Is it just a smarter way for university students to switch attention from playing poker online and gamble on grades?

Ultrinsic is a new York based company co-founded by Jeremy Gelbart and Steven Wolf.

The idea started when Jeremy Gelbart, then a student, made a wager with his friend Steven Wolf, now CEO of Ultrinsic. If Jeremy got an A, Steven would give him $100. If he didn't, Jeremy had to hand over $20 to Steven.

It led to creating Ultrinsic, which allows University students to bet money on their grades. You can bet high for higher and low of lower grades, if you win, you keep it and if you lose ultrinsic keeps it.

It also allows students to bid on grades that they believe they will achieve for the semester.

Can this really encourage students to get better grade? I mean in a way i wouldn’t mind if i got some money just because i did well on my grades.

CEO Steven Wolf is understandably vehement in claiming that his company does not promote it. “betting on grades” is inaccurate, in the sense that skill are involved, as opposed to luck. It isn’t gambling, he says, but a platform where students can inspire themselves by investing in the future of their academic career.

“The students have 100 percent control over it, over how they do. Other people’s stuff you bet on – your own stuff you invest in,” said Wolf . “Everything’s true about it; I’m just trying to say that the underlying concept is a little bit more than just making a bet – it’s actually an incentive.”

Will this idea actually encourage students to attend lectures, study and maybe score good grades on their exams?

what do you think about the idea? Do you just feel it’s just not ethical and it’s just another way for university students to gamble? Will it make students look for ways to bend the rules to make a bit of cash?