Who remembers last year's FanDuel football season debacle? Man places a $100 bet, wins the bet and then is sent kicking rocks when trying to claim his $82,000 win. FanDuel told the man (and several other winners) that their internal system made an error when generating odds on a Broncos-Raiders game; he simply was not going to get a payout.
Fortunately, a massive media outcry along with a serious consulting session with state gambling regulators forced FanDuel into submission and all ended well in the end.
What better way to smooth out the sports betting process than with blockchain technology? In a multi-billion dollar industry, sports fans around the world certainly deserve better. Adopting blockchain within the betting industry would be revolutionary due to the nature of the decentralized network.
In a 2018 gambling analysis article, Inc Magazine wrote “…the underpinnings of the [blockchain] technology hold substantial promise for bringing the element of trust into online gambling. By integrating blockchain technology, all parties benefit from the permanent record of a verifiable, unchangeable transaction ledger. In other words, an online gambling platform using this technology provides transparency at the transaction level.”
When placing bets with the use of smart contracts, the blockchain creates trustless transactions, each verified by multiple nodes in the network, allowing people to place bets without having to rely on any centralized party. These smart contracts are immediately logged and hashed, rendering the date in each transaction legitimate and unchangeable. Another facet to this would be that bettors get their payouts immediately upon winning, with the funds going directly into their digital wallets. As opposed to the current-day sportsbooks which run into problems with immediate withdrawals. Taking advantage of cryptocurrencies would also mean fewer processing fees - so, more money in your pocket.
Do you think it will be worth adopting a blockchain based ecosystem to benefit bettors? Leave your comments below or directly with me on Instagram @izzieontheblock