An Old (Long) Bet Comes Due

A long time ago, I wrote about the Long Bets website, where people can make long term wagers on future outcomes.

The rules are fascinating: the minimum time period for a bet/prediction is 2 years, and the minimum stakes are $200. Both participants name a charity as part of the process, with the money ultimately going to the charity named by the winner.

Not only is the concept great, it’s super interesting to see some of the bets/predictions that have been made. Ted Danson won a sports bet. And Warren Buffet had a bet for $2,222,278 that he won, a few years ago.

In January, there was a post on MetaFilter about URLs, and I was reminded of this bet by Matt Haughey (who incidentally created MetaFilter). And it turns out: today’s the day that bet comes due.

Looks like Matt won the bet, as the URL is still valid and functioning as expected.

Hard to believe that original bet (and blog post) was nearly a decade ago. It’s a minor bit of ephemera, in the grand scheme of the Internet. But it feels nice to circle back and close this little loop, some years later.

Related:
Long Bet: Warren Buffet’s 10 Year Long, Multi-Million Dollar Wager Comes to a Close
Long Bets: An Arena for Competitive, Accountable Predictions