Crypto Betting Exchanges: How Peer-to-Peer Platforms are Changing the Sports Betting Landscape

Crypto betting exchanges have exploded onto the scene over the last couple of years. The online casino industry is one of few that is genuinely 24/7.

Sure, some markets might be, but sports betting is uniquely positioned to provide needs for people who wish to gamble on sports events online whenever is most convenient for them. 

By stretching across timezones, different cultures, and sporting cultural differences, it is the true definition of a global industry.

However, this dynamic is shifting toward a new payment method – cryptocurrency.

The Emergence Of Cryptocurrency Gambling Operators

For those of us who are old enough to remember when digital casinos first came onto the scene, it was a brand-new innovation. Gone were the days of taking time out of your day to go to a physical building to place your bet. All you had to do was log in to your home PC or laptop and choose your casino game. The sports betting market followed this blueprint to a tee. It reaped the rewards too, but innovators in both of these colossal, thriving industries were always looking for new ways to generate new avenues of revenue. 

Cryptocurrency emerged as an alternative payment system over a decade ago. In fact, it was 2009 when the whitepaper first appeared online, the brainchild of the now world-famous pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Within this whitepaper was an advanced set of cryptographic structures alongside the blockchain, which is the real spine of the innovation. In a nutshell, the blockchain validates all payments made between all wallets peer to peer, meaning that nobody else is required to direct the payment, removing any need for legacy banking to facilitate the transaction.

You might be wondering how this translates into cryptocurrency gambling. Well, for many people who play casino games and/or place sports bets, being able to connect the wallet that contains your assets directly to the provider and send your money immediately without any concern of the bank freezing it or delaying it in the middle is one of the biggest bonuses. The anonymized deposit methods also enhance security between you and the provider. Still, along with other factors, crypto pros, and cons must be addressed before you decide to place a bet yourself. 

Irrespective of whether you enjoy casino gaming or are partial to a sports bet. Like anything, understanding how cryptocurrency works in the first place should be where your crypto gambling journey begins.

Challenges Faced By Crypto Betting Companies

Despite some of the positives we listed, some serious challenges for the industry continue to stifle some of the growth. One of the critical issues companies currently battle against is the lack of exposure in the market. Despite many people changing from traditional online gambling to crypto betting markets, the market is still heavily weighted toward conventional ways of betting, using dollars, euros, pounds, etc. 

Until a few million people make this switch quickly, the industry might not have the momentum to enact some of the enormous changes many predict. In time, this looks a lot more likely. Still, it’s not just mass cryptocurrency adoption and a heightened awareness of how it works that will result in peer-to-peer platforms playing such a pivotal role in the changing gambling habits of millions.

While a lot of media overplays the idea that cryptocurrency is unsafe, there is some element of truth to the substantial volatility in the market. This comes into particular focus when placing a football bet, as some outright markets can last for over half a year. If you place a bet at the beginning of the season that Man City would win the league, as they did last year, you’d have to wait nearly nine months for your bet to pay out. 

For those who are familiar with how cryptocurrency works, the price action is immensely volatile. While it might be a good thing if you manage to place your bet during a bull run when the price of Bitcoin expands exponentially, as it did for many months in 2021, it can also move rapidly in the opposite direction, causing you to technically lose your bet, even if it wins, because the price has dropped so rapidly.

Conclusion

Despite the negatives, the positives continue to outweigh them, at least for online casinos and sports bettors, that is. The impact of heightened security, anonymized ways to bet, and more convenient, faster ways to send money have all resulted in an upsurge of people turning to peer-to-peer platforms.

It could only take one catalyst, such as approving a colossal ETF, to bring a vast wave of new money to the market again. 

If the market surges upward again, this inevitably brings fresh money into peer-to-peer transactions and technology.

A bull run or any positive catalyst that brings more attention to the market will help to drive the peer-to-peer revolution in sports betting even further.

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