The Impact of Cryptocurrencies on eSports Gambling: Opportunities and Challenges
4 minutes
Last Updated: September 2, 2023
Usually, the words opportunity and challenges co-exist. Within the concept of a great opportunity invariably lies some challenges. Conversely, a challenge can signal opportunity.
Cryptocurrency has provided immense, life-changing opportunities for some traders and investors. Likewise, it has created peril and turmoil for those retail traders who decided to buy these assets at the height of their all-time highs.
Let’s step away from this specific avenue of cryptocurrency and explore how blockchain and digital assets impact several different areas of our world. In that case, there’s no doubt that considerable changes lie in waiting, and the world of gambling is set to experience one of the most significant changes.
Opportunities In eSports Gambling
Cryptocurrency gambling has had the opportunity to permeate different levels of gambling for a few years now. Cryptocurrency casinos have laid the foundation for what could be a fascinating new way to place your bets.
Blockchain technology is something that has transformed the world of finance and is the reason Bitcoin has become such a valuable commodity. In layperson’s terms, the blockchain is a public ledger, encrypted and designed to validate your transaction, which nobody can amend, but everybody can view.
This allows you and the person you send the money to have complete transparency and removes the need for a bank or anybody else to handle your payment – you just connect your wallet and send.
In gambling, the advances are even more remarkable. You can connect your crypto wallet and deposit instantly, but you don’t need to provide any financial details or worry about the bank freezing your transaction.
This frictionless and infinitely more convenient way to gamble is creating huge waves in the gambling industry. As the newest burgeoning market, eSports is seeing increased activity as a viable gambling market.
Hundreds of markets are available, and some crypto-gambling providers have taken one step further in innovation and set up their own tournaments where the winners are paid in cryptocurrency.
It’s a blueprint that other gambling companies will look to mirror if it is a success. Regardless, sites like Thunderpick have already started to make significant waves in the industry.
You can bet on eSports at Thunderpick using Bitcoin, but The World Championship is a significant step up in the stakes, and you can find plenty of markets if you’re looking to bet on the outcome of the tournament, too.
Providing professional video gamers with a tangible opportunity to win a significant prize pool and giving people the opportunity to use their cryptocurrency to gamble on it shows just how much innovation, creativity, and opportunity currently resides within this area of gambling.
Challenges
Although these innovations continue to surprise analysts and bring more people into the gambling sector, cryptocurrency comes with risks. If you use Bitcoin to place your bets, one of the most significant issues you will face is the volatility of the asset.
Some gamblers and investors might not see this as an issue, as it can work one of two ways, from March 2020 to April 2021, Bitcoin’s price increased by over 500%. Therefore, the value would have significantly increased if you placed your bet, won, and kept your Bitcoin.
However, the challenge is that it does work the other way, too – it is renowned for being incredibly volatile, and even in short periods of a few days, the price can dip 10 to 15%. Another critical factor that analysts have highlighted is that many people still don’t understand Bitcoin or blockchain technology.
While it might have felt as though the whole world had sat up and taken notice back in 2021, the truth is many more people don’t understand cryptocurrency than do.
Ultimately, until this dynamic switches significantly, there will still be a lot of trepidation and a lack of knowledge surrounding these assets. Once education becomes a focus, the industry can quickly overcome this challenge.
Education can come in many forms, but practical use cases like cryptocurrency gambling will help. If reluctant converts are initially skeptical but can see that their cryptocurrency can be used more conveniently in a market they’re familiar with.
This will go a long way in helping bridge this gap. Play To Earn (P2E) gaming is another excellent example, where people can earn cryptocurrency as they play, learning and earning simultaneously. For those who have a skill at performing at the highest level, such as the world’s top Counter-Strike players, the possible prize money available is staggering.
The Future Of eSports Cryptocurrency Gambling
Overall, the future is looking bright for eSports and cryptocurrency gambling. The success of one doesn’t hinge on the other, but as they both grow in stature and scope, they will inevitably assist each other in their quest to become viable contenders to more traditional routes of gambling.
As more gambling companies aim for a range of convenient ways to grasp new angles in the market and new customers – cryptocurrency could pave the way for more companies to enter the space and make up serious ground on the established competition.
