Can the blockchain improve your sports betting outcomes?
In 2018, sports bettors may no longer have to wager under the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip or on offshore online betting sites to bet on their favored sports team. Nationwide, Casino and mobile sports betting operations are gearing up for business in the hopes the Supreme Court’s highly anticipated ruling on legalizing sports betting gets approved in June. Among the new sports betting solutions, blockchain sports betting platforms offer sports gamblers the opportunity to improve their odds and prognostications with functionality currently enjoyed by the professional trader.
The best sports betting odds
Sports bettors improve their returns by seeking out the best odds. Since odds can vary across different platforms, many stakers sign up to several betting platforms to shop around for the best deal. Odds aggregators such as Oddschecker are streamlining the process by pooling odds across the major sports games, but customers still need to open an account with the bookies with the best odds to place a bet.
Sports betting platforms on the blockchain are improving sports odds and ROI by making the sports betting process more efficient. The BlitzPredict Aggregator streams the betting odds of sports bookers and prediction markets (e.g., Augur and Gnosis) across a screen, similar to a stock ticker. Users can access the centralized information without requiring an account with the various sports betting and predictive markets, enabling them to not only benefit from higher quality forecasts but also execute bets immediately. Instant betting and payouts are carried out by a smart contract linked to the bettor’s digital wallet.
Better betting analytics for a new predictive age
The integration of more accurate predictive market results gathered over transparent, peer-to-peer networks is improving sports betting forecasts. The bookie odds system, however, still lacks reliability. Currently, gamblers rely on betting track records from experts and analytics providers with sparse or no evidence to back up their data. Consequently, the manipulation of betting results is rife.
Betting over a smart contract provides a transparent, trackable and change-proof record of betting performance. BlitzPredict, for example, reports all predictions with a timestamp alongside the actual market odds. Based on this improved information, stakers can make more reliable decisions based on the odds, and new and approved analytics channels.
The blockchain platforms are hosting third-party models and analytics providers to allow traders to customize and improve their trading performance, similar to how foreign exchange traders can buy access to thousands of third-party models and trading tools. These models, though, typically rated by users, can be unreliable. The BlitzPredict solution is to provide a user consensus on third-party models run on a smart contract where their performance can be tracked and permanently recorded on a tamper-proof ledger. In this way, the evidential track record backs up user views.
In addition to obtaining the models of experts, sports bettors can follow their bets directly through copy betting. When set up via a smart contract, escrow can be set up, the emulation of expert trades automatically executed and funds released directly via a digital wallet. Smart contracts can facilitate many other automated risk management measures, such as only activating a wager when sufficient liquidity reserves to cover the wager exist.
All bets are on the token
The key to providing these advanced sports betting features is the betting token. In the blockchain world, tokens provide access to more secure, transparent ecosystems in which parties can safely transact over encrypted smart contracts. Once a betting account is linked to a smart digital wallet, bets and automatic payouts can be activated with no delays.
Crypto tokens have been commonly based on the “ethereum-20” standard and more exchanges are hosting trading across multiple tokens and cryptocurrencies. New token standards offering different advantages are emerging. The BlitzPredict token, called BPZ, for example, is based on the Bancor Protocol, a smart contract with built-in convertibility. The token can be immediately used on partner sports betting platforms without requiring the use of a third party exchange.
Betters can gain access to sports betting features for the new predictive age on the blockchain with the BlitzPredict token. The token is used to place wager and unlock various other functionality. The Blitz Predict ICO started January 22nd. The platform will go live in June, when many betters have placed the odds on a Supreme Court ruling favoring the legalization of sports betting.
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