For the most part, Bitcoin bookmakers have operated on the outskirts of the fiat money betting industry, generating only a slice of the revenue older and more traditional bookmakers had. But such trends may soon become a thing of the past as more Bitcoin sportsbetting websites evolve to compete with the best of fiat money operators. And if there’s one name that can prove this, it’s Sportsbet.
Bitcoin Bookmaker Earns €200 Million During World Cup
According to a recent update from Sportsbet – Coingaming Group’s sole betting business – one of the biggest Bitcoin bookmakers online saw an impressive turnover during the World Cup 2018 in Russia. Namely, as director of sportsbook at Sportsbet – Joe McCallum – reveals, the online betting platform generated a staggering turnover of more than €200 million during the competition, thanks to its innovative practices.
If such a number doesn’t look too big for you, you need only to consider other traditional betting markets. For instance, the French betting market – one of the biggest on a global scale – generated a total of over €1 billion during the competition, according to official stats from local regulatory body ARJEL. Out of this €1 billion, France’s biggest online betting operator generated a third of that amount – a figure generated from both online and land-based betting combined.
If you look at Sportsbet’s performance, the operator earned 20% of the turnover of the entire country of France, a place in which a number of local betting brands have been active for years. For comparison, Sportsbet was launched only two years ago, just before the Euro 2016. And not only did the bookmaker generate an admirable turnover during the WC 2018 but it also did quite well after the Cup, with the month of July alone generating €500 million for the site.
Telegram Logins & SOC Coins Drive Numbers
According to McCallum, the main driving force behind Sportsbet’s success during the premium football event is the operator’s recent set of changes. Prior to one of the biggest sport competitions, Sportsbet decided it was time to broaden the scope of their payment options and leave the “Bitcoin-only” label in the past, allowing players to pay with other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum but also Euros and SOC coins. The decision to introduce SOC alone – the coins of the All Football app – helped to open up Sportsbet to an additional 50 million users.
Other changes the bookmaker introduced was the integration of the BTCXE exchange service, which allows anyone to directly wager at the website by exchanging fiat money for Bitcoin without having to go through any online BTC exchange. And to make things even easier, Sportsbet also introduced an industry-first Telegram betting bot that allows users to place bets directly from the messaging service.
Through the Telegram Betting bot, any Sportsbet member can place bets fast, easy, and without wasting too much of their broadband data. Namely, this bot allows users to enjoy a stripped-down version of Sportsbet where they can transfer money, make bets, and cash out without incurring any heavy charges. If you want to see the betting bot in action, feel free to pay a visit to Sportsbet and sign in.