusted central authority. Game operators using EdgeFund can offer large payouts without risking their own funds. The smart contract code protects the bankroll of tokens from bankruptcy by dynamically calculating the lowest possible platform edge it can charge for each bet based on the Kelly Criterion. The smart contract code is publicly viewable and provably fair.

Game operators have freedom over the bet size, payout odds and total house edge, profiting on every bet from the difference between the total house edge and the platform edge. This profit (along with any user winnings) is returned to the game operator by the smart contract after every bet, regardless of the outcome of the bet. The platform will enable any number of fixed odds betting games to be built on top of it. EDGE tokens will become scarcer over time on average due to accumulation within the smart contract bankroll, distributing profits to token holders through deflation.

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Why Use EdgeFund?

EdgeFund strives to solve the problems that existing blockchain-based betting platforms suffer from.

One Shared Bankroll for Everyone

Game operators can now offer bets without any bankroll of their own. One shared bankroll allows EdgeFund to charge the lowest possible platform edge, whilst accepting the widest range of bets. EdgeFund’s one shared bankroll will be accessible by all parties.

A Dynamic Platform Edge

Fixing your platform edge at an arbitrary percentage means that another platform can copy your smart contract code and redeploy with a lower edge. EdgeFund calculates the lowest possible edge for every bet. This allows game operators to offer better odds to their users.

Widest Possible Range of Bet and Odds

Virtually all smart contract platforms arbitrarily restrict both the size and odds at which bets can be made. EdgeFund is a fully flexible platform that accepts any bets at any odds assuming the Kelly Criterion is satisfied.

Guaranteed Return Every Bet

Game operators decide the total house edge for every bet and pocket the difference between the total house edge and the platform edge, regardless of whether the bet wins or loses. The EdgeFund bankroll takes all the risk away from the game operators.

Fair Distribution of Profits

Profits will be returned to token holders via token deflation. Platforms which ‘pay out’ profits are at risk of being copied without such payouts. EdgeFund represents the ultimate solution to ensure that all benefits go to token holders, such that copying the platform is not profitable. The cryptoeconomic incentives create a network effect that benefit the platform’s survival and growth.

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A Provably Fair, Trusted Bankroll

The code controlling the EdgeFund bankroll is open source, making it provably fair to both game operators and end users. Once fully deployed, not even the EdgeFund developers can change the smart contract code. This will be a completely trusted bankroll.

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Benefits for Token Holders

EdgeFund represents the optimum solution for accepting fixed odds bets on the blockchain. The inherently deflationary properties of the EDGE token are unique in the crypto space. The following key points illustrate these properties and detail why this platform will attract users faster than any other platform.

Fixed Token Supply

The total number of EDGE tokens is fixed on the day they are generated. A fraction of these will be allocated to the EdgeFund bankroll smart contract.

Tokens Locked in A ‘Bankroll’ Smart Contract

Once in the bankroll smart contract, the tokens are only accessible via the betting functions. Nobody, not even the EdgeFund team, have any control over these tokens. The bankroll smart contract operates autonomously, taking bets and approving payouts based on its smart contract code alone.

Bankroll Mathematically Protected from Ruin

The Kelly Criterion is hard coded into the bankroll smart contract and protects the bankroll from ruin. The lowest possible house edge is dynamically calculated for each bet. No competing platform will be able to accept fixed odds bets with a lower edge. This will lead to the fastest user growth rate of any fixed odds smart contract.

An Inherently Deflationary Token

Even if platform use remains constant, tokens will accumulate inside the smart contract’s decentralized bankroll due to the small edge charged. This will increase the value of the remaining circulating tokens through deflation.

Useful for A Wide Range of Bet Sizes and Odds

Once the platform has the most valuable liquidity pool, it will be able to accept the largest bet sizes and odds ranges of any competing platform, leading to further user growth.

100% of Profits Go to Token Holders

Since the bankroll is fully autonomous and the balance cannot be withdrawn, when the bankroll wins a token, the circulating supply decreases, effectively distributing the value evenly among token holders.

Token Distribution & Use of Funds

We are working on designing the EDGE token distribution structure. Check back here around January 2019 for the Token White Paper, which will contain full details. In the meantime, the numbers below are provisional.

Token Sale

  • Start Time : TBC
  • Hard Cap : TBC
  • End Time :TBC
  • Soft Cap : TBC
  • Available Tokens :10,000,000,000
  • Acceptable Currencies :TBC

Token Distribution

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  • Bankroll: 50%
  • Main Sale: 30%
  • Founders / Dev Team: 7.5%
  • Legal Entity: 7.5%
  • Presale: 5%

Uses of Funds

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  • Platform Development: 30%
  • Showcase Game Development: 20%
  • Operations: 15%
  • Marketing: 20%
  • Legal: 5%
  • Bug Bounties: 5%
  • Advisers: 5%

Roadmap

Below is our roadmap taking us from incorporation, through token pre-sale, up to final platform launch.

Q2/Q3 2019

Early investment period

Q3 2019

Launch of EdgeFund platform on testnet

Q3/Q4 2019

Token presale

Mid 2020

Token mainsale

Q4 2020

Platform live on mainnet

Documents

Team

EdgeFund draw on an experienced team who have a diverse variety of skills and knowledge.

Colin McCrae Co-Founder, CEO

Andy Watt Co-Founder, Technical Lead

Gareth Oates Co-Founder, Senior Developer

Ross Cormack Co-Founder, Project Manager

Recent Blog Posts

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can game operators profit on every bet, even losing ones?

