Is Kwiff a Rip Off?
If you’ve watched any kind of sports-related TV in the last few months, you’ll almost certainly have heard of Kwiff.
They market themselves as a ‘revolutionary sports betting app’, offering supercharged odds to punters on a random, unpredictable basis.
As far as their adverts are concerned, that means you could be placing a pretty straightforward bet at 2/1 and then suddenly find that you’re actually getting 10/1, 20/1 or even longer odds.
That’s all very well, but how exactly does Kwiff work in practice, how can they afford to offer such inflated odds and is it all a bit of a con?
Those are the questions which need answers…
- How does Kwiff work?
- When do odds get Kwiffed?
- How can they afford to boost odds?
- Is Kwiff a rip off?
How Does Kwiff Actually Work?
Kwiff suggest throughout all of their advertising and on their own website that…
any bet you place, regardless of sport, odds, or stake, could be supercharged (Kwiffed) at the moment you place your bet.
This video, made by Kwiff (it’s over hyped and definitely biased) explains a bit about how the app works:
Basically when you place a bet with the Kwiff app your bet will either be placed as normal or it will be kwiffed.
If it is kwiffed, a graphic will make it very obvious to you that that has happened, and your new odds will be clearly displayed.
What those new odds will be, differs from each individual bet to the next and cannot be accurately predicted.
According to Kwiff themselves…
some boosts are as small as just 1.1 to 1.5 times the original odds, whilst others can be between five and 20 times those odds.
When Do Odds Get Kwiffed?
As well as not being able to predict how big any kwiff may be, it is also impossible to know when a kwiff may occur.
The company claim that they use an algorithm which takes numerous factors into account when deciding which bets to supercharge and which to leave as they are. According to Kwiff, the algorithm is ‘constantly learning’ in order to deliver the best possible betting experience.
They do, however, give some clues as to how frequently kwiffs occur on their website stating…
If you place three bets and none are kwiffed you are ‘probably not that lucky’. If you place five without a boost, meanwhile, you are ‘really rather unlucky’. If you place seven without a boost, finally, you ‘might want to check if it is actually Kwiff that you are using’.
Whether that is how using Kwiff actually works out in practice remains to be seen, but some punters claim that kwiffs are actually pretty common for new customers but markedly decrease in frequency over time.
How Can They Afford Kwiffs?
Kwiff themselves offer their own fairly in-depth explanation of how they can afford to Kwiff odds.
As far as that explanation is concerned, they can afford to supercharge some bets primarily because they are a modern, mobile only app.
Seems unlikely…
What that means, as per Kwiff’s explanation, is that their margins are not affected by ‘huge staff, massive office buildings, outdated technology, brick & mortar stores, costly sponsorship deals and manual working processes’.
They are, according to this description, more efficient and thus better placed to give back to their customers by boosting odds of some of their bets.
Again seems unlikely…
Whilst some of that might be true Kwiff’s explanation, however, certainly doesn’t feel like the full story.
Kwiff’s standard odds don’t stand up well to comparison with the other major online bookies.
In fact, when bets aren’t kwiffed, the odds which Kwiff punters get are amongst the poorest around.
Part of the reason why Kwiff can afford to boost some odds, therefore, is because they pay out less across the board for winning bets which aren’t kwiffed.
Remember.
Kwiff dishes out Kwiffed odds randomly so you’ve got no way of knowing how often it actually happens and have no recourse for complaining if you go a long time without any boost.
It is perfectly possible, therefore, that Kwiff have carefully managed the number of kwiffs provided to punters against poorer odds of regular bets to create a breakeven situation for themselves on Kwiffs.
Basically meaning that Kwiffs don’t cost them anything because the reduced odds on other bets pays for the Kwiffs.
Seems a much more likely story.
Is Kwiff A Rip Off?
It sounds too good to be true right? So is Kwiff a scam or not?
The answer to whether this is indeed the case, largely depends upon what you mean by the terms ‘rip off’ and ‘scam’.
What it’s important to mention at this stage is that everything Kwiff do is entirely legal and above board.
They are fully licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission and there’s no reason to suspect that they are not adhering to the terms of their licence. Punters who have already used Kwiff, too, generally report that the company are pretty reliable at providing timely and efficient payouts.
It is strongly suspected that they lower their regular odds in order to pay for Kwiffs so basically the prices you get in the first place are lower than you’d get with other bookies.
Does that mean they’re scamming you? Probably not but something doesn’t sit right about it.
Should you join? In the Cheeky Punter’s opinion the answer is NO. You’d be much better off at a regular bookmakers who don’t reduce odds to pay for Kwiffs – see our bookmaker reviews for suggestions.
