Recently, my friends have really gotten into the stock market. For many of them, the GameStop/ AMC fiasco was the catalyst that really caught their interest. However, I am not real big into the stock market, I’m just not a big math guy, and that is basically all the stock market is.

However, I am a big sports fan, so when I heard about SimBull, the new app that combines sports gambling and the stock market, I was naturally pretty intrigued.

I heard about the app from junior Aidan Murphy. Murph described the app as, “a perfect combination of both sports and the stock market.” While the sports aspect of it interested me more, I entertained it and signed up for the app anyway. The interface of the app is very simplistic, making it easy to move around and understand. So far the app appeared to be great for the avid sports fan, and the novice stock marketer.

However, once I began to look further down the rabbit hole that is SimBull, I recognized that the app may not completely be what it seems. The app seems to be get around the legality of sports gambling by presenting itself as a stock market for sports teams.

Now, I am certainly not a snitch, and yes sports gambling is already legal in many places, and will probably be legal everywhere soon, but that doesn’t change the fact that it could land players of the stock market game in some serious trouble.

Another qualm of mine with SimBull is that it seems as if it’d be incredibly easy to game the system. This is likely because the game is in it’s very early stages of development. I feel in a game where people are actively trading and moving their hard earned money, this is an issue that should have been taken care of before it was released. In fact, Many of my friends have received promo codes worth 10 dollars or more, and given them to people, resulting in them earning in some cases 40 dollars or more from promo codes. To put that into perspective, that is five times more than many of them have earned from actively exchanging money.

I think a large amount of the skepticism that comes with the game is because it is new, and such an inventive idea. Don’t get me wrong, I love the concept of this, I’m just not totally sure that it is ready to be released to the world.

The founders of the game are three guys newly out of college that combined their passion for the stock market and business, with their interest in sports. Whether the game is truly legal or not, who knows? I’m not going to be the one to get a lawyer on the case, but it is something to be weary of.

I really think if this is something you are into, then go for it, just play at your own risk.