Ultrinsic, a New York company, is giving university students the platform to extend the carrot and inspire good grades – via their own monetary wagers. Betting on straight A’s pays top dollar, while betting that they won’t be unsuccessful – what Ultrinsic calls “grade insurance” – is a popular but less lucrative endeavor.
Ultrinsic CEO says this is not online gambling
Ultrinsic chief executive Steven Wolf wants to know that his business is not an online gambling portal. Wolf clarified the main difference for the Associated Press: student skill is the operative force, rather than mere luck beyond the customer’s control. Gambling is a game of chance, whereas Ultrinsic gives students a chance to take control and invest in their academic future.
“The students have 100 percent control over it, over how they do. Other people’s stuff you bet on – your own stuff you invest in,” Wolf says. “Everything’s true about it; I’m just trying to say the underlying concept is just a little bit more than just making a bet – it is really an incentive”.
The Ultrinsic way
A college student 18 or older who’s interested in Ultrinsic can register. Based upon past academic history, Ultrinsic calculates the odds of for the projected level of academic achievement for the current semester. Based upon upon data provided by participating colleges, odds are also affected by specific course information. The student can wager up to $25 to start, but the cap increases with repeated use of the site. At this time, you will find 36 colleges that are accessible for business in the Ultrinsic network.
And it is not online gambling how?
I. Nelson Rose of California’s Whittier Law School says that while standard online gambling involves chance, a fee/wager and some form of prize, what Ultrinsic does is less clear-cut. Grades could be influenced by random instructor proclivities outside the student’s control. But in most cases, grade responsibility is squarely in the hands of the student. Thus, luck falls largely by the wayside as skill becomes the prime determinant.
Wolf understands that variables can exist in the grading equation. Yet the study efforts of students are what keeps what Ultrinsic does out of the realm of chance-based gambling. ”The biggest variable is how much effort the student wants to put in,” exclaimed the chief executive. “In general, if anybody would study 10 hours a day consistently for one class, they would get whichever grade they wanted to get”.
Discover more data on this subject
Associated Press
articles.moneycentral.msn.com/news/article.aspx?feed=AP and amp;date=20100810 and amp;id=11861854
Ultrinsic
ultrinsic.com/
