Thanks to cryptocurrencies, sports betting has become easier and more secure than ever before. While BTC is the most popular form of cryptocurrency online, it’s unfortunately not the best to work with. More than half of the cryptocurrency in the sports betting industry is controlled by BTC, but as much as it is the bulk, using it is such a huge pain.

You might sometimes have to wait the whole day for a deposit to be processed. But the good news is that there are plenty of other coins such as Ethereum, which offer shorter wait times. Ethereum has now become very popular among people, but sadly, very few online sports betting sites have adopted it. Despite this, we are still going to take you through the basics of Ethereum gambling. We focus on:

• How you can buy and deposit Ethereum online
• How you can use Ethereum – in-play betting, Ethereum trading, sports betting
• Creating an account at the Ethereum betting sites

Buying Ethereum Online and Depositing at The Sportsbook

Ethereum was created to serve a global currency system without any need for a central bank. As we’ve already mentioned, this currency has main features such as speed of transfer, anonymity and low transaction fees, making it ideal for sports betting. If you have to join the Ethereum revolution, it’s important you know how you can purchase it.

Purchasing Ethereum is the fastest route to joining one of the largest revolution since paper money was invented. Fortunately, gone are those days when you had to purchase coins with the guidance of an IT expert and weeks of waiting.

Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency in terms of size and value in the cryptocurrency industry. It also happens to be one of the most widely accepted means of payment at the online platforms, including sports betting sites. And if you have to get yourself some Ethereum coins, you can do so through two main ways; buying them in the open market or mining the newly minted coins.

Mining is a very complicated and expensive process, so if you’d have to get Ethereum coins to bet online, it would be through purchasing it online. This section will focus on highlighting ways through which you can easily turn your cash into Ethereum real fast.

Purchasing Ethereum at the Open Markets

Turning your (Euro, GBP, USD, etc.) into Ethereum used to be a challenging task. But with the ever growing popularity has prompted into newer and friendlier options to popup by the day. It will only take you three steps to complete this.

Step 1: You Need to Set Up an Ethereum Wallet
The first step is to choose and set up an Ethereum wallet. Much like your bank account, the wallet is essential for moving coins in and out your account. It acts as an intermediary. And more like your bank account, wallets come in all flavours, depending on your preferences.
As a beginner, we highly recommend wallets such as TREZOR and Metamask. We recommend these two because they allow you to sync your account through major platforms including Android, iOS, Mac, Windows and Linus OS.

Step 2: Choosing the best platform that sells Ethereum

This greatly depends on the availability in your country as well as preferences regarding speed, security price and anonymity. However, the main places where you can buy Ethereum online are exchanges such as BitForex and Binance. When choosing between the two, look at factors such as the fees, anonymity, security, user-friendliness and payment methods.

Step 3: Pick a Payment Option
Once you’ve are content with the choices for the first two steps, the next big step is to take into account the supported payment methods for each one of the category of Bitcoin marketplace. Different payment options have various implications for anonymity, transaction time, security and price. As a rule of the thumb, the more anonymous a payment option is, the more expensive it is.

The third step is the last one! Congratulations and welcome to the Ethereum club! What you need to do next to bet using Ethereum online is to deposit online. You can do so by following the following steps.

• The first step is to click on the deposit options and select Ethereum as your preferred option
• Copy your sportsbook’s deposit address
• The next step is to open your Ethereum wallet. Search for the ‘send’ button to create a transaction. Paste the deposit address that you’ve copied in the second field into the recipient field and select the amount that you’d like to send
• Click on send and wait for a confirmation from your sportsbook that you’ve received Ethereum coins

What Can I Use Ethereum to Bet On?

In the few years that Ethereum has been in existence, it has prompted disagreements, fears and innovation. As a number of ways in which you can use it, we are going to have a look at what one can use to bet with Ethereum.

Just like the normal cash, you can easily use Ethereum to pay for goods and services. Even though there are different vendors online accepting Ethereum as a payment method, only a handful view it as an actual improvement money.

We are not in the business of enlightening you on how Ethereum will transform your life. In some instances, especially when betting at the regular bookmakers, you may have experienced delays especially when receiving your winnings. Sometimes when betting, you might even have missed a bet because of failed transactions.

It’s totally understandable given that fraud is a big problem. The bookmakers have to ensure that they protect themselves and that the money won’t be charged back to them. Sometimes, they have to ensure that they are paying the winnings to the legitimate person.

