Is Bitcoin the future of online sports betting?

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pier0

pier0

Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
234
I was researching Bitcoin as payment method for online betting for an article I'm writing and I was blown away by the number of existing Bitcoin gambling sites.

For those of you that don't know what Bitcoin is, I recommend reading the Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitcoin

Bookmakers Review has created a bitcoin bookmakers section and we are going to populate it with information about sports betting sites that accept bitcoins as the only payment method.

Unlike egold bookmakers several years ago, some bitcoin bookmakers seem to run legitimate sports betting operations and I reckon Bitcoin represents a major opportunity for US-facing sportsbooks as payments can be made outside of the traditional banking system.

Have you had any experience with any bitcoin betting site? Do you know of any popular online sportsbook that accepts bitcoins?
 

pier0

pier0

Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
234
Interesting article from Jon Matonis on Forbes: Bitcoin Casinos Release 2012 Earnings
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonmatonis/2013/01/22/bitcoin-casinos-release-2012-earnings/
 

G-Man

G-Man

Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
168
Bitcoin was discussed and shown on Sky News today. Seen as an alternative to currency and with what is happening in Cyprus, where peoples savings are being targeted, Bitcoin is becoming a viable option.

Also article on the Sky News website: http://news.sky.com/story/1071652/cyber-currency-surge-amid-eurozone-crisis

Some say it is a better investment that Gold and another commentators that it is unsecured and not to be trusted.
 

quincunx

quincunx

Joined
Nov 20, 2012
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678
At first I thought bitcoins were a bubble.Not sure now,but another problem may be that they are becoming too unwieldy metaphorically speaking - last time I checked they were worth $100 each.That's a bit too chunky for a medium of exchange - and they can't be divided into halves.
 

pier0

pier0

Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
234
The problem with Bitcoin is the volatility of its exchange rate. Six months ago it was 7 US dollars x 1 Bitcoin, now you need more than 90 US dollars.

A currency that is supposed to facilitate transactions should not fluctuate as much as Bitcoin does.
 

quincunx

quincunx

Joined
Nov 20, 2012
Messages
678
I think the original idea was that gambling with bitcoins wasn't illegal because thy weren't cash.Not sure that that would work now as they are clearly 'worth' something.
The other point,though,is that bitcoins are supposed to be harder to create than certain other mediums of exchange.Not a topic for this website but google fiat currencies,Detlev Schlichter and follow links if interested.
 

quincunx

quincunx

Joined
Nov 20, 2012
Messages
678
My technical knowledge is woeful,but I had been considering speculating in bitcoins after they crashed.One thing that concerned me was the problem of where to store them.I could do it in a wallet on my own computer,but there is always the risk of theft and computers eventually wear out/break down,although you can sometimes save the data.None of the companies that offers storage strikes me as that safe,and some have been subjected to attacks by hackers.So I'm not convinced that bitcoins are really viable long-term - they may be inferior to gold.
If these problems with bitcoins could be overcome,they might have the advantage over conventional 'fiat' currencies of not losing value.
 

pier0

pier0

Joined
Nov 15, 2012
Messages
234
When I first heard of Bitcoins 3 years ago on Hacker News, I started mining them and also considered building a dedicated machine network, then decided against it as at the time the value was just 6USD x 1BTC.

Naturally I looked into storage and security and I seem to remember that to protect your wallet, you can host it on an offline computer.

Basically you can have an always online wallet and a "savings" wallet offline.
And you can also backup the data.
 

betwithcoins

betwithcoins

Joined
Aug 19, 2013
Messages
1
quincunx said:
<p>At first I thought bitcoins were a bubble.Not sure now,but another problem may be that they are becoming too unwieldy metaphorically speaking - last time I checked they were worth $100 each.That's a bit too chunky for a medium of exchange - and they can't be divided into halves.</p>

No, not true. Bitcoins are infinitely divisible. You could run the worlds economy on 1btc.
 

reymarkperry

reymarkperry

Joined
May 11, 2014
Messages
1
I believe that bitcoin will be the choice of currency in online gambling. There are actually a lot of online casino like Betcoin™ and SatoshiDice that are accepting this cryptocurrency. Because of bitcoin’s fast and convenient way of transferring money in the gambling industry, I can see that bitcoin’s acceptance will grow even bigger. Read more here: http://bitcoindaily.com/bitcoin-the-choice-of-currency-in-online-gambling/
 

Hareeba

Hareeba

Joined
Dec 13, 2012
Messages
49
reymarkperry said:
<p>I believe that bitcoin will be the choice of currency in online gambling. There are actually a lot of online casino like Betcoin™ and SatoshiDice that are accepting this cryptocurrency. Because of bitcoin’s fast and convenient way of transferring money in the gambling industry, I can see that bitcoin’s acceptance will grow even bigger. Read more here: <a href="http://bitcoindaily.com/bitcoin-the-choice-of-currency-in-online-gambling/">http://bitcoindaily.com/bitcoin-the-choice-of-currency-in-online-gambling/</a></p>

Only for those who live in countries where it is illegal to gamble or difficult to move real money such as the US.
For the rest of us Bitcoins offer nothing (apart from gambling on volatility) that can't be achieved with genuine currencies.
 
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