Frequently asked questions

Settling up

How does settling work?

The Settle tab totals every bet you have with each friend into one running balance. I owe and Owed to me show who is ahead with each person; several bets with the same friend net into a single amount instead of being settled one at a time.

How do I pay someone?

Tap Pay next to their name and pick how you will send it:

• Venmo, Cash App or PayPal: opens that app addressed to your friend.
• Zelle or Apple Cash: Stevo shows the email or number they saved so you can send it manually.
• Cash: hand it over in person; Stevo just records it.

Stevo does not move money. You send it through the app or in cash, then come back and confirm. If your friend has not saved a payment handle, the only option is cash. You can add your own handles under Profile > Payment methods.

What does "Yes, I sent it" do?

After you pay, Stevo asks "Did you send $X to [name] via [method]?" (or "in cash?"). Tapping Yes, I sent it records that you have paid. The other person then sees a Confirm received button; once they tap it the balance clears for both of you.

Someone paid me outside the app. How do I clear it?

If they never tapped Pay in Stevo, their card on your Settle tab shows "Already paid you outside the app?" with a Mark as settled button. Only mark it once you actually have the money: it clears the balance for both of you.

What if they say they paid and I did not get it?

Tap Dispute instead of Confirm received. Today that tells you to sort it out with the other person directly; an in-app dispute flow is coming. Nothing is cleared until you confirm.

Can I remind someone who owes me?

Yes. Nudge sends them a payment reminder notification.

Odds

Which odds formats does Stevo show?

Three, and you pick under Profile > Odds format. It applies to the Lines board and your bet slip.

• American: -110 and +140
• Decimal: 1.91 and 2.40
• Fractional: 10/11 and 7/5

How do I read American odds?

A minus number is how much you risk to win $100: -110 means bet $110 to win $100. A plus number is what you win on $100: +140 means bet $100 to win $140.

What are no-vig (fair) odds?

Sportsbook prices include the book's margin (the "vig" or "juice"), which is why both sides of a game are often -110. Friends betting each other do not owe a book anything, so Stevo strips the margin out and shows the fair line: -110 / -110 becomes +100 / +100, and -150 / +130 becomes -138 / +138. Bets made from the board settle at the fair line. This only applies to moneylines, spreads, and totals pulled from sportsbooks; custom bets and Face Off bets use the odds you set yourselves.

What is the difference between Book odds and even money on my bets?

Tap the small "i" on any bet to see this. Book odds bets are priced from sportsbook odds: you take the opposite side, so the two amounts owed differ. Even money bets are straight up: the winner is owed the wagered amount and no sportsbook odds apply.

How do odds work on a custom bet?

You choose a multiplier. 1x is even money and both sides put up the same. At 3x, your $10 says it happens and they put up $30. The slip shows what the winner takes before you send it.

Lines and bets

How do I read the Lines board?

Spread and moneyline (ML) pick a side; over/under (O/U) picks the total. The number next to each is the odds. Toggle LIVE to see games already underway. Picking more than one line builds a parlay, and Stevo blocks or swaps picks that cannot both happen on the same game. A parlay leg marked "(ALL)" means every pick in it has to hit.

What is a custom bet?

A bet on anything, on your own terms, not tied to a real game. You write the claim as a statement (one of you says it happens, the other says it does not), set the stake, pick the odds multiplier, choose a settled-by date, set who can see it, and pick your opponent.

What are open bets?

Challenges someone in your crew posted that nobody has taken yet. They show in a strip on the Lines tab; tap one to accept it.

What do Pending, Active, and Settled mean?

• Pending is waiting on someone to accept or decline. Pending bets expire automatically if the other person does not accept in time, and a bet on a real game is cancelled if the game starts before it is accepted.
• Active bets on a real game settle themselves the moment the game goes final, off the final score. No manual step.
• Settled bets have a result and move to the Settle tab if money is owed.

How does a custom bet get settled?

Once it is over, each of you declares your own result (won, lost, or push). If the two declarations match, the bet settles. If you disagree, the bet is flagged as disputed and both of you are notified so you can sort it out.

Who can see my bets?

Every bet has a visibility setting. Private (the default) means only you and your opponent see it. Shared means it also appears in the feed of any crew you both belong to. Bets made from a crew's open-bets strip are visible to that crew until someone takes them.

Crews

What is a crew?

A shared group for challenges and the activity feed. Everyone in a crew can see and accept each other's shared bets, get invited to its poker nights, and start a Face Off with each other.

How do I create one?

Tap Create crew, give it a name, choose Public or Private, and optionally pick friends to invite right away. Stevo generates the crew's invite code for you.