At the Ethereum bookmakers, once they’ve received your funds, they are certain that it has arrived. This is because they use blockchain technology, which is a record of transaction that can be accessed publicly on the network provided that you know the transaction number.

Therefore, as long as you are certain of the address that you are sending the money to, what you need to worry about are the sports that you can bet on using the coins. And that’s what we are here to tell you now!

Sports Betting

Once you successfully make your Ethereum deposit into your online sportsbook account, you can easily place a bet on any one of the markets offered. All you need to do is simply cross check to ensure that your sporting event is featured and place your bet.

One advantage of placing bets online is that their odds are usually very generous as compared to the land based bookmakers. Furthermore, some of them offer promotions and bonuses that you can’t find at the land based bookmakers.

In play betting

The beginning of an event doesn’t mean that that should be the end of you placing a bet. With the current technology and competition, online sports books have dynamics that allow for you to bet as the events unfold. Each of the sporting event will have varying markets depending on how actions unfold. Furthermore, odds vary depending on what actions unfolds so it’s best to jump on the price that you seem to like more! Chances are you might miss on the opportunity!

Doubled up bets

As with any other currency in the market, Ethereum is usually traded against other currencies. The continued growth in popularity and interest of cryptocurrencies towards the end of 2017 saw Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies reach a new all-time high. In fact, if you had managed to win a bet during this period, the winnings could be worth a lot even now!
Are you ready to try any one of these? Explore a number of bookmakers that support Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies in the market today!

How do you open an account at an Ethereum sportsbook?

Placing a bet using Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies is much easier when compared to the traditional payment options. In order to join this new wave of sports betting, the first important step is to join any one of the leading sportsbook. In case you didn’t know how to, this section will take through it all!

Cryptocurrency sportsbook sites first appeared online towards the start of 2015. But they didn’t quite get the momentum they thought they would until Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies gained momentum towards the end of 2017. These sportsbook sites now offer you the excitement of an online sports betting site, with some combining this with the glamour of the live dealer casino.

Before we go into the procedure on how you can open an account at any one of the Ethereum sportsbook, it’s worth mentioning that like Bitcoin, it maintains the anonymity factor that BTC offers. This feature, combined with online casino and sports betting licensing ensures that Ethereum betting is safe and secure.

A step by step guide on how to create an account with a sportsbook

To create an account with any sportsbook, follow the steps below:

• Choose a valid and licensed online bookmaker
• Under the site, click on the sign up or login button
• Fill in the details required. Ensure you’ve entered only correct and up to date information for the purpose of account verification
• Choose a password that you can remember. Ensure it has a mixture of upper case and lower case letters, numbers and characters
• Submit the details
• Log into your account and confirm your email address to start betting

If you still need more reason to bet at the Ethereum sports betting sites, you’ll be pleased to know that some offer a match deposit bonus. For more information regarding the same, just visit the sportsbook’s promotion page! Otherwise, you are all set and ready to bet online!

FAQ about Ethereum Sportsbooks

What you should know about Ethereum

The advantages of Ethereum and its token, ether, are the following:

Ethereum is an open, interoperable platform for creating and running smart contracts and other applications.

Ethereum is open-source, meaning anyone can look through its code and run any of its smart contracts.

The Ether network, which supports most of the Ethereum network, is a public, secure network.

The protocol behind the Ethereum network is a set of cryptographic standards called the Ethereum Virtual Machine, or ETHVM.

The main use cases for Ethereum are the creation of decentralized applications and tokens. The ultimate vision of Ethereum is a worldwide network of autonomous, self-run entities, populated by smart contracts and distributed applications.

The Ethereum network facilitates the creation of decentralized applications by giving users the opportunity to run code on any computer in the network at any time, and incentivizing participants with Ether for creating and deploying these applications.

The main use cases for Ethereum are the creation of decentralized applications and tokens. The ultimate vision of Ethereum is a worldwide network of autonomous, self-run entities, populated by smart contracts and distributed applications.

What is Ethereum?

Ethereum is the open-source successor to Bitcoin, which was originally launched in 2009. It is much faster and more secure than other alternatives.

Ethereum has one function in common with its predecessors — it is a distributed applications platform.

Most of the apps you are used to doing in the browser require you to open up different applications on a server. After you sign up, you can view all of the pages you have loaded and view their contents, but that is not always feasible.

When people ask about a decentralized application, they usually mean something like the kind of services you can get for free on GitHub, or paid services with Permissioned Permissions or SuperNET. But these kinds of applications are too slow and do not scale well.

