As someone who founded a startup that navigated the legal boundaries of an over-regulated industry, I may suggest that the founders may find comments that say "not sure if this is legal" a little annoying. I doubt they put their blood sweat and tears into this without going at least as far as they could to determine whether they could legally do this.<p>Now, "I've done something similar and here is what I ran into" or "I'm an expert and here's what you're up against" - now that's constructive.
I'm quite confused. From their legal page:<p><i>To use SportsChimp, you must be at least 18 years old and a resident of the United States. By using SportsChimp, you represent and warrant that you are least 18 years old and a resident of the United States.</i><p>Isn't this weird? Not only are they saying it's illegal to use this from outside the US, it is <i>inside</i> the US where they'll have the most trouble making this work. These terms were probably lifted from some app/service where they made sense.
When I saw Ashton Kutcher in the demo image it made me think that this was his latest venture - but I can't find any mention of him investing in this on Google. Thus I feel I cant trust the company behind this. No trust = no signup.
I don't think an app based on likely illegal use of copyrights/trademarks is something that is sustainable.<p>My guess is that people may be able to transfer money into accounts, but if this app get shutdown, customers may lose some or all of their money.
I have a similar app (<a href="http://pickmoto.com" rel="nofollow">http://pickmoto.com</a>) for iPhone and iPad. It's clear that we can't legally use the logos without a license. But of course the leagues aren't going to pay attention to indie developers until they are genuine threats. At that point, maybe you could afford to pay for the license or work something out.<p>We decided against risking it with logos because Apple could yank us at a moment's notice even if we made it into the Store. And considering that some of the best selling apps are developed by the Leagues, we imagine Apple would be pretty quick to act if the Leagues asked.<p>So instead, we're using pennants without logos. Not ideal, but safer.
Tried using it on a Nexus 7, some frustrating issues with UI because it aligns off to the right instead of taking up the full screen, and some elements are off the page so not clickable. Might want to try it on different tablets?<p>Looks really interesting but will rely heavily on getting people to invite friends and be actively involved, not sure what's going to make it sticky...
View Demo: <a href="http://blog.sportschimp.com/post/33361582535/sportschimp-demo-video" rel="nofollow">http://blog.sportschimp.com/post/33361582535/sportschimp-dem...</a><p>Legality:<p>No buy-in using your credit card. No independent wagers on a specific match-up.
This looks really awesome. I'm quite excited about this! I'm very interested in betting and this looks like I could have a lot of fun!<p>Shame I'll never use it, because I don't have Facebook.