Website Idea: I Bet You, New type of Online betting website (Social Betting)

Common Online Betting Websites focus on sports, so whenever there are huge sports events (NBA, World Cup, etc.) you would get a big number of betters betting. So it made me think, how come this couldn’t be applied in different ways? And then one of the popular lines “Put your money where your mouth is” suddenly struck me. And imagine if people were able to bet on anything, as long as they both agree to it.  So here’s how it works:

Instead of sports, people could bet on anything that produces a certain result which both people can agree on. This could be like ‘if one of our friends being able to buy a car after 1 month‘, or ‘Paris Hilton’s next boyfriend‘, or ‘who will become the city’s mayor‘ etc. The most critical question is that who decides who wins?

Well both parties (or more) will submit their evidences online (pictures, scanned documents, emails, articles, journals etc.), where community members become a judge and decide which side wins. So members can bet, judge (except their own), bet on others’ wagers. The great thing here is that it gets very controversial, where Word of mouth spreads really fast. There will be ranking and feedback system to show reputable judges (will get more cases than others), a “sport” (even if they lose they pay ad play fair), and entertainment experts, political experts etc.

Some unclear thoughts:

• If betting should be free for members on the site? As there will be certain cases of non-payment, or no winning decision etc. Or would there be certain percentage that would be taken by the “House” (Website)?
• Banning members that doesn’t pay up after losing a bet?
• Who would judge if the “Judges” doesn’t come to a conclusion?
• Could a member petition a result of a bet that they believe to be wrong?

What do you guys think of this idea?