The Evolution of Crypto Betting

The betting industry has witnessed a surprising wave of innovation that blends traditional systems with more technological ones. The highest of these innovations is a decentralized payment system that makes betting really smooth and practically improved. Even though online gambling faces some jurisdictional drawbacks in some countries, betting with crypto has made it possible for punters to bet at top crypto bookmakers without limits. 

Since cryptos came on the gambling board, a lot has changed, and there are still huge prospects of other unconventional changes taking place. But when you think of how far cryptos have penetrated the betting and gambling industry all around the world, it becomes necessary to understand the evolution of cryptos in betting. As a result, this post navigates the journey of cryptocurrencies in the gambling world, and their position among other payment methods. 

A look at the evolution of cryptocurrencies in betting

Initial wave evolution

Needless to say, the gambling industry had been run for centuries before crypto even surfaced. So, there weren’t many expectations that punters would someday bet with anything other than physical cash or fiat currencies, if you may. 

The first recorded idea of betting with crypto was introduced by SatoshiDice and, bitcoin being the first mainstream crypto coin in the world, became the coin of choice. As a fully operational gambling site, SatoshiDice introduced the popular bitcoin dice game that seized the attention and attracted massive followership and patronage of crypto youngsters. At the time of the company launch in April 2012, SatoshiDice had gained a fair share of the bitcoin gambling market, recording thousands of bitcoin wagers. At the time, the coin was remarkably cheaper than what obtained 4 years after and what obtains today, so this made for increased patronage of the site.  

Given the breathtaking success of the bitcoin dice game, the founder of SatoshiDice also launched FeedZeBirds, a bitcoin advertising platform on Twitter, which helped to garner more traction for the SatoshiDice gambling site. By 2013, the company had already recorded more than $419 million bets across more than 3.6 million bitcoins and more than 4.6 million bets. 

However, the company was grounded in 2013 when the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged the co-owner with having solicited for share subscription without being licensed to do so by the SEC. This spelt trouble for the company and SatoshiDice, which eventually led to the company blocking US users from accessing the site. In light of this, the company faced tumultuous times, but eventually negotiated a successful withdrawal of the charges, resulting in payment of a fine of over $50,000. Eventually, in July 2013, the SatoshiDice was sold for $11.5 million amounting to 126,315 bitcoins, with all existing balances fully paid to players. 

Second wave evolution

The purchase of the epochal SatoshiDice and its interesting bitcoin dice game burgeoned a new track of innovation for entrepreneurs interested in making a name in the gambling industry. There immediately arose the need for a replacement of the offerings of SatoshiDice, and even more than just dice. In other words, tit opened the stage for more experimentation with other possible ranges of gambling that could be explored. 

But most importantly, entrepreneurs began to reflect on possible mistakes they should avoid with their ventures. SatoshiDice was only a part of the bitcoin network, and thus accepted no other cryptos at the time, making the system centralized at the time. This gave birth to the idea of using a decentralized system of cryptos payment such as Ethereum. Ethereum is a platform that powers its own blockchain using its decentralized application systems (dapps) that make it possible for high security and anonymity to take place. Asides from these, all apps created or running on the Ethereum blockchain network are enhanced with smart contracts that connect every chain of predetermined contractual commands to tens of thousands of computers across the internet. This makes the system more robust for betting companies that use this blockchain network. 

With the higher interdependence of systems that seek to better provide regulated gambling services to punters around Europe, new crypto-only betting sites started springing. In addition, other existing gambling sites seeking to remain atop the innovations and payment systems game soon began to accept bets in cryptos in addition to fiat currencies (GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, etc.). And they were mostly on the Ethereum network, making for a more decentralized betting operation. To this day, Wikipedia reports that Etheruem is the most actively used blockchain in the world, many thanks to the betting industry. 

Present wave evolution

Today, top crypto bookmakers offer a wide variety of crypto coins to players for betting purposes. They not only offer this for payments, but it has become needful for players to experiment more with other coins while playing. That is, the concept of betting with a particular coin – BTC or Ether – has caused players to also have a look at other cryptos they can explore for betting and for trading as well. As a result, betting sites, such as FortuneJack, Sportsbet.io, Betflip, Bet Online, etc. continue to introduce possible ways to explore crypto betting. 

In essence, punters will have to create an account typically on an exchange that accepts any blockchain network, fund their wallets, and then start playing. If a betting site is using the Ethereum platform, its offerings will be decentralized on this network, meaning that players will have to interface with the actual blockchain. In interfacing with the blockchain, block confirmation is often carried out and this usually takes seconds to happen. This confirmation boosts the security of transactions, which, when combined with smart contracts, becomes much more transparent on the blockchain. 

Conclusion

We have broken down the various phases of the evolution of crypto betting to this day. The industry is constantly repositioning to meet the innovations that exist in the blockchain network as well as centralized and decentralized systems. Seeing the needfulness of it, many sportsbooks today offer multiple crypto banking options to players, making it possible for players to still bet at the level they operate.