WASHINGTON D.C., Sep. 2, 2025
AI Betting Agents struggle to Place Real Wagers
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The dream of automated betting is hitting a wall, with early AI agents failing to reliably execute bets, leading to user frustration and abandoned projects.
The push to create AI agents that can place sports wagers is off to a rocky start, with early attempts stumbling over the practicalities of executing bets.
Can AI agents truly place bets, or is it just hype? Many are trying, but the technology isn’t quite there yet.
early Attempts Fall Short
Tom Fleetham, who previously led business development for blockchain platform Zilliqa, recalled an AI gambling agent named Ava. Ava was designed to pick horse race winners and showed promise with analysis and results.
“Where it got hard was actually trying to place the bets,” Fleetham said. The company couldn’t get Ava to reliably place bets using crypto wallets in a timely manner. “It took forever,” Fleetham stated. “We gave up.”
YouTubers Tout Betting Bots
YouTube hosts numerous tutorials on creating and managing AI betting agents. Though, these services don’t appear to be creating instant wealth. Siraj Raval, a YouTuber focused on AI and making money, promoted his project WagerGPT.
Raval claims WagerGPT places bets for users, charging $199 per month. He stated, “As of eight months ago, I implemented a feature to let WagerGPT place bets.Now it’s doing that for the users full-time.” According to Raval, WagerGPT analyzes over 40 sportsbooks and identifies variables humans miss.
When invited to a Telegram group for WagerGPT users, the channel was largely inactive, with most messages being user inquiries. “It’s completely dead,” said participant Pete sanchez. “Waste of money.”
Crypto Wallets Enable AI Transactions
Since AI agents can’t access traditional bank accounts, most automated betting products focus on sports gambling websites and prediction markets that accept cryptocurrency. Many AI agents can operate crypto wallets.
Coinbase’s AgentKit is a prominent project enabling AI agents to conduct transactions on behalf of users, including buying tickets and trading crypto. Lincoln Murr, an AI product manager at Coinbase, noted that early AgentKit use cases were “speculative in nature.” He added, “How profitable these agents truly are, I don’t know.”
Sire bets on AI for Sports Funds
Murr is closely watching Sire,an “agentic sports-betting hedge fund” operating as a DAO (decentralized autonomous association). “Those types of things are the direction we’re heading,” Murr said.
sire, formerly DraiftKing, is preparing for a relaunch after a rebrand for legal reasons. Max Sebti, CEO of parent company Score, explained their approach uses public and private data, plus “computer vision tech that is watching the games” for real-time information to predict winning bets.
Score’s model merges crypto and gambling. Users can deposit USD, which converts to a stablecoin. Sire’s AI agents then pool funds from multiple customers to place bets on decentralized sportsbooks and prediction markets like Polymarket. Winnings are redistributed to the community.
Sebti described it as “a very steady, hedge-fund like product.” While anyone can add funds, withdrawing winnings requires a “performance fee” to Sire, which can be reduced by purchasing the company’s crypto token. The service exits beta this month.
Did you know?
AI betting agents often rely on cryptocurrency platforms because they cannot access traditional bank accounts.
