What Can Blockchain Sports Betting Offer Sports Bettors
Can the blockchain improve your sports betting experience and offer sports bettors lower odds and commissions. In 2018, sports bettors may no longer have to wager under the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip or on offshore online betting sites to bet on their favored sports team. Nationwide, Casino and mobile sports betting operations are gearing up for business in the hopes the Supreme Court’s highly anticipated ruling on legalizing sports betting gets approved in June. Among the new sports betting solutions, blockchain sports betting platforms offer sports gamblers the opportunity to improve their odds and prognostications with functionality currently enjoyed by the professional trader. These offers include the following improvements
- how to open access to sports betting from anywhere in the world
- how to guarantee sports bettors the best odds
- how to protect sports against betting related corruption
- lowest commissions on bets
Sports bettors improve their returns by seeking out the best odds. Since odds can vary across different platforms, many bettors sign up to several betting platforms to shop around for the best deal. The process by pooling odds across the major sports games via software to your computer is available but customers still need to open an account with the bookies with the best odds to place a bet.
Sports betting platforms on the blockchain are improving sports odds and ROI by making the sports betting process more efficient. Users can access the centralized information without requiring an account with the various sports betting and predictive markets, enabling them to not only benefit from higher quality forecasts but also execute bets immediately.
Instant betting and payouts are carried out by a smart contract linked to the bettor’s digital wallet.
The integration of more accurate predictive market results gathered over transparent, peer-to-peer networks is improving sports betting forecasts. The bookie odds system, however, still lacks reliability. Currently, gamblers rely on betting track records from experts and analytics providers with the data to back up their content but missing a predictive forecast.
Betting over a smart contract provides a transparent, trackable and change-proof record of betting performance. Based on much improved information, bettors can make more reliable decisions based on the odds, and approved analytics channels.
The blockchain platforms are hosting third-party models and analytics providers to allow traders to customize and improve their trading performance. These models, though, typically rated by users, can be unreliable. Consensus on third-party models run on a smart contract where their performance can be tracked and permanently recorded on a tamper-proof ledger and a provable track record backs up user views.
By obtaining the models of experts, sports bettors can follow their bets directly through copy betting. When set up via a smart contract and escrow is created, the copy of expert trades is automatically executed and funds released directly via a digital wallet. Smart contracts can facilitate many other automated risk management measures, such as only activating a wager when sufficient liquidity reserves to cover the wager exist. The key to providing these advanced sports betting features is the betting token. In the blockchain world, tokens provide access to more secure, transparent ecosystems in which parties can safely transact over encrypted smart contracts.
Once a betting account is linked to a smart digital wallet, bets and automatic payouts can be activated with no delays.
Crypto tokens have been commonly based on the “ethereum-20” standard and more exchanges are hosting trading across multiple tokens and cryptocurrencies. New token standards offering different advantages are emerging with a smart contract with built-in convertibility. The token can be immediately used on partner sports betting platforms without requiring the use of a third party exchange.
Bettors can gain access to sports betting features for the new predictive age on the blockchain with a specific tailored token. The token is used to place wagers and unlock various other functionality. Some platforms will go live in June, when many bettors anticipate a Supreme Court ruling favoring the legalization of sports betting.
Understanding how to upgrade your old betting habits
In 2018, hundreds of sports betting sites and apps allow bettors to gamble discretely from just about anywhere through their smartphones. This convenience has attracted more users to participate in the action. How to change your old betting ways and upgrade through technology is available and necessary for greater opportunity. Traditional payment services like banks and exchange digital wallets have been wary of supporting online gambling, leaving room for specialized payments gateways to facilitate bankroll funding and payouts. There is also no shortage of handicapper sites and services that offer paid analyses to less savvy gamblers.
