Sports Betting and Gambling attracts people from every part of the world, and there are fewer areas more suited for gambling other than sports. The unpredictability and the sheer thrill of sports betting results in billions of dollars spent on sports betting each year. In the USA alone around $400 billion was spent on sports betting last year alone.
The United States is a country where betting is legal only in four states, namely Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon. As a result, only around 10% of all bets are placed legally in the USA. In most European countries, though, betting is not criminalized but it is regulated to quite an extent.
How Bitcoins can help
The internet changed the betting scenario drastically as it made it a lot simpler for people to place bets. The need to drive down to the betting office and place bets after checking out the odds is a thing of the past. However, there are still quite a few things that could be improved upon.
The most important improvement is the time it takes to receive payments and the payment fees levied by wire transferring agents or credit card agencies. Currently, the most dominant modes of payment among betters are through wire transfers or credit cards. Wire transfers charge a lot of fees on each transaction, which is not the case with credit cards. However, credit card payments require uploading a copy of the credit card, which discourages people as well.
Both of these hardships though, are handled effortlessly by Bitcoin. Payments on the blockchain are virtually free of cost as the fees (miners fee) even when levied are minimal. Not only does Bitcoin reduce the amount of transaction fees gamblers must pay, but the speed at which the transactions process increases exponentially. This makes Bitcoins a superior mode of payment for people looking to place bets on sports or those that are looking to gamble in general. The Bitcoin network has been growing quite fast as off late, and sports betting is yet another field where the potential for Bitcoins’ popularity is immense.
Where to Bet?
There are many sites which offer sports betting with Bitcoin. The best site to choose are those which have a history and have a good reputation. If you choose a newly created sports betting site only accepting Bitcoin you are likely to run into a scam or a fraudulent operation. While the use of Bitcoin does allow you to protect your anonymity easier, if the site is anonymous and has no legal entity backing it up stay as far away as possible.
One reputable sports betting site is BET365, it is one of the most popular sports betting websites in the world. It has 14 million customers in 200 different countries and it accepts Bitcoins. 5Dimes based in Costa Rica, and Bovada based in Canada, are other noteworthy sports betting websites which support the use of bitcoin for betting on sports games.
Conclusion
Using Bitcoins is the only logical solution to competing gambling and betting sites that are looking to reduce their payments overhead and fees. One downside to Bitcoin is the fact that relative to the US Dollar, the currency is still in its infancy and as a result much more volatile. Said volatility can cause unexpected losses to a company if it holds it’s assets in Bitcoins. There are services and exchanges which automatically exchange Bitcoins to a country’s currency but they may come at a fee.
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