After Duke’s absolutely crushing and embarrassing defeat of North Carolina earlier this month (okay, not quite “crushing“), we got to thinking about the upcoming US College Basketball championships (a.k.a. “March Madness”).  As TV commentators pointed out ad nauseam, every time Duke has beaten Carolina when Carolina was ranked in the top 5, Duke has gone on to the Final Four.  If only there was a way for us to get tickets to this event contingent on Duke actually being there.

Turns out that there is now a service that let’s you do just that.  Yoonew is a start-up that has created a “free market” for tickets to events like the Final Four and Super Bowl.  By bizarre coincidence (or guided by the hand of God), Alpha Male learned about this firm at the O’Reilly Money:Tech conference in New York the day after the Duke/Carolina game .

If you thought Steve Sapra’s application of the CAPM to NFL betting was interesting, you’ll like this story.  Yoonew has created a “options market” for sports tickets so you don’t have to wait to find out of your team actually makes it to big game.  Now you can buy an option on the ticket – to be executed only if your team is successful.  Of course, if your team chokes you are out your initial payment.  But the risk may be worth it though, since buying a ticket at game time could be many times more expensive that buying the futures contract right now.

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