Become a House
A House is a liquidity provider that opens a pool to take bets in Bookmaker markets — setting the odds itself, collecting the losing-side pool, and paying winners from the pool. It means taking on risk with your own capital — the outcome depends on how you set the odds, and you may profit or lose.
Running a house means taking on risk with your own capital — an individual market can lose money if the result lands on a high-payout option that people bet on. Read the “House risks” section below in full before deciding.
Steps
Apply for a license (500 USDC)
Go to thaipoll.io/bookmaker/apply and follow the steps (4 stages) — applying places a 500 USDC escrow.
- ✅ Admin approves → the 500 USDC becomes the license fee (platform fee)
- ❌ Admin rejects / you withdraw → full refund
- ⏳ Admin doesn’t review within 14 days → you can request the refund yourself (permissionless)
The escrow at application time = a “costly” anti-spam mechanism. You don’t actually lose the 500 USDC until you’re approved.
Open a pool (minimum 5,000 USDC)
After approval, open a HousePool with a minimum of 5,000 USDC — this is the liquidity (LP) that backs payouts across all your markets.
You must open the pool within 30 days of approval, or the license expires.
Create markets + set odds
At thaipoll.io/pool, create a market (lottery/sports/custom) and set the multiplier for each option — adjustable from 1.0001× to 1000× (locked permanently after creation). See all market formats at Lottery & Payout Odds.
Take bets — automatic reserve locking
Players start betting (minimum 1 USDC each). The system automatically locks “payout reserves” from your pool so the pool always has enough to pay the most expensive outcome before accepting each new bet (see the mechanism below).
Resolution + claim profit
Once the result is known, the admin resolves the winning option. You can then claim profit from the losing pool, minus 0.5% → you receive 99.5%.
Managing the pool (LP)
The pool money is split into 3 parts:
| Part | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Total LP | all the capital in the pool |
| Reserved (locked) | funds locked to back payouts of markets still open |
| Unclaimed profit | profit from resolved markets not yet claimed |
| Free LP | Total − Reserved − Unclaimed = the portion you can withdraw / use for new bets |
- Deposit/withdraw at the pool page — you can only withdraw Free LP (funds locked to back open markets can’t be withdrawn).
The core mechanism: Lazy Reservation
This is why ThaiPoll’s bookmaker markets are so capital-efficient:
Because only one option can win, the pool locks reserves equal to the single most expensive option to pay out, not the sum of all options.
Example: lottery 00–99 at 90×, free pool of 5,000 USDC
- People bet 10 USDC each on 5 different numbers
- Max reward per number = 10 × 90 = 900 USDC
- The system locks only 900 USDC (not 4,500), because only one number can be drawn
- So the pool can take far more bets than opening several separate YES/NO markets
Solvency check: every time someone bets, the system checks whether Free LP covers the incremental exposure. If not → that bet is rejected immediately. This mechanism is designed so the pool locks enough reserves to pay the most expensive outcome before accepting each new bet. (Note that this guarantee follows the contract’s logic and still carries the technical risk of software — see Security.)
House risks
The house backs payouts with its own capital — each market may profit or lose.
- Profit when: total bets taken > the reward owed to the winning side (the house keeps 99.5% of the losing pool).
- Loss (LP shrinks) when: a high-payout option is bet correctly and the reward paid out > the bets collected.
- The long-run result depends on how the odds are set versus the real probability of each outcome — there is no guaranteed profit, and an individual market can lose.
- The license can be suspended by the admin (e.g. for breaking the rules) — when suspended you cannot open new markets, but existing markets / payouts / LP withdrawals keep working normally.
Legal note: taking bets as a house may fall under regulated activity in many jurisdictions, including Thailand — it is the user’s responsibility to verify that operating in this way is legal where they live before deciding. See Risks & Security.
FAQ
Q: What’s the real minimum to become a house? A: 500 USDC license (paid on approval) + 5,000 USDC minimum pool = roughly 5,500 USDC to start.
Q: How many markets can one pool run? A: Many at once — all markets share the same pool to back them, as long as Free LP is sufficient.
Q: Can I withdraw all my capital? A: You can only withdraw Free LP — the portion locked to back open markets must wait until those markets resolve.