Here at Bet360.net we pride ourselves on offering visitors a 360 degree view of the online sports betting landscape. For this reason we would be remiss if we didn’t touch on the new online sports betting sites that have been popping up over the past year and continue to gain traction. These are of course the new sportsbooks that are allowing users to bet with BitCoins.
What Are Bitcoins
Bitcoins have been in the press a lot over the past year, but for those of you who don’t know here is a quick breakdown of what Bitcoins are. Basically bitcoins are a decentralized virtual currency that has no ties to any single government. This is a very general description. To read up more on Bitcoin I suggest checking out the Wikipedia page where there is a wealth of information.
Bitcoin have gained a lot of traction among investors who don’t fully trust the current currencies that are basically owned by the government that issues them.
Here is a quick video that can explain Bitcoins much better than I can:
How Do Bitcoins Fit Into Sports Betting
Bitcoins fit perfectly for sports betting for a couple of reasons.
Number 1 they allow players from countries that may have laws against sports betting online to participate by using bitcoins as their currency. You would deposit and withdraw bitcoins onto the site so you never actually have to use your countries currency and go through the payment processors that aren’t allowed to process gambling transactions. You can then transfer bitcoins into your own currency outside of the sportsbook.
Secondly the processing of deposits and withdrawals is much faster, smoother and arguably safer. By not having to use your bank account or credit card a lot of the red tape that goes with depositing and withdrawing online is taken away which makes for a much smoother process.
Bitcoin Sportsbooks
There are already several online sportsbooks that accept Bitcoin. Just off the top of my head some of the most popular include BetCoin, CloudBet and Anonibet. As you can see each of these sportsbooks branded themselves after being a bitcoin sportsbook.
Bitcoins on Traditional Sportsbooks
Right now it’s very difficult to find a traditional online sportsbook that accepts Bitcoin as a deposit method. I don’t expect this to change anytime soon because most of the big sportsbooks such as Bet365, William Hill or BetOnline to name a few have to follow their licensing agreement in the country that they run. I’m not an expert, but I would suspect that this may prevent them from accepting bitcoin at this time.
Because bitcoin is such a volatile currency traditional sportsbooks would also have to allow/force their customers to keep their funds in bitcoin in order to prevent any huge fluctuations that could hurt the sportsbook if they were converting bitcoins into another currency.
Time will tell whether bitcoins really catch on in the sports betting industry. For now you should know that they are an option and do some more research to find out if betting with bitcoins is right for you.
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