Most exciting gambling-related crypto projects
According to statistics, the value of the online gambling market was estimated at $66.7 billion in 2020. Most experts seem to predict that massive growth will be registered over the next few years. For instance, Statista estimates a $92.9 billion global gambling market size by 2023, whereas other research efforts have unveiled even greater forecasts.
Truth be told, anything is possible with the appearance of crypto gambling. When we speak about crypto gambling, we’re referring to both casinos that accept crypto payments, as well as gambling-related crypto projects. As there’s an important difference between the two concepts, today’s article will focus on describing the gist behind crypto projects within the gambling industry, while highlighting some of the market’s most exciting startups.
What is a gambling-related crypto project?
By definition, these projects attempt to innovate by integrating blockchain technology within their operations. Such startups usually hold a crypto-centric philosophy regarding the future of online gambling. A quick Google search will showcase tons of promising casinos that support cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals. However, there are considerably fewer gambling-related projects that base their operations on the principles of blockchain technology. Projects like these are capable of reshaping the gambling industry as we know it. Unfortunately, many fail to receive the attention they deserve due to an overabundance of crypto-based businesses.
Investors generally have a sharp eye for innovative projects that aspire to disrupt industries, yet almost none of the gambling-related ICOs managed to attract significant capital. Similarly, many ICOs failed to ‘moon’ and have never generated a hefty return on investment (ROI).
Despite the multiple advantages held by gambling-related crypto projects, traditional crypto casinos usually outperform these startups. The reasoning here is straightforward - since the crypto market is still in its infancy, most users are only accustomed to sending, receiving, and holding digital assets. Many are still unaware of blockchain’s vast potential and know little about the philosophy behind decentralization, non-custodial wallets, or financial freedom. Gambling platforms that simply support crypto-based payments are direct beneficiaries to the current state of the industry. And it makes sense! After all, users are mainly interested in depositing and playing. The vast majority is not keen on staking native tokens or delving into system operations.
Fortunately, there’s a growing number of gamblers and investors who realize the full extent of the benefits behind on-chain gambling. These vary from platform to platform, but players should expect full transparency regarding their wagers and the casino’s operations, native tokens, staking mechanisms, profit-sharing, multi-coin support, non-custodial wallets, peer-to-peer games, and much more. In fact, some platforms even feature community governance.
As the crypto gambling market continues to mature, it is expected that people worldwide will comprehend the untapped potential of gambling-related crypto projects. In return, such ventures will soon grow to new heights, thereby granting investors access to a much-improved ROI. The crypto and gambling markets already hold several promising startups that aim to revolutionize the industry as a whole. Most of these platforms have faced various challenges, but have fortunately managed to remain functional while attempting to adhere to the roadmap by releasing regular updates.
The following section will highlight several exciting gambling crypto projects that you ought to keep an eye on.
Examples of promising gambling-related crypto projects
FunFair
FunFair is one of the world’s best-known gambling-related crypto projects. The platform aims to cater to casinos by providing them with the resources required to facilitate transparent, guaranteed-fair, and low-cost gameplay experiences. FunFair is built on top of the Ethereum blockchain and ties its ecosystem together via the native ERC-20 FUN token. FUN is therefore utilized to process bets while handling incentive mechanisms, rewards, licensing fees, and more.
FunFair has also launched CasinoFair, a gambling platform that goes above and beyond to prove that each and every bet is processed transparently, without any rigging whatsoever. Thus, CasinoFair doesn’t only claim to be provably fair - rather, it fully guarantees it.
Today, FunFair remains fully-functional as it works towards achieving its vision.
Augur
Augur aims to revolutionize the betting market by building a peer-to-peer betting platform that supports unlimited wagering on any event that matters. As expected, the service runs on-chain, so every bet is immutably and transparently recorded. Oracles are smartly leveraged to accurately determine event outcomes. Users can bet on virtually anything, and there’s no limit to how much can be wagered. The best part? Augur doesn’t take a cut, yet it has some of the market’s best odds.
Augur functions as a decentralized P2P exchange that enables worldwide access to its services. It runs on the Ethereum blockchain, so each bet works as a smart contract - as soon as the predetermined conditions are met, the contract self-executes by issuing payment. Augur has already built a trading app, where bets are placed as actual currency trades, thus appealing to traders everywhere.
The organization is still active and is currently building its fully-fledged betting exchange and user interface.
Wagerr
Wagerr is also a betting platform, but this one focuses on sports betting exclusively. With an endearing interface and good market depth, users can seamlessly bet on numerous sports events. Wagerr can be described as limitless - there are no betting limits, nor are there any geographical restrictions.
The decentralized platform relies on smart contracts and live oracles, which accurately verify bet outcomes in a transparent manner. As the contracts are self-executing, payouts are guaranteed. Wagerr promises unlimited liquidity, alongside user-controlled privacy. It operates via the WGR cryptocurrency, which is a deflationary coin that serves as a means of payment.
While updates and social media engagement are less common nowadays, Wagerr holds great potential and remains operational.
EarnBet
EarnBet is one of the first decentralized and on-chain gambling platforms. It’s often been referred to as a dApp with commercial-scale ambitions as it’s building the future of crypto gambling.
EarnBet features several highly-entertaining games alongside support for over a dozen cryptocurrencies.
However, this isn’t its main selling point. Rather, EarnBet is appreciated for its decentralization, provably fair games, and non-custodial wallets. Thanks to EarnBet’s blockchain architecture (which is powered by Wax), users retain complete control over their funds. EarnBet has also created the BET token - it’s very own cryptocurrency. BET is obtained through gameplay or via purchase and can be staked to receive dividend payouts and to reduce the house edge on games. As the casino’s popularity increases, long-term BET token stakers will likely reap considerable profits.
Today, EarnBet still enjoys a reasonable degree of popularity. Its development team is working on a ChainLink integration meant to facilitate access to off-chain oracle data for betting purposes. Social media teasers point towards a large update sometime in 2021.
Edgeless
Edgeless is a perfect example of failed potential. When launched, the platform promised Ethereum-powered gambling that would assure transparency, entertainment, profitability, legal compliance, and ease-of-use. In some ways, Edgeless succeeded. It showcased how blockchain technology can be utilized to make gambling transparent, hence removing player doubts. Edgeless also built EDG, a native token designed as a means to wager on games, but also as a way to fund the community bankroll.
Despite showing great potential from the get-go, something went wrong. Today, the platform remains usable, but marketing has stopped, and the number of active players is nearing zero.
Wrapping it up
Today’s gambling industry is flawed. While crypto-based wagering is infinitely better than using fiat as a payment method, many crypto casinos still lack sufficient bankroll security, guaranteed game fairness, multi-coin support, or transparency. Gambling-related crypto projects are already solving many of the inherent problems of the casino industry. As the market matures, it is expected that more users will shift to next-gen platforms that put the customer first.