Cryptocurrencies are all the rage these days. Find out how to bet with cryptocurrencies and why cryptocurrencies betting is so popular.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you’ve probably heard the words betting with cryptocurrencies, bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, or dogecoin mentioned somewhere. Cryptocurrencies have dominated the conversation for the past few years, and the surprising thing is, the participants aren’t just from the world of finance. 

Cryptocurrencies have become a cultural phenomenon that goes far beyond the actual purpose they fulfill. Big names like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerburg have spoken on the subject at great length. Celebrities and sports professionals have also hopped on the bandwagon.

It is no surprise then that Cryptocurrencies have penetrated popular culture and enjoy a mainstream appeal that such things normally don’t. Despite still being a relatively new currency, crypto is being leveraged by businesses everywhere.

This is especially true for the gambling and sports betting industry. Cryptocurrencies betting has become a popular banking option for many sports betting companies. In this guide, we will look at bitcoin betting in more detail and answer some of the most common questions that you may have regarding this new digital currency.

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What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is often used synonymously with cryptocurrency, which is understandable as it was one of the first cryptocurrencies to generate mainstream appeal. It is important to clarify, though, that bitcoin is also just a type of cryptocurrency.

This raises the question: what are cryptocurrencies? As the name suggests, cryptocurrency is a currency that has monetary value and can be exchanged for goods and services. Cash is known as fiat currency and used to be tied to the gold standard. That means the cash in any economy would receive its value from the gold reserves in that economy.

Following the abolition of the gold standard, fiat currency began to receive its value from floating or fixed exchange rates against the U.S. Dollar. Now we have reached the next step in the evolution with crypto. Cryptocurrencies can be purchased with fiat currency and used to purchase digital goods and services.

A common example used to explain crypto is that of casino chips. Chips represent a currency within an institution, which in this example is a casino. The chips represent the value you’ve purchased using fiat currency. You can use chips in the casino to conduct transactions.

The appeal of cryptocurrencies lies in their infinite applications. At face value, they represent a unit of exchange, but since they’re completely decentralized, they can be used in various situations. Mostly, they are used as a currency substitute.

How is this possible? To answer this question requires an understanding of the technology behind bitcoin and all other cryptocurrencies – Blockchain. Blockchain technology is essentially a ledger of information that is distributed across various computers. The fact that the information is scattered means that it is completely decentralized.

This is useful because it protects the currency from manipulation by any authority. Blockchains ensure that that the data contained within any cryptocurrency is remaining secure. This, in turn, means that cryptocurrencies cannot be counterfeited.

Let’s turn our attention now to cryptocurrencies betting.

Why Bet with Cryptocurrencies?

There are several advantages to betting with cryptocurrencies. Let’s take a look at the main ones and break them down.

Great Bonuses

The first thing that deserves mentioning when it comes to cryptocurrencies betting is that betting platforms offer you better bonuses for using crypto. The calculus here is simple – each betting platform offers you a few standard bonuses upon joining the platform and occasionally on your continued use of the platform as well.

Then you have the crypto bonuses. The crypto bonuses are offered by almost every major online betting site, and all you have to do to avail them is to conduct your transactions in cryptocurrencies. There’s obviously a reason why you’re being offered these bonuses.

Online betting companies want to incentivize cryptocurrencies for their users because they prefer receiving payments in this form. This is because of the aforementioned decentralization that blockchain, the technology behind cryptocurrencies, offers.

Thanks to the decentralization and security provided by cryptocurrency betting, online betting sites, especially offshore ones, can secure their payments. There is always a worry among such platforms that the authorities will seize their assets. With bitcoin betting, this is no longer an issue.

Faster Payout Times

Once again, since crypto is decentralized, the platforms can offer their users faster payout times with cryptocurrency betting. How is this possible? Well, the obvious answer is that there’s very little bureaucracy involved with bitcoin betting.

This means that the normal red-tape that applies to cash, credit card, or bank transfer transactions doesn’t apply. The money normally goes through an agent that verifies everything and ensures that the transaction is above board when using these methods. This process slows the payout significantly.

With cryptocurrencies, such a centralized authority cannot exist, and hence the payout is much faster. This plays in your favor as you can have access to your funds sooner.

Secure Payments

If there’s one thing that cryptocurrencies excel in, it is security. With a cash transaction or even those made with credit cards or via the bank, there’s always a general sense of anxiety that your payment may not be secure.

