Why Sports Bettors Should Try Steemit | Part 1: The Blockchain Revolution
THE BLOCKCHAIN REVOLUTION
Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard about blockchain and how the price of Bitcoin which is build on this technology has been making huge gains. Getting to understand how this all works is quite a challenge and can be a lot of information at once. I will try to explain everything in a very simple way everyone can understand and relate to. I am not the biggest expert and don't claim this is all 100% accurate, but it should at least give a solid framework.
How Bitcoin works
Imagine you are in a park near your home and in that park is a box with 100 drawers without any locks. If you were to put 1000€ inside one of the drawers and close it while nobody was looking. The odds of the money still being there the next day is quite small since the park is open to everyone and the drawers can be opened by anyone who passes the box in the park. Now imagine that the planet is the box and every single atom on the planet is a drawer. Now the question is how safe it is to pick a random locker, put 1000€ in it and write down the exact location of this drawer so only you know the location. It turns out the odds of anybody ever finding your drawer and stealing your money is astronomically small. This is in a very simple way explained how Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies work. There are a specified amount of coins and they can be stored in the open drawers. Your private Key is the location of your drawer, and your public key is an encrypted version of your private key so money can be send from and to your drawer without revealing the location.
Smart Contracts
First there was bitcoin which used blockchain technology to build a decentralised digital currency. As the concept of Bitcoin proved itself, more innovations were made with the same blockchain technology. Ethereum took the next step as a platform that provides the ability to make Smart Contracts. These can be seen as a vending machine, the candy is locked inside the contract and the condition to release the candy is written inside the contract let's say paying 1$. So when 1$ is paid the smart contract automatically releases the candy. These Smart contracts can be used for anything, also for betting contracts.
Why This Will Potentially Change The World
Until this point in time, people had no way to be able to thrust each other which is why centralisation was needed in order to make everything work. This centralisation was not a flawless solution, it brings along a lot of end user costs and often involves corruption and fraud.
- Central Banks printing more money which constantly decreases the value.
- Google and Facebook selling your privacy because they need to make profits
- Poker Black Friday
- Pointbet (big bookmaker that went dark and stole millions from players)
- ...
There is already a big trend past couple of years where people find ways to cut out the middleman. Crowdfunding and kickstarter campaigns have been big past couple years, Uber is taking over the taxi business, Airbnb the travel industry, ... Blockchain will take this evolution to the next level and make it into a revolution as it can fundamentally change the way the world works.
How This Affect Sports Bettors
Right now when betting on Sports, we are forced rely on centralised bookmakers. These bookmakers have to make a profit and tend to charge very big margins. At the same time the technology and data for them to set the odds correctly has improved a lot which makes it very difficult to win in the long run. In the year 2000, Betfair was founded which disrupted the traditional bookmakers as users were now able to bet directly against each other. Betfair as a centralised company needs a lot of money to run their operation and make a lot of profit on top of it which all comes from the fees they take on winnings. The asian bookmakers also came along with dynamic handicap lines and competitive odds but remain hard to beat as they are extremely sharp in setting the handicap lines and odds.
Blockchain technology has the potential to completely disrupt the bookmaking and sports betting industry this next decade. It allows for decentralised betting where bettors are able to bet against each other without an infrastructure that takes a lot of money to run or a company that needs to make any profit and no way to fraud the system. Imagine being able to bet safely with 1.98-1.98 odds, this means ~60% lower fees compared to market leading Pinnacle 1.952-1.952 odds. Anyone who understands odds will see how this is a huge deal that will change everything!
How to Benefit as a Sports Bettor
Getting involved in this space early on can give a lot of benefits. Imagine being able to go back and invest in the Betfair platform before their exchange was operational or being able to use Betfair and asian bookmakers when they first became available. Decentralised bookmakers are coming and they can't be stopped in the same way Bitcoin can't be stopped.
| Project | Type | Website |
|---|---|---|
| Wagerr | Sports Betting | wagerr.com |
| Bookie | Sports Betting Exchange | bookie.exchange |
| Augur | Prediction Markets | augur.net |
| Gnosis | Prediction Markets | gnosis.pm |
| Stox | Prediction Markets | stox.com |
| decent.bet | Sports Betting - Casino | decent.bet |
| fansunite | Sports Betting | fansunite.io |
| Betrium | Sports Betting | betrium.co |
| Hero | esports Betting | herocoin.io |
| Gimli | esports Betting | gimli.io |
| Unicoingold | esports Betting | unikoingold.com |
| Goal Bonanza | Correct Score Lottery | goalbonanza.com |
Steemit
Steemit is a blockchain Social Media Blog platform where rewards can be earned by posting, commenting and curating valuable content. It is the most user friendly way to get involved in the blockchain revolution early on and for free while earning cryptocurrency. More on Steemit and how it can help Sports Bettors create a more stable income in part 2 of this Series...
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wow great article! good job! I am looking forward to read part 2... I am resteeming this :)
Thanks for the resteem !
Definitely excited to see what the blockchain will bring to the sports betting world. Curious if you've followed any of the projects or if any of them are actually up and running?
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