The Ins and Outs of crypto betting
Of all the ways you can use cryptocurrency these days, one of the quiet growth industries has definitely been the betting sector. For many crypto owners, the coins are more or less an end in themselves, to be traded as prices rise and fall, in the interest of making a profit in the market. As a means of payment, however, crypto has been embraced by betting companies in a way which is far beyond what you will see in other industries. Even leading crypto advocate Elon Musk backed down on a plan to allow Bitcoin to be used to buy Tesla cars, but crypto casinos and other betting sites are using things like crash gambling to win over a growing market.
Crypto betting is one of those things that is easy to understand on a very surface level. It’s betting, but you use crypto instead of fiat cash, right? That’s pretty straightforward. And that is in part because it’s a simplification of a more complex reality. If you are interested in potentially betting with crypto, you’ll need to know a bit more, and fortunately we can explain a few of the ins and outs that are often brushed over when talking about this specific form of iGaming.
Do you actually bet with crypto?
Here’s the thing – different casinos take different approaches to how they operate crypto betting. In some cases, crypto is a deposit and withdrawal method alone. In between the entry and exit points, your coins are converted into fiat currency, and you will be betting with fiat currency. That does, at least, protect you from market crashes, but you are reliant on the exchange rate used by the betting site. Other casinos and betting sites will leave the balance in crypto for the duration – which does mean that you might be betting with very small fractions, unless you’re a high roller, so you need to be awake to what can be small changes.
Which coins can you bet with?
Depending on the casino you are using, it is often possible to bet with one of more than twenty different coins. The more dedicated a crypto casino is, the more altcoins it will allow for deposits and withdrawals. They’ll all take Bitcoin, but some are more strident in their support of other coins; Ethereum is increasingly popular and many casinos are prepared to highlight their preference for it as a more eco-friendly token. Some casinos have their own cryptocurrency, but most bettors (and most crypto handlers) are skeptical of these sites, as the value of such coins is entirely in the hands and minds of the site owners.
What do crypto bettors bet on?
The only real answer to that question is “everything that fiat bettors bet on, but in different ways”. You can bet on the World Cup at any crypto betting site worth its salt, but you’ll also find that crypto sportsbooks are more invested in eSports than a lot of conventional sites. You’ll also find casino games that go above and beyond what is offered in standard online casinos – as already mentioned, crash gaming is hugely popular among crypto bettors, and numerous slot games have been developed specifically for crypto sites.