How does the invite code work?

Every crew has a 6-character code made of letters and numbers (the easily confused I, O, 0 and 1 are never used, so a code read out loud still works). Share the code or the invite link; the link opens the app on stevoapp.com/crew/join with the code filled in.

How do I join a crew?

Tap Join a crew and enter the 6-character code from your crew admin. If you are already in that crew the app tells you.

What is the difference between a public and a private crew?

In a public crew anyone with the invite code joins instantly and any member can send invites. In a private crew only the owner and admins can send invites, and pending invites are not shown to other members. Admin approval of new members is marked as coming soon in the app. Owners and admins can switch a crew between public and private from the members screen.

How do I leave a crew?

Open the crew's members list and tap Leave Crew. You stop seeing that crew's feed and bets, and you can rejoin later with an invite. Owners and admins can remove members; everyone else can only leave. The owner cannot leave without first transferring ownership, so the crew is never left with nobody in charge.

Face Off

What is a Face Off?

Quick bets head to head with one friend while a game runs — at the game, on the couch, or a thousand miles apart with the same game on: "this player hits a home run next at bat, 5 to 1, $10". Start a Face Off, tap + Add Bet for each one, and both phones stay in sync live. The header shows who is up and by how much.

Can I just say the bet out loud?

Yes, and that is how a Face Off bet opens: a big microphone rather than a keyboard. Say the whole thing in one go and Stevo fills in a bet slip — whatever is left after the money and the odds becomes the wording, and the two numbers land in the stake and the odds. It understands the money as "ten dollars", "$10", "a buck" or "fifty cents", and the odds as "five to one", "10x" or "even money", in either order and with or without the word "odds" on the end. Check the slip before you send it: every field stays editable, because dictation gets things wrong. Type it instead skips the mic.

What is the settle threshold?

Optional. Set a dollar amount when you start the Face Off and you get a soft reminder to settle once the running score crosses it. Leave it blank for none.

How is a bet's result decided?

Each of you declares your own result. Under every bet are two buttons, I won and I lost; tap the one that happened and your friend is notified. Their answer stays hidden until you have given yours, so each of you reports what you saw rather than reacting to the other. When both answers match, the bet shows Both confirmed and its money counts toward the running score. If they don't match, the bet is marked disputed, counts for nothing, and the Face Off cannot be settled: Settle Up stops with "Result not agreed" until you sort it out between you. There is no referee and no host override. Either person can change their answer (the buttons stay tappable until the Face Off is settled), or swipe the bet away to delete it.

How does a Face Off get settled?

Tap Settle Up. Stevo nets every bet in the Face Off into one amount and posts it to the Settle tab as a single bet, where you pay or get paid like anything else. If your friend settles first, the app tells you and nothing is recorded twice.

What is a Face Off lobby?

Pick 2 to 4 friends instead of one and you broadcast a single bet to all of them. By default the first friend to accept locks it in and the rest are closed out; you can raise how many can accept so more than one person takes it. Each acceptance becomes its own Face Off between you and that friend.

Why can't I start a new Face Off?

One Face Off runs per crew at a time. If one is already going, the app offers to rejoin it (or, if you are the host, to close it out and start a new one). A Face Off nobody has scored in for six hours is treated as finished and offers Close Out instead of Resume.

Poker nights and seasons

Cash game or tournament?

A cash game is a night on the calendar: RSVP, play, and settle the stakes yourselves after. Stevo never counts chips in a cash game; settle at the table and log it after. A tournament has a fixed buy-in, a live blind clock, optional rebuys and add-ons, and payouts split by finish order once players are eliminated. Live, Scheduled, and Finished at the top of the poker hub track every game you are hosting or in.

How do RSVPs and the waitlist work?

I'm in holds a seat, Maybe does not, and Out clears yours. The host can cap the table; once it is full, new "I'm in" RSVPs join a waitlist and, if a seat opens up, whoever has been waiting longest is moved to "I'm in" automatically.

Buy-ins, rebuys, and add-ons

• The host sets the buy-in and starting stack when creating the tournament.
• If the host allows rebuys, a busted player can buy back in for the rebuy amount, up to the per-player limit, through the last rebuy level. The clock moves through blind levels automatically.
• An add-on is a one-time extra chip purchase during the add-on break for players still in the game. It is not a re-entry: a busted player cannot add on.
• The prize structure amounts set the split; the final pot is divided in those proportions, so they do not need to match how many people play.
• Ending early with players still in? The host can chop, splitting what is left by chip count or custom dollar amounts.
• Guests who are not on Stevo can play, but they cannot be paid through Stevo; settle their cash in person.