However, the technology behind cryptocurrencies virtually guarantees that your payment will be secure. Thanks to the blockchain, it is impossible to duplicate or forge transactions using cryptocurrencies because each transaction is recorded on the chain itself. This can be incredibly useful when using cryptocurrency to conduct transactions with offshore betting companies.

No Charges

This is again one of those incentives that online betting platforms provide to encourage the use of cryptocurrencies. Normally, platforms will charge users a service fee for processing payments. This can be as high as 7-8%, which you would understandably want to avoid.

Well, through bitcoin betting, you can avoid these extra charges because most platforms won’t add charges if you make payments with cryptocurrencies. While the percentage applied to the transaction isn’t a lot, it adds up quickly, and if you’re a high roller, you may be losing thousands of dollars to these processing charges.

Since it’s your money at the end of the day, you will probably not want the platform to take even a small transaction cut. Additionally, since payments are faster with cryptocurrency betting while also carrying no charges, you have every reason to bet with cryptocurrencies over other methods.

Before Betting with Cryptocurrency

We’ve sung plenty of praises of bitcoin betting, but in the interest of fairness, we should mention certain things. Before you decide to bet with cryptocurrencies, you must know the following things:

More Equal Than Others

While all cryptocurrencies are built around the same technology, not all enjoy the glittering reputation that mainstream ones do. As a result of this, only a handful of cryptocurrencies can be used for cryptocurrencies betting while the rest cannot. This is important to know beforehand for obvious reasons – if you bought a handful of crypto and then learned you couldn’t bet with it, you’d be pretty annoyed with yourself.

Currently, you can rely on the four major cryptocurrencies being accepted at almost every online betting platform you visit. These are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. That isn’t to say that others won’t be included. Some sites will accept other cryptocurrencies, but these are few and far between.

So if you want to use crypto for cryptocurrencies betting, it’s best to just rely on the major players for now. As crypto empires rise and fall, the offerings by gambling sites will undoubtedly change, and you can alter your crypto holdings based on that.

Hot Money

Cryptocurrencies are still relatively new. This means two things: first, very few people truly understand the mechanisms they work, and secondly, they can be incredibly volatile. Now, if you anything about currencies, you’ll know that volatility and currencies don’t exactly mix well.

This is because you want your currency to be a store of value, and if that value keeps changing every day, then it’s not going to be a very good store of value, is it? This is one of the reasons the U.S. Dollar was the currency that replaced the gold standard – it was incredibly stable over long periods.

The only solution is to keep a sharp eye on the situation at all times and be wary of big fluctuations in the markets. What does this mean for bitcoin betting? Any money you already have in the casino will be safe from these fluctuations, but when you withdraw it into your bitcoin wallet, you’ll see that it isn’t worth the same as it was going in.

Scammers Galore

Look, if you’ve been around the online gambling world for a while, you don’t really need us reminding you to be alert. The sad reality is that this world is full of fraudulent individuals, and many of them dominate the online gambling world.

The fact that bitcoin is such an appealing currency also means that a lot of people are willing to cheat you out of your hard-earned cash. How do you tell the scammers apart from the genuine platforms? It’s not that hard, to be honest. It simply requires a bit of cynicism when operating in the online sports betting community.

If a website has been around for a while, say a decade, or so then the chances are that cryptocurrencies betting is just one of the many options available to you on the platform. This means that the platform will incentivize you to use crypto but never force you. You can even conduct a straightforward Google search to confirm if the platform is legit or not.

Normally, platforms that have been around for a long time have a decent enough track record, and any misdemeanors on their part are recorded somewhere. The websites that you should look out for are the ones that have only been around for a year or two and force you to use cryptocurrencies by not providing you with any other transaction methods. The chances are that you’ll find little to no information about them online either. It’s recommended that you avoid these kinds of sites regardless of how good an offering they provide. Once they’ve been around for a while and other people have reviewed their services, perhaps you can try them out too.

Heavily Regulated

We’ve already discussed this, so this should not be news to you – cryptocurrencies are still relatively new. That isn’t a problem in itself. The issue is that they are currencies. That puts them in the strange space where they are public goods, and the government normally wishes to regulate such things.

The issue is that cryptocurrencies, by their very nature, avoid regulation. This means that the legal space around cryptocurrencies is a constant storm. Authorities are looking for ways to bring the technology under their influence while crypto users try to evade regulations.

