You can now gamble on sperm being raced on a microscopic track

Two college students are going to race their sperm in Los Angeles, and gamblers are getting their wallets ready to bet on which sperm is faster.

You can now gamble on sperm being raced on a microscopic track
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TL;DR: College students will compete in a unique sperm race using microfluidic chips that simulate the reproductive system, promoting male health awareness. Backed by $1.5 million in funding, the April 25 event in Los Angeles offers live viewing and cryptocurrency betting, blending science, entertainment, and innovative wagering.

College students are set to pit their sperm against each other in a speed race on a microscopic track, and while this may sound like a belated April Fool's Day joke, it isn't. There is real money behind the event, and it can even be gambled on.

The project is co-founded by Eric Zhu, Nick Small, Shane Fan, and Garrett Niconienko, who said the new form of competition encourages men to look at their health as a byproduct of increasing the performance of their sperm. The project has already attracted $1.5 million in seed funding from venture capital firms, including Figment Capital. So, how does it work? Well, pretty much how you are imagining in your head.

The competitors will have an hour to ejaculate into a cup, and the samples are then placed into a "microfluidic chip" that's designed to mimic the reproductive system and engage rheotaxis, which is the phenomenon when sperm swim against the flow of a fluid. Basically, the process starts their engines.

The "microfluidic chip" with the race course
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The "microfluidic chip" with the race course

The race course is on the microfluidic chip, and once the sperm have been engaged, the race begins, with the first sperm to complete the track being awarded the winner. Runs can last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, and as you would expect, the race can't be watched with the naked eye. Therefore, a microscope will be placed over the track and the image broadcast to viewers on a big screen.

The event is being held at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on April 25, which can accommodate up to 3,700 guests, and will be livestreamed on the Sperm Racing website. Gamblers are preparing to bet on the race through Polymarket, with one of the project's creators, Nick Small, telling Decrypt that plans are in place to eventually develop a cryptocurrency-based betting platform for sperm racing.

"Imagine a world where Mike Tyson and Jake Paul had raced their sperm ahead of their boxing match. If they had raced their sperm ahead of time and Jake came way out on top, do you think it would have changed the odds of the fight? What if Iron Mike had won?" said Jim Parillo, general partner at Figment Capital, one of Sperm Racing's investors