Unfortunately, the involvement of these parties brings enhanced risk of fraud and failure. Gambling payment gateways are constantly tested by cyber-criminals. Handicappers also fail to produce the wins that they promise to bettors. There are opportunities for blockchain – a technology that promotes shared trust – to address these issues. Several blockchain efforts have set their sights on bettors’ needs. Emerging digital currencies design its token to be used by online gambling services. Success of these efforts could all help create better betting experiences. Here are three ways how these blockchain services can accomplish that goal.
Easier Funding and Payouts
Payments using blockchain can be completed faster compared to traditional means. Tokens do not have to be routed through different financial institutions and clearing houses. Winnings can either be readily credited to the user’s bankroll or to a token wallet. Since tokens are now fungible assets, bettors also have the option to transfer tokens to exchanges and trade them for other crypto or fiat currencies.
However, crypto tokens aren’t without their quirks. For instance, it can be hard to tell how much a bet made in Bitcoin is actually worth in fiat currency. For ordinary people, it’s easier to discern the value of “$50” compared to “0.003 BTC.” Interestingly, Electroneum addresses this by limiting its token to two decimal places just like fiat currencies. This way, users could have an easier time estimating or converting mentally making use of crypto tokens for gambling more bettor friendly.
Trustworthy Insights
Blockchain startup BlitzPredict aims to provide insights by aggregating sportsbooks and prediction markets much like a stock market ticker. This helps bettors determine which sportsbook provides them with the best possible outcomes for a given bet. The platform also enables bettors to use blockchain smart contracts to automatically place bets when certain conditions are met.
Alternatively, bettors can subscribe to handicapper services that could supposedly point them to better odds. However, the credibility of many of these so-called sports “experts” have been dubious. Many offer tips and promise sure wins for a fee even if they don’t have the credentials to back their hyped expertise or the data to support their picks.
In order to promote quality insights, high-performing models are rewarded with the platform’s own token which could then be used to place bets using the platform. Such a rewards mechanism encourages bettors to make data-driven decisions rather than settle for hunches or bad advice.
Transparent Betting
Sportsbooks are often set up so that the house always wins. Even the reputable ones will have to make money by taking a cut from transactions. Without aggregation and advanced analytics, bettors are not only likely to lose in the long term, but they may also have to absorb the cost of these cuts and fees for all the transactions they conduct.
Platforms such as HEROcoin challenge this system by offering decentralized peer-to-peer betting. Through smart contracts, bettors are free to define the conditions of wagers. Blockchain’s transparency lets users trace the flow of money and the terms.
Fair Wagers
Sports betting is still a growing market and the expansion of betting to other segments such as esports is bringing in new participants. In esports alone, studies predict more than $23 billion will be wagered by 2020. New services should strive to create easier and more positive experiences for the benefit of these new bettors joining the scene.
Blockchain startups are already bringing transparency and trust into such activities. The use of crypto tokens could help address the lengthy and costly funding and payout processes. Better analytics and aggregation could also aid discerning bettors in making effective picks. Smart contracts can provide secure mechanisms for parties to enter and execute wagers.
Overall integration on the international level
How will all this new technology play out on the international world betting markets. The US sports betting markets are still an underground maze of local bookies, off-shore operators and mob run betting links. The only legal game is the Las Vegas sportsbooks and their mobile apps for the residents of Nevada, but not everybody can live in Vegas. Sportsbooks are great places to bet with direct contact with your money but they have limited betting opportunities compared to off-shore online operations.
However, the new technologies like blockchain can circumnavigate the world and jump over the legal ramifications that still exist. Hopefully, the US laws will allow states to pursue legalized sports betting by the Supreme Court ruling in June. It would be a great start for US amateur bettors but would still lack the betting range of advanced online markets.
Connecting the world betting markets through blockchain technology would be the ultimate sports betting opportunity in the future. This would require more regulations and format integration but the evolution of the sports betting industry`s growth and reach needs new technology to meet the extended level of participation.
The world betting markets should be legally adapted to allow spread betting in the UK, exchange betting and fixed odds betting in the US to coincide together for a true world betting market.
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