What is a season?

A season pools points across every tournament your crew plays, not just one game. Finish high and you climb the crew-wide standings. Overall totals everything so far; By month breaks it down game by game. Only crew admins can edit season settings.

How are season points calculated?

The host picks one of two modes. Field size: points equal field size minus finish place plus 1, so a win in a bigger game is worth more. Fixed table: explicit points per place (for example 1500, 1250, 1000, 750). Season ties are broken by best single-tournament finish.

What is the participation floor?

The least anyone earns just for playing, whatever their finish. With a fixed table, finishes past the end of the table get the floor instead of nothing (1 means showing up counts; 0 means finishes only). In field-size mode last place already scores 1, so set the floor above 1 to guarantee more than that.

Season buy-ins and prizes

By default there is no season entry fee: each tournament collects its own buy-in. A host can add an upfront season entry fee on top; who has paid it is recorded on the season roster, every tournament still collects its own buy-in, and Stevo does not hold or pay out the fee. A host can also set a season-points prize, paid off the top of the season pool to the top finishers by season points and separate from each tournament's own payout.

What is the monthly prize?

A record-only leaderboard prize. Stevo shows who won each month on points and what they are owed; the crew hands the money over in the room like everything else. If players tie on points for a month, they share the rank and the prize for the ranks they occupy is split evenly.

Does Stevo ever hold the money?

No. Buy-ins, rebuys, prizes, and season fees are all recorded by Stevo and paid between people. Stevo keeps score; it never holds, pools, or pays out money.

Notifications and app lock

How do I control notifications?

Profile > Notifications has a master Push notifications switch plus four groups you can turn on or off together or one type at a time: Betting (challenges, accepted, declined, cancelled, settled, won, lost, disputes, reminders), Social (crew invites, new crew members, friend requests, mentions), Games & Events (game results, events scheduled, updated, reminders), and Payments (received, reminders, confirmed). Send test push checks delivery on your device.

I turned notifications on but nothing arrives

Make sure notifications are allowed for Stevo in iOS Settings, then use Send test push. The Notification center in your Profile keeps a list of everything you have been sent, so nothing is lost if you missed the banner.

What is app lock?

Profile > Security > Require Face ID to open. When it is on, Stevo asks for Face ID (with your device passcode as a fallback) every time the app starts cold, and again if it has been in the background for 10 minutes or more. Short detours like answering a text do not lock it. Unlocking never signs you out.

Why was I not asked for Face ID?

New accounts start with app lock off; turn it on under Profile > Security. Face ID login is a separate switch that lets you sign in without typing your password; set it up from the "Enable Face ID?" prompt right after you sign in with your password.

Account, privacy and deletion

What information does Stevo collect?

Your email address and password for signing in, your phone number so friends who know it can find you, your display name, username, optional avatar and bio, plus the bet and game data you create in the app. Any Venmo, Cash App, PayPal, Zelle or Apple Cash handles you add under Payment methods are shown to friends you settle with so they can pay you. Your data is used only to provide and improve Stevo and is never sold; there are no ads and no third-party analytics trackers. It is held in a hosted database operated for us by an infrastructure provider, over encrypted connections, and your session is kept in your device's secure storage. The full Privacy Policy and Terms of Service are on this site and in the app under Profile > About.

How do I sign in, and how do I change my profile, password or phone number?

You sign in with your email address and a password; Forgot password emails you a reset code. Profile > Edit profile for your name, username, bio and avatar; Profile > Change password; and Profile > Edit profile to change your phone number (you confirm the new number with a code by SMS).

How do I delete my account?

In the app: Profile > Settings > Delete account. It is immediate and cannot be undone, and it is blocked only while you still have an unsettled balance with someone. Records other people share with you — a settled bet, a poker game, a crew post — stay with them, with your name replaced by "Deleted user". If you cannot get into the app, email support@stevoapp.com and we will do it for you.

Is Stevo gambling?

Stevo is a scorekeeper for friendly bets and games among friends. It does not facilitate real gambling and does not process payments; bet tracking is for entertainment purposes only.

Golf

Golf rounds are coming in a later release. The current app is focused on lines, custom bets, Face Off, poker nights, and crews.

When it lands, a round will carry handicaps: you set one per player when the round is created, and the Nassau legs settle on the adjusted score rather than raw strokes, so players of different standards can play each other evenly. Leave everyone at scratch to play it straight up. Handicaps are set per round, so an occasional player does not need a history in the app to join one.