Thursday April 27th, 2000

By Kevin Smith

Do you think your child could win a Grand Prix? An Irish businessman will pay out $100,000 if your dream comes true.

Up to 15,000 people a day are visiting a Dublin-based Website which takes bets on the future achievements of your children, sporting or otherwise, and guarantees a cash lump sum to the child if the feat is pulled off.

Peter O'Mahoney, 34, set up his superstarprize.com site in March after five sets of bookmakers refused to take a 20 Irish pound ($23) bet on his two-month-old nephew eventually winning a Formula One motor race.

"It was just a jokey idea for a christening present but the bookies were really suspicious that it was some kind of scam," O'Mahoney told Reuters.

"I thought I'd make it easier for other people to register their sporting dreams than it was for me," he said.

The businessman linked up with UK insurance company Royal & Sun Alliance, which is indemnifying any pay-out.

As children registered to win major sporting events must currently be under 10 years of age it will be a few years before any win is likely. The odds are also, it must be said, firmly in favour of O'Mahoney.

"If we got to pay out to anyone it would be fantastic," he said. "But this is basically a novelty idea - with an important money element - and more special as a memento than a team jersey or something."

To nominate a child costs 10 punts, for which a certificate is provided setting out the chosen ambition and the pot of gold on offer.

Although he declined to say how many people had put their money on the line, O'Mahoney said 80 percent of registrations to date had been for boys, almost all of them in sports categories.

Of nominations for girls, most were for best actress achievements but also for tennis and golf, he said.

O'Mahoney dismissed potential qualms that such bets could put pressure on children to fulfil unrealistic expectations.

"Let's face it, $100,000 in ten years time will hardly be a week's wages in the upper echelons of sport, so parents would have bigger reasons for pushing their kids in that direction," he said.

"Anyway, I think it's healthy to have aspirations of representing your country at sport or winning the highest prize in a particular field," he added.

He said he had been amazed at the geographical reach of the Internet.

"We've had hits from the U.S., Canada, Europe - all over the place," he said.