If you just bought the currency to bet with cryptocurrencies, you may feel like you ended up in a war you didn’t sign up for. The authorities will use strong legal and punitive language to dissuade users from purchasing crypto, and you may be worried that you’re breaking the law.

Adding further complexity to the situation is that the online gambling industry is always the subject of legal scrutiny by the government. Perhaps you don’t want to get involved in such matters, which no one can blame you for, to be honest.

However, suppose you do wish to continue. If that is the case, then you must act with prudence. Never invest more than you can afford to lose in the sportsbook or in crypto. The reason is that regulations are always changing, and all of your holdings could be reduced to nothing with one swing of the gavel.

Crypto is inherently unstable these days anyway; one rumor that a new regulation coming could cause a fire sale, reducing the value of the currency immensely overnight.

Permanent Transactions

One of the benefits of a middle man like a bank or a financial institution is protecting from yourself. They act as agents who verify each transaction, and sometimes if you’ve made a mistake, they even help you reverse the transaction.

This is not the case with cryptocurrencies. Entering the wrong wallet code could mean that you’ve lost the money forever. So, you must be incredibly careful when conducting business with cryptocurrencies.

How to Bet with Cryptocurrencies?

There are a few steps you need to follow if you wish to bet with cryptocurrencies. Let’s take a look at some of them in more detail.

Select a Crypto Wallet

The very first thing you need to understand is where cryptocurrency is stored.

Cryptocurrencies are stored in a digital wallet since they do not exist as physical currency. Now, a digital wallet serves two functions. First, it protects the secure crypto keys that come along with the currency. Secondly, it provides its users with the ability to make payments and withdrawals from the wallet.

One of the very best features of a digital wallet that has seen an increase in its use these days is the ability to transfer funds between wallets. This means that you can make payments on the go without having to worry about anything.

The secure keys that we mentioned is a unique code that you can use to use your funds, make transactions and transfers. In short, these keys are essential to using cryptocurrencies. There are several different types of wallets out there, and you will probably want to choose one that you are most comfortable with.

When choosing a wallet, it’s important to remember that they all provide essentially the same function, so you should always use one that is recommended by other users and has a significant user base. There is strength in numbers, and no more is it needed than when dealing with cryptocurrencies.

Deposit Money into Your Wallet

The next step is obviously to add some money into your wallet. This is where the casino chips example comes in handy once again. You essentially need to purchase digital currency and add it to your wallet to be used for whatever you want.

The value of cryptocurrencies fluctuates a lot, so you should keep that in mind when choosing which currency you wish to deposit into your digital wallet. The amount you add will be reflected in your digital wallet in bitcoin terms, the value of which you can convert in fiat currency terms very easily.

Select a Gambling Site

There are several online sports betting and gambling sites out there. You will want to choose one that meets your unique needs and wants. If you want to bet with cryptocurrencies, you will want to look into what platform is the best and which sportsbook is the best for you.

This can include researching bonuses, payout and withdrawal methods, payout times, customer service quality, and much more. If you feel overwhelmed by the prospect of carrying out this much research, then you could simply refer to our expert guides on the best sportsbooks out there.

Our team of experts regularly updates these reviews to provide you with the most authentic and up-to-date information, along with our opinion on each sportsbook.

Go Through Bonuses

Now, one of the reasons you want to bet with cryptocurrencies is to take advantage of the available bonuses for crypto transactions. As such, you must go through each sportsbook to see which one offers you the best bonuses for betting with cryptocurrencies.

Deposit Money

Now that you have a sportsbook, you should sign up for it using the account creation page. After that, you’re almost done with betting with bitcoin. All you have to do now is add money into your virtual account on the platform.

Since we’re trying to bet with cryptocurrencies you will choose that as your deposit option and send money to the site’s digital wallet address. Once that’s complete, you should see the money added to your account within the next 15 to 20 minutes.

This concludes the process of betting with bitcoin. We hope every step of the process was as clear as possible.

Final Word

This has been our guide to cryptocurrency betting. Crypto can be a challenging concept to grasp at times, but that doesn’t mean that we should live in ignorance. Those who take the leap into this new form of currency can reap the rewards associated with it.

Since online betting platforms have a great affinity for cryptocurrencies, the rewards are immense in the online betting world, as we’ve already established. If you feel like you understand how to bet with cryptocurrencies now, go ahead and give it a try and see the benefits for yourself.

For more guides on other aspects related to online betting, follow the link.

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Betting with Cryptocurrencies FAQs