PaperPicks.A sports betting simulator lets you bet on real games with fake money. PaperPicks is a free one for iPhone: live odds mirrored from public prediction markets, in-game prices, real settlement, a $100 paper bankroll, no signup. It is not a sweepstakes casino: no coin packs, no prizes, and nothing ever cashes out.
What a sports betting simulator is#
A sports betting simulator is an app where you bet on real games with fake money: real matchups, live odds, real final scores, and a bankroll that exists only inside the app. PaperPicks is a free sports betting simulator for iPhone, and it is free in the strict sense, because money never enters it: there is nothing to deposit, nothing to buy, and nothing to cash out.
The $100 paper bankroll is the entire economy. Odds mirror live public prediction markets, so the price you take is the price real money is setting somewhere else at that second, and when the game ends your position settles against the real result. There is no signup and no KYC. The app creates an anonymous account on first launch, and you are picking a side within about ten seconds.
Every settled bet lands on a permanent record with leaderboards attached, and that detail matters more than it sounds. A bankroll you cannot reset is the thing that makes paper feel like money.
Not a sweepstakes casino#
Search for a sportsbook simulator and a lot of what comes back is sweepstakes casinos: apps where you buy gold coin packages, play with a second currency, and redeem the winnings for cash prizes. Money goes in and money comes out. That is gambling with an extra lap of vocabulary, and if it is what you want, no judgment, but this page will waste your time.
PaperPicks is the opposite in both directions. Nothing goes in, because there is nothing to buy. Nothing comes out, because there are no prizes, no redemptions, and nothing that converts to a dollar. Fake sports betting app is the honest label: the fake part is the money, and only the money. The games, the prices, and the final scores are real.
| Real sportsbook | Sweepstakes casino app | PaperPicks | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real money in | Yes, deposits | Yes, coin packages | Never |
| Real money out | Yes, withdrawals | Yes, prize redemptions | Never |
| Odds source | House lines, with vig | House-set game math | Live prediction markets |
| Live in-game betting | Yes | Rare | Yes |
| Your record | Private | Resettable balances | Permanent, server-scored |
Real money never enters PaperPicks and never leaves it. The app is free, the bankroll is paper, and nothing you win converts to anything outside the app.
What a sportsbook simulator should copy from real books#
A sportsbook simulator earns the name by copying the parts of a real book that force real decisions. Four things make the cut, and most bet simulator apps miss the first one.
Odds that move. A line is an opinion that updates. PaperPicks game markets reprice in play, because they mirror live prediction markets where traders react to every red card and blown save. The price moves within seconds and your open position moves with it. Static odds turn the whole exercise into a quiz.
The full menu. Winner markets alone get thin by the second week. Covered games also carry player props, like a striker to score two or more goals, plus spread-style and totals-style contracts, each as its own YES or NO market.
Real grading. Positions settle on the official result, the same one the real markets settle on, rather than on a random number generator or an admin's spreadsheet.
A record you cannot reset. A sports betting practice app with a wipe-the-slate button is an ego toy. PaperPicks scores every settled position into a permanent server-side P&L, so a month of picks tells you whether the edge you feel is real.
Just as important is what a simulator should skip: the vig, and the deposit funnel real books are built around. Both are missing here, the first because prediction market prices carry no built-in juice, the second because there is nothing to deposit.
Cents in, probabilities out#
Prediction market pricing reads oddly for about five minutes, then becomes the clearest way to look at a game. Every market is a contract priced from 1¢ to 99¢, and the price is the probability: a 62¢ price means the crowd gives that outcome a 62% chance. Win and each contract settles at $1. Lose and it settles at zero.
If you think in American odds, two anchors: 25¢ is +300, and 75¢ is -300. The app can display American odds instead if you want them, but give the cents a week. A prediction market price has no juice baked in, so you are finally looking at a fair line, and every juiced line you read afterward gets easier to judge.
That is also the bar for mock sports betting in general: if a sportsbook simulator invents its odds or refreshes them once a day, it is rehearsing the wrong game.
What you can bet on#
Eleven sports: NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, soccer, UFC, F1, tennis, golf, cricket, and esports. The slate follows the calendar, so the app does not go quiet when your league does. The screenshot below is an ordinary July afternoon, and there are still 62 live markets open at once. It is a strange and specific joy to be sweating a golf market at 2 pm on a weekday.
Built for the group chat#
Solo picks go stale. PaperPicks profiles are public: follow your friends, watch their open positions live, and tail or fade any pick in two taps. Everyone starts from the same $100, so leaderboard position is picking skill and nothing else, and the server keeps score, which retires the doctored screenshot as a genre. Post the pick before the game and let the record do the arguing.
If you never plan to bet real money#
Plenty of people practice sports betting on a simulator as a warm-up for the real thing, and the permanent record serves them well: a real sample of picks either shows an edge or it does not. But a lot of people are here for the opposite reason. They do not want to gamble, now or ever, and most betting products pretend that group does not exist.
Their reasons tend to be good. The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that 2.5 million US adults meet the criteria for a severe gambling problem in a given year, and another 5 to 8 million have mild or moderate ones. That might have been you at some point. Maybe you watched a friend's parlay habit stop being funny. Or you just know you enjoy the sweat more than you trust your own stopping rules. Wanting the action of a Tuesday game while the rent stays untouchable is not a weaker way to be a fan. For a lot of people it is the smarter one.
The sweat survives the move to paper better than you would expect. The record is permanent, the leaderboard is public, and busting a $100 bankroll on one overconfident call stings in front of your friends. What is on the line is pride and position on the board, nothing else. It turns out that covers most of what makes betting fun, and none of what makes it dangerous.
Start in about 30 seconds#
- Get PaperPicks from the App Store. It is free, and iPhone only, so if you are hunting for a sports betting simulator app on Android, this one cannot help you yet.
- Open it. There is no form. An anonymous account appears and the $100 paper bankroll is already in it.
- Find tonight's slate on the Live tab and take a side.
- Sweat it. When the result is official, the market settles, your P&L updates, and the record keeps it forever.
If the picks are good, the leaderboard will say so. If they are not, you will know that too, and finding out cost you nothing.
- NCPG: Problem Gambling Fact Sheet (PGAM 2025) — the 2.5 million and 5 to 8 million problem-gambling prevalence estimates
Facts checked against primary sources on July 24, 2026.