I’ve played Bloomberg’s new betting quiz game — “Pointed: the news quiz for risk-takers” — a few times. But so far, the mechanics feel arbitrary and complex. Rather than amplifying my enjoyment, the topic-based weighting of points get in the way of my fun.
Bloomberg built its new quiz game to engage consumers who aren’t yet subscribers, Marissa Zanetti-Crume, Bloomberg’s global head of product, told A Media Operator.
“[Pointed is] designed to reach new audiences who may not already be visiting Bloomberg.com, as well as engage existing readers who want to interact with the news in a more playful format that inspires their competitive spirit. The strategy behind Pointed is to combine entertainment and news in a way that feels brand-consistent to Bloomberg. It was built to support three key goals: attract new subscribers, engage existing subscribers and drive conversion.”
“Each of our products is a piece of a larger puzzle that meets different user behaviors and needs, thoughtfully layered together to create a comprehensive 360-degree experience. That’s what ultimately drives conversation and retention,” Zanetti-Crume said.
There are two types of leverage: first weighting your confidence on specific topics, and then adding an additional multiplier on the points you can win.
Here’s Bloomberg’s explanation of the game…
And here are my weightings for this week’s quiz… the total can’t exceed 100.
I made a “2x bet” for this question…
And here’s the outcome of my correct bet. I wish I they noted the extra points I’d won and my new total!
My final results round by round with my weightings factored in…
And finally my results versus those of other quiz takers…
My bet is we’ll see Bloomberg symplify their game, stripping out one or both of the multiplier mechanics.