bitcoin-sports-betting

The Rise of Big League Crypto Sports Betting

Even though there has been a significant slump in the value of cryptocurrencies over the course of the last few months, U.S. sports bettors are slowly but surely coming around to the idea of using digital currencies for betting purposes. As virtual currencies grow more prevalent in daily life, proponents of the change contend that it will be a key tool in keeping bettors away from the offshore market.

Many well-known sports betting organizations have recently started accepting bitcoin deposits into their users’ gaming accounts. An important element of this procedure is played by third-party payment providers.

Lots to Offer

Sports bettors will appreciate cryptocurrency’s numerous advantages over traditional forms of payment. To begin with, it has an exceptionally high level of security making it very tough to crack. It is essential for operators to ensure that this is the case so that your wagers are protected from any kind of manipulation. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also decentralized, which means they are not governed by a single entity. This makes it almost hard for anybody to take advantage of the system.

Last but not least, using cryptocurrencies is remarkably quick and affordable. It has very cheap costs and allows for almost instantaneous transaction completion. As a result, it’s an ideal choice for individuals who wish to gamble on sports without having to worry about transaction costs.

Dealing With the Concerns

Even though cryptocurrency is still in its infancy, there are already several compelling arguments suggesting that placing bets on sporting events using bitcoin might be the wave of the future. Cryptocurrency has the potential to completely change the online sports betting industry with its speedier transfers, reduced costs, and increased anonymity.

There have, of course, been some concerns. Thankfully, these are being addressed in different ways.

Solana-Pay-Share

Solana Pay Ventures into the Crypto Payments Space

While crypto has certainly revolutionized online payment in many respects, the sector still has more room to grow and advance further. There have been lots of different initiatives and developments dedicated to solving some of the things that have plagued crypto payments. Stablecoins and Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, for instance, were all dedicated to bringing some much-needed improvements to the sector.

Now, Solana Labs is hoping to make its play for the crypto payments sector with a solution it believes will be a gamechanger. The company has co-developed software that it will use to help merchants accept payments via the Solana network.

While still relatively new, the Solana network has been steadily growing in popularity. Today, it is the blockchain network that is the Ethereum network’s biggest competitor. That is because it offers a solid range of products and services. The most notable ones are the cheaper, faster, and more scalable transaction processing capabilities that the network boasts of.

Its new product is aimed at facilitating merchant payments and commerce rails. Both are very lucrative and thus a provider that offers the most value in terms of costs and instant payment settlements can tap into this unique growth opportunity.

No Middleman

Perhaps the most interesting thing about Solana’s new venture is that it lives up to the promise of crypto. Using QR codes, users will be able to make direct peer-to-peer (P2P) payments. All they need to have is a valid cryptocurrency wallet.

According to Solana Labs Head of Payments Sheraz Shere, the new product has the potential of paving the way for the future of mainstream crypto use. The fact that there is no need for a middle man taxing every transaction makes it very appealing to both merchants and consumers.

“Now that we have a blockchain that has the throughput, speed and scalability and low fees of traditional payment networks – 50,000 transactions per second and sub-second transfer times, we can potentially build a merchant payment system that’s truly on the blockchain, and most importantly, that’s peer-to-peer and decentralized and permissionless.”

Sheraz Shere, Solana Labs’ Head of Payments.

For those who may be concerned about volatility, the new product is particularly focused on USDC. According to the company, USDC transfers are the best way to go as they are not only simple to execute but also unlikely to add any stress to the network.

crypto-bitcoin-card

Binance Partners with Swipe for Crypto Card

The crypto community has welcomed great thanks to a new move by Binance that will make crypto payments much easier and more familiar than ever before. Thanks to the partnership between the huge crypto exchange and Swipe, users of digital currencies may soon be able to use a crypto credit card for their payments.

Rumors of a potential partnership between Binance and Swipe have been floating around for quite some time. It was initially anticipated that Binance was planning to buy a majority stake in the crypto startup. While the page that details the partnership has since been taken down, there is enough evidence suggesting that Binance is well on its ways in disrupting the payment card ecosystem.

The first time that Binance unveiled its crypto debit card was back in March. According to the company, the move was meant to give crypto users a fiat gateway through which they pay for goods and services. The hype seemed to have cooled off but that is perhaps because the company was working on getting a partner to push that particular project to even greater heights.

Thankfully, the goal of the crypto card is not just to cater to existing crypto users – it is also quite easy to see that it is geared towards appealing to non-crypto users as well. The card has been advertised as being very similar to other bank-issued cards which means that it will certainly be just as easier to use. Moreover, preregistration for the card cost as a little as $15 which may have been quite the incentive for more adoption of crypto.

The Rise of Crypto Cards

Crypto card usage is not even close to peaking, at least not yet. This is very understandable considering the massive interest that both individuals and companies have shown towards crypto. Even PayPal has reportedly been considering direct sales of crypto and Visa may also be pursuing similar ambitions. These alone are enough to prove that perhaps its time to take crypto to the next level. That said, crypto cards are going to be a huge part of the next phase of the payments revolution.

We can, however, not overlook the issues that have already cropped up in the space. For instance, crypto debit cards that were issued by Wirecard stopped working after the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) suspended Wirecard Card Solutions (WCS. This is a very big deal especially because of the picture it paints of the gaming industry. Still, it is a great opportunity for the industry to learn and find ways to ensure more reliability. Maybe that is why Binance is so cautious about its next move.

Crypto-Gambling

Can Crypto Replace Credit Cards for UK Online Gambling?

The UK Gambling Commission, in March 2018, announced that it was mulling over a possible ban on the use of credit cards on online gambling sites. This consideration came up following the commission’s report on responsible gambling measures where it was found that the availability of credit card payment options at online casinos was a viable cause of harmful gambling tendencies among a considerably large number of people.

According to the commission’s report, approximately 10 to 20 percent of all the deposits that were made to online gambling sites in the country were made using credit cards. In essence, this implies that close to a fifth of all the online gambling that was carried out in the United Kingdom was facilitated by borrowed money. This even becomes a much bigger problem when we factor in the fact that most, if not all, of the involved credit card companies treat these transactions in the same exact way that they treat cash advances – that is, they do not come with an interest-free period, may entail exorbitantly higher interest rates and often incur varying amounts of handling fees. Combined, these are the ultimate ingredients for problem gambling and never-ending financial woes for given groups of people – problem gamblers.

The UK Gambling Commission has taken a more proactive approach in the way it handles its activities of late and thus if things keep going the way they are, it is possible that it will indeed proceed to regulate a credit card ban of some kind.

What Next?

Naturally, if it so happens that the use of credit cards for making online casino payments is banned, both the consumers and operators will need to find viable alternatives. Some of the ones that have already been floated around include e-wallets and bank transfers both of which are actually quite reasonable. However, by far the most revolutionary and perhaps the most appealing is blockchain technology and the associated digital currencies.

Needless to say, cryptocurrencies have grown immensely popular over the past few years and within that time a number of online gambling sites have adopted their use in a number of different ways. This implies that there is already a sense of direction and thus it should not be so hard to have digital currencies completely replace credit cards as a payment option on online gambling websites.

There are a number of advantages that a crypto-powered gambling service would have but it is important to note that there will equally be a unique set of challenges. Still, with the looming ban on credit card use on online gambling websites, it will definitely be a great time to advance the agenda for mainstream adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.