Game operators will pass through bets from their users. The type of bets will depend on the game format, but there will be three fundamental parameters passed on to the EdgeFund bankroll smart contract:

  1. Bet Size.
  2. Payout Odds
  3. Total House Edge (or Win Odds)

The smart contract will determine the outcome of the bet using decentralized random number generation, and in the case of a win will return the winnings.

As well as this, the smart contract will return the difference between the total house edge and the platform edge. This is profit for the game operator, separate from any user winnings, and is returned to the game operator by the smart contract after every bet, regardless of the bet outcome.

2. How can this decentralized bankroll of tokens be trusted?

The bankroll of tokens will be stored in a smart contact, and only accessible via betting functions built into the contract code. Once the platform is at its final release, not even the developers or EdgeFund team members will be able to alter how the smart contract operates. It will be fully decentralized.

Additionally, the code controlling the smart contract will be publicly viewable. Any party can check the code, have it audited, and be sure that it operates as described.

3. Why Can’t EdgeFund Offer Zero Edge Bets?

Imagine two people choose to bet $10 against each other on the flip of a fair coin. After each flip, the losing player must pay the winning player $10 from his personal bankroll. Now, if both players start with $100, it is just a matter of time before a long enough run of ‘bad luck’ strikes one player he is bankrupted by the other player. Since they both start with $100, the set-up is symmetrical, and they both have a 50% risk of ruin if they continue this series of bets until one of them has $200 and the other has $0 and is bankrupt.

In the case above, you can see that both players have a long run risk of ruin of 50%, even though they both are betting at fair odds (there is no house edge). This would still hold true even if their bankrolls were much larger, although the average number of bets until bankruptcy would increase.

Now imagine the same scenario, except this time one player only starts with $10, and the other player starts with the usual $100. Now both payers are still betting at fair odds and there is no house edge. It turns out there are still plenty of scenarios where the short-stacked player wins and the wealthier player goes bankrupt. In fact, this happens more than 10% of the time.

As you can see by this scenario, even having a substantially larger bankroll does not completely protect you from risk of ruin. It simply makes it less likely that it will be you who goes bankrupt. You still have a non-zero risk of ruin.

The only scenario where a zero house edge can truly be offered ad infinitum where the house has no risk of ruin, is where the house has an infinite bankroll.

4. What is the Kelly Criterion?

The Kelly Criterion is a formula used to determine the optimal size of a series of bets where the bettor has a positive edge (i.e. the odds are favorable). It was originally derived by John Kelly, Jr. in 1956 during his time at Bell Labs. For a given bet, where the probability of winning and payout odds are both known, the formula returns what the bet should be as a fraction of the bettor’s current bankroll to optimize long term profit.

The bet size that satisfies this formula is known as the Kelly Bet, and sizing bets like this is known as the Kelly Strategy.

The formula provides the interesting result that even when the payout odds are fair when compared with the probability of winning, you should not bet at all. This demonstrates that no matter how big your bankroll or how small your bet, you cannot make a Kelly Bet without have a positive edge.

The EdgeFund bankroll smart contract therefore must charge a small edge to protect it from ruin. EdgeFund uses the Kelly Criterion to calculate the minimum it must charge for each bet.

5. Can you give an example of a casino game bet placed through EdgeFund?

A good example would be a user betting on a European Roulette game offered by a game operator – say a $100 bet ‘straight up’ on a number. The rules of European Roulette fix the payout odds of this bet at 35/1 (decimal odds of 36)- this is to say that a winning bet will payout $3,500 plus return the original $100 bet. The rules also fix the win odds at 36/1 (decimal odds of 37) – this is to say the probability of the bet winning is 1 in 37 (2.70%).

  • EGDE tokens worth $100
  • Payout odds = 36
  • Win odds = 37

Let’s now assume that the EdgeFund smart contract has a bankroll of $1,000,000 worth of EDGE tokens at the moment the bet is recorded on the blockchain. The smart contract code determines that the edge it needs to charge is 0.35% (found using the Kelly Criterion formula).

Decentralized on chain random number generation then determines whether the bet is a winning bet or not, based on a probability calculated from the difference between the payout odds and win odds.

In the case the bet evaluates as a win, the smart contract will return EDGE tokens worth $3,602.35 to the game operator (the user’s $100 bet plus $3,500 winnings plus $2.35 in profit). The game operator's profit is the difference between the total edge, and EdgeFund's edge: $100*(2.70%-0.35%).

If the bet loses, the game operator will still receive the $2.35 worth of EDGE tokens as profit.

6. What about a slots game placed through EdgeFund?

The only different between a slots style game and Roulette type game from EdgeFund’s point of view, is that rather than win odds we now specify the overall house edge.

Say a user is making a $1,000 bet at a game with payout odds of 8/1 (decimal odds of 9) - this is to say that a winning bet will payout $8,000 plus return the original $1000 bet. For this example, let’s say the game operator has limited the overall house edge of the game to 10%.

The game operator sends a transaction to the EdgeFund smart contract with three key parameters:

  • EGDE tokens worth $1,000
  • Payout odds = 9
  • Total edge = 10%

Let’s now assume that the EdgeFund smart contract has a bankroll of $1,000,000 worth of EDGE tokens at the moment the bet is recorded on the blockchain. The smart contract code determines that the edge it needs to charge is 0.8% (found using the Kelly Criterion formula).

Decentralized on chain random number generation then determines whether the bet is a winning bet or not, based on a probability calculated from the payout odds and total edge.

In the case the bet evaluates as a win, the smart contract will return EDGE tokens worth $9,092 to the game operator (the user’s $1,000 bet plus $8,000 winnings plus $92 in profit). The game operator's profit is the difference between the total edge, and EdgeFund's edge: $1,000*(10.0%-0.8%).

If the bet loses, the game operator will still receive the $92 worth of EDGE tokens as profit.