Bet your way to better golf with SKINS app
This summer, SKINS (@skinsapp) has released its long-awaited App for the die hard golfers who want action every time they step on the tee box. 83% of the 67 million golfers worldwide play popular on-course betting games such as Wolf, Banker, Vegas, Hammer, and of course, the eponymous Skins. SKINS built an app serving on course competition and its social graph.
Skins was founded by three golfer/entrepreneurs looking to solve the most common problems golfers face when teeing off with their friends:
Options:
What Game are we playing?
What are the rules?
Who's keeping track of the game?
Where do we stand in the game?
Will Chad run to his car again and not settle his bets?
Is Brad really a 10 handicap when he plays like a 4?
The App formalizes this contest and puts score entry and bet tracking into all players' hands.
In July 2023, Skins was released on both iOS and Android with the simple goal of making it easy enough to start a round among even strangers while waiting to tee off. It uses GPS to locate nearby players and courses, guides players through wagers and game options, calculates players' course handicaps, simplifying score entry and bet accounting for the math-weary. Presses (bet-doubling) and other game-specific selections are baked right into the scoring user interface. The leaderboard shows the wins and losses in real-time and then connects to Venmo and other cash apps for easy settlement.
Founder Ryan Morrison, son of a PGA Professional, says he's lived the challenge of finding players who matched his skill-level and betting appetite, saying "As a +4 , I am always looking for competition and Skins lets me do that with golfers of all skill levels. I especially enjoy using our teams feature, where two high-handicappers can team up and play their best ball against mine. Hey - I'm not saying it works out for them, but if gives them a chance without me having to give them 20+ strokes!".
His technical co-founders are both in San Diego, Stanford-educated engineer Mike Oristian who built the initial prototype and popular open-source developer and React engineer James Gillmore, who is the company's CTO and architected the final product upon his bespoke Respond platform. The app is palpably snappy, even with large groups of golfers.
The SKINS team views the many startups chasing the golf app space as market validation, while they grow their focus from local competition and leaderboards to the nexus of highly competitive amateur golf and social media. As the App allows you to invite other people (off-course) to watch your round, they aim to give golfers the media tools to easily capture and share their match content with others. Visit SKINS at www.skinsapp.com to download the app for free.