Duels and betting

In the City you can challenge any trainer standing nearby. The duel is 3v3, resolved on the spot with both teams, and comes in two formats.

Format	What it is
Quick	For pride only. Nothing changes hands.
Staked	Played for gold or Safira, and it opens the betting pool for the crowd.

The challenge

You pick the target, the format, the currency and the amount. The invite stands for 90 seconds; with no answer, it expires on its own.

Currency	Bet cap
Gold	50,000
Safira	100

Nothing is held while the challenge is pending: the stake only leaves your account on acceptance, and it goes whole to the winner. If either side does not have the amount at that moment, the duel simply does not happen.

The betting pool

When a staked duel is accepted, a window opens for anyone to bet on the winner.

Rule	Value
Betting window	120 seconds
Minimum bet	100 gold
Maximum bet	100,000 gold
Minimum bettors	4
One bettor's cap on a side	40% of that side
Cap per account, per day	500,000 gold
House cut	5%

The fight is only decided once the window closes. Nobody bets knowing the result, not even the two duellists.

How the odds work

The pool is parimutuel, the system used in horse racing: there is no fixed odd offered by the house. All the money bet goes into one pot, the cut comes off, and what is left is split among the winners in proportion to what each of them put in.

In practice:

betting on the favourite pays little, because many people backed it;
betting on the underdog pays a lot, for the opposite reason;
the odds you see move while the window is open, as other people bet.

If the window closes without the 4 minimum bettors, the pool is cancelled and everyone gets their money back.

The game also shows a forecast, an estimate of who is more likely to win based on the two teams. It does not change the payout: it is there so you can decide.

Where to find them

Duels with open betting show up in the Duels tab, with the window countdown.