Will you play the money game on a golf simulator? This company is betting

Simulated golf is all the rage, and from the popularity of elaborate home setups to the rise of TGL, the money game has always been there. Is there a market for combining the two?

A new company is betting on just that.

Evenplay is a Las Vegas-based business that aims to bring the kind of competition most of us know from our local ballparks to the game’s ever-expanding virtual environment. The challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to put money into a digital account and then hit a ball toward an on-screen target, understanding that, depending on the outcome, you’ll either become richer or poorer.

Evenplay is not the first operator in this space. An app called PinSeeker has been around since early 2020, allowing users to compete in virtual closest-pin competitions with players from around the world. But the technology behind Evenplay is different, and so are its games. PinSeeker specializes in tournaments and head-to-head matches. Evenplay offers these options, but it also allows individuals to compete against the casino. It has a handicap system where the odds and challenge change based on the player’s performance and skill.

Still, both companies belong to the same category: simulated golf, and both need to make money.

At home, you might call it gambling. But this is not a legal term. “Competition” is more like this. To gain approval from the state gaming commission, Evenplay, like PinSeeker before it, had to prove that its challenges were skill-based games and therefore deserved the same legislative exemptions as daily fantasy sports.

So far, it has proven convincing.

Evenplay currently operates in six states (California, Colorado, Florida, New York, Ohio and Washington) and expects to receive approvals in more than 40 states, said co-founder and CEO Bryan O’Reilly By the end of the year.

“We are clearly exempt,” O’Reilly said. “Every shot depends on your skill level. It’s your choice whether to invest money or not.

O’Reilly, a Las Vegas native whose father heads the Nevada Gaming Commission, grew up fluent in the language of the region’s biggest industry. He also played some golf, but his interest in the sport didn’t peak until a few years later, when top golf began to gain traction in the United States. , and was well-positioned to serve as an advisor to Topgolf when it opened its flagship store on the Las Vegas Strip in 2016.

In Topgolf’s concept of combining driving ranges with entertainment, O’Reilly sees where he thinks the industry is headed. He also saw an opportunity to bring the money game into an alternative golf environment. There were only two catches.

“As a large company,” O’Reilly said, “(Topgolf) doesn’t want to go through the regulatory process to create a regulated gambling game.”

Furthermore, he said, the technology he envisioned “doesn’t exist.” In 2019, O’Reilly contacted a tech-savvy entrepreneur named Sameer Gupta, who helped develop the product.

“I went to Samir and I said, I think you’ve solved this puzzle,” O’Reilly said. “We can create a vertical unlike any other game.”

Like many startups today, Evenplay relies on artificial intelligence. In addition to built-in player recognition technology, the system also features tools to assess player skills. Each user gets 10 free swings before being asked to play the game. When these shots are hit, artificial intelligence evaluates the player’s skill (the golf simulator equivalent of a handicap) and generates matching challenges and odds. The better the player, the harder the goals.

Can players sandbag the system? He or she can try. But Evenplay has safeguards in place, Gupta said. For starters, $20 is the most you can risk on any shot, and you can only maximize your risk after the system has had a chance to get to know you. When you play against the dealer, the target changes as you shoot.

“You might get an early advantage on us,” Gupta said. “But let’s say you’re a junior golfer and you hit some shots on purpose. When you hit a good shot the first time, the system knows that and adjusts. We’re Vegas. We understand fringe players.

Just like casinos don’t want to be disrupted, players need to feel like they’re being treated fairly. (The same psychology that might deter avid blackjack players from playing the online version of the game might also make golfers wary of simulated challenges that involve money.) To that end, O’Reilly says, Evenplay aims to “meet Players decide where they are and tailor the challenge to their skills.

“It’s your choice whether the challenge is believable or achievable,” O’Reilly said.

Evenplay comes at a time when the game of golf is undergoing dramatic changes, driven in part by technology-infused non-traditional forms of the game. The recreational golf industry, which has boomed since the pandemic, has also shown growing interest in off-course golf experiences such as driving ranges, simulators and golf entertainment venues. According to the National Golf Foundation, 47 million people in the United States played some form of golf in 2024, with about 19 million playing entirely off the course, an increase of about 20% from the previous year. Combined with the rise of legalized gambling and daily fantasy sports, these trends appear to portend business opportunities. But that doesn’t mean concepts like Evenplay are a possibility. (Financial information was not immediately available on PinSeeker).

As some experts believe, the challenges are serious.

“I think building a successful business around cash games in the golf simulator space is a difficult mountain to climb,” golf industry veteran Lincoln Silver, former vice president of Topgolf Callaway (now an independent consultant) said. “You start with golfers, who represent a niche sport to begin with, and then you layer in golfers in a simulator environment, and within that small group of people, there’s a willingness to play in the same game. The percentage of real money invested by any one person is very low and the numbers quickly become very small.

Add to that other hurdles, such as getting people to create an account and fund it when other bet settlement methods like Venmo and PayPal already exist, Silver said, and the pool shrinks even further.

“Because you charge a small commission on every transaction, you need a large, loyal audience willing to repeat transactions,” Silver said. “Then you need to share the commission with your simulator partners, so now the money is diluted even more.”

On the other hand, Evenplay has also found some bullish backers, including EP Golf Ventures, an investment partnership between the PGA of America and Elysian Park Ventures, the private investment vehicle affiliated with the Los Angeles Dodgers owner. The company’s latest infusion of cash brings Evenplay’s total raised to more than $10 million. (Pinseeker was acquired by Revelyst, the parent company of Bushnell and Foresight Sports, in March 2024; a PinSeeker representative said that its money gaming platform has become increasingly influential in bars and commercial facilities, with more gaming venues across the United States. 300 locations, paying millions of dollars per year).

Evenplay currently only operates in commercial establishments in the six states where it has been approved. But its plans call for expansion into the U.S. home simulator market and eventually overseas. The company also sees potential for its technology in other golf-related uses, including coaching. When you take the lessons learned, it’s hard to recreate the pressure of competing in an actual game. But imagine risking your money by taking a class on a simulator. It was thought that this might work.

There are also markets outside of golf. Evenplay hopes to apply its technology to other sports. For example, bowling.

But the company is going all-in on golf first. As with every bet, time will tell if it pays off.