To be brutally honest @
NOBLE, as much as I see your point about the betting side, nobody gives a fuck about buying emcee items.
I think the betting idea is a good one with solid foundation, but I concede, it's hard to look beyond buddy voting or bias in that scenario without implementing a complex voting paradigm that'd most likely be nightmarish to manage.
How's about upgrading the entire emcee item catalogue? Introduce maybe cars, cribs, general luxury items I suppose that can be purchased with credits.
From there you could award Grand Champ winners a lump sum of credits as a reward, with lesser credit prizes to the runners up to purchase said luxury items. Battling meets gaming, if you will.