EV dollars and cents

What are EV dollars?

EV dollars give recipients a chance to win a jackpot.
EV dollars are worth as much as, on average, as real dollars.
- Example:
  - Say you give 100 callers each 1 EV dollar with a jackpot set at $100.
  - Paybuyer randomly selects 1 caller out of 100 to receive the $100 jackpot, the other 99 callers receive $0.
  - So you pay $100 for 100 calls from real buyers.
  - And, it's fair to the callers because each has an equal chance of winning the $100.

Why do we say that you pay callers in "EV" dollars and cents?

Imagine someone gives you a sweepstakes ticket and you don't know whether it's a winner or loser. How much is the ticket worth, if you wanted to sell it?

To find out, you would calculate something called the expected value (EV) of the ticket.

EV is just a math way of saying the fair sale value of a sweepstakes ticket BEFORE the holder finds out if it is a winning or losing ticket.

The formula for EV is: (chance that the ticket will win) x (the jackpot).

Example:

If a sweepstakes ticket has a 1/100 chance of being a winner,
and the jackpot is $100,
then the EV of the ticket is: 1/100 x $100 = $1.
That is, the ticket has fair sale value of $1.

So, when you give a caller 1 EV dollar, you are giving him a sweepstakes ticket that he can, theoretically, sell for $1. If he has 1,000 EV dollars, he could theoretically sell them altogether for $1,000.

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