How would you like to receive your winnings before you place a bet? If that
sounds like a bookmaker has gone a little crazy and got things the wrong way around, then you probably haven’t been onto the Betfair site of late and taken a look at their unusual and exciting new product, the Beat the Drop.
Of course, it isn’t as easy as just deciding how much you want to bet and then picking up your cash with a hearty thankyou to Betfair! There is a process that you need to go through in order to be able to redeem your cash and it is within that process that the fun involved in the Beat the Drop game takes shape.
Although this is a somewhat novel product for a betting site, the Beat The Drop game is based on a rather popular television gameshow originally called the Million Pound Drop (now scaled down to the £100k Drop), so we will explain initially how that game worked and then how Betfair have applied similar principles to its Beat The Drop game.
The Million Pound Drop
The first Million Pound Drop TV show was aired on Channel 4 in the UK in May 2010 and it featured ex-Big Brother presenter Davina McCall as the host. There have been 13 series of the show so far and the premise of the game was very simple.
A couple of contestants were given a lump sum, initially of £1,000,000 and now of £100,000, in bundles of notes worth around £25,000 per bundle. They started the show with 40 of these bundles and then in order to keep the cash, they had to answer a series of eight multiple-choice questions.
For each question, the player had to leave one space completely devoid of cash, while they were able to split the remainder of their cash on the other answers as they saw fit. At the end of the time period when they had to place the cash, the incorrect answers would be revealed and any cash placed on those answers would disappear down a chute and removed from the game.
The cash on the correct answer would then go forward onto the next question. Over time, the questions would increase in difficulty and the number of answers available would also decrease until the final question where there were two possible answers and the player had to put all their money on just one answer.
Answer that question correctly and they would take home what they had remaining on the answer. Of course get it wrong, and they would lose that money and leave with nothing.
The show has proved to be a huge hit and has been sold to many countries across the world, however it is notoriously difficult to win the top prize and it has only been achieved three times in the history of the show across all countries, once in Argentina, once in Spain and once in Germany.
Beat The Drop
Betfair have taken this basic structure, tweaked it for sports betting 
purposes and have now developed their own Beat The Drop game and it has to be said, it is one of the most unusual and innovative ways to bet on sporting events that is available on the Internet today.
If you are a customer at Betfair and have not yet tried Beat The Drop, then you should have one token to play the game for free to try it out. If you have used this token, then you will need to place a bet on the game in order to play. You can bet up to £50 on your ticket and based on that and the number of questions you choose to answer, you will be given a pot of money to bet with. The larger your bet, the larger the pot of money available to win (with the largest prize available being £1,000,000).
You then have a period of 60 days (30 days if you are playing your first game using the token) in which to answer your questions. Progress through the game and after your final question has been answered, any money you have left in your pot is yours to keep.
However, there are some notable changes to Betfair’s version of the game compared to the original TV show and these are:
- Questions – In the TV show, the questions are general knowledge questions. With Betfair, the questions are phrased as football betting questions. Each question also only has two possible answers. So for example, one question may be, Will There be 3 or more goals in tonight’s game between Liverpool and Manchester City? Players will then be able to put cash on either of the two answers based on what they feel will be the right outcome.
- Answers – You do not need to leave one option blank with the Betair Beat the Drop game, so you can cover both options, depending on how strongly you believe one option to be right compared to another.
- Omitting Questions – If you don’t like the betting question posed during one day of the Beat The Drop game, you can elect not to bet on that question and instead pick a different day. However, remember you still have to complete all your questions within the 60 day time limit (30 days for your free token game).
Can’t I just stop the game and take the money at a certain point?
No. Once you have begun the Beat The Drop game, then the only way you will be able to get money is to complete the game.
However, if you play through the game and accidentally leave the game with, for example, two questions remaining, but you have £100 in play. Betfair will automatically split your remaining cash on the two remaining questions and you will receive a quarter of the prize you had remaining (£25).
That said, if you receive a cash prize in this way, you will need to contact Betfair to claim the cash. All cash awards won in the standard way will be automatically applied to your account for you to use.
Beat The Drop is available right now at Betfair. You can only play one game at a time, however you can join a game at any time provided you are not already playing one.