You can imagine the scale of Web 3.0 — which looked and felt like a giant, open Web 2.0 web — until the development tools and infrastructure improved.

Today, apps are decentralized and sometimes decentralized apps are the most popular.

An app is decentralized, therefore, when people running them can use the same protocols (such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Memethumb) in a number of different ways. They can load any file on any computer, save their Ether on a public ledger, transfer any value to any other person, etc.

Ethereum enables you to run any software you want, on any computer at any time, as long as it is running on the same block chain as Ether. This is different from the browser, where you must build a custom browser or download a plugin.

We will see how this differs with future articles.

What is a token?

Ether is the token used on the Ethereum network.

All cryptocurrencies use ether for their public distributed ledger, but you must own ether before you can perform transactions on the network. The tokens on the network are called ether tokens.

The difference to Bitcoin and Ethereum was that Ethereum wasn’t created as an internet payment system, though that is a vital part of its success. Instead, Ethereum was created to allow smart contracts, which are similar to web applications, to run on its network.

Unlike bitcoin, Ether was created to create an alternative form of digital currency. This allows users to run smart contracts that act like digital currencies but are outside of the control of the issuing company or issuing bank.

Ether was the seventh most-funded project at the time of its initial launch in 2014, raising $24m in Ether, which at that time was worth around $125 per token.

Ethereum can be used for security-related uses that can be achieved on other cryptocurrencies.

Another application of Ethereum is used for blockchain asset exchanges. For example, ShapeShift, which connects traders and their assets on the market with the tools they need for creating and trading their securities on the market.

How Can Ethereum Be Used For Video Games?

Most video games require a significant investment of time, money and resources. Recently, games have experienced explosive growth thanks to the growth of new platforms.

There are a number of platforms that encourage gamers to invest their time and funds into projects, and that have already earned more than $100 million. Examples of such new platforms include the Mastercoin and Groupees platforms.

One new innovative platform is Swarm City, where developers earn 3% of all transactions made using their token of choice. Some popular games are also using Ethereum for their in-game economy and payment systems. Examples of games that have integrated Ethereum are Watchdogs 2 and Zoolander 2.

Of course, many other game developers are also exploring using Ethereum for in-game transactions, content monetisation, and crowdfunding.

So, if you are looking for a way to invest in games, Ethereum is one of the most promising options for doing so. This cryptocurrency is also one of the most attractive opportunities for investors, who can create a new empire of game-based investments on the Ethereum platform.

Competitor EOS Vs. ETC

Ether is the third largest cryptocurrency in the world, holding the fourth largest market capitalisation at US$22.5 billion at the end of the 21st December 2016. Its market capitalisation is supported by the vast majority of ethers invested.

ETC – the fourth largest cryptocurrency – was created in July 2015 and the fourth largest circulating digital asset in the world at the end of July 2016. Its market capitalisation has also grown significantly as of early 2017, but remains behind Ethereum in terms of global transactions. However, its market cap is still significant compared to Ethereum – it is valued at US$9.4 billion, while Ethereum is worth a little over $13 billion.

ETC can also be used for gaming. In September 2016, Elite Dangerous and its affiliate aDice, which is part of Facebook, teamed up to launch the Galaxy Network – a game that is available to play on the Ethereum network. In May 2017, Eve Valkyrie developed an in-game economy and based on the Ethereum network, the game launched its VR market.

What Is All The Ethereum Effect?

Today, investors and gamers alike are taking advantage of the unique properties of Ethereum that make it a strong contender for gamers. As you can see, the list of projects that are using Ethereum is increasing each year.

Another innovative project that we’re very happy to see launching on the Ethereum network is Hcash – a decentralized exchange and cryptocurrency.

Hcash aims to simplify financial transactions and legitimize multisignature transactions. For example, one account for exchanges, one account for customers, and one account for receiving, sending and transferring money. The decentralization of financial transactions means faster and simpler processes.

What is Ethereum based on?

Ethereum is based on the Ethereum Virtual Machine, which is not Turing complete but it was created in a similar way as Ethereum.

Ethereum is also quite difficult to use for beginners and would be better used for someone who is interested in developing a piece of software that executes financial contracts than for someone who is simply looking for a financial platform. It is considered that Ethereum could one day replace some financial products and data products.

Ethereum platform also allows users to issue their own tokens and therefore create their own tokens (or coins).

How to get Ether?

Ether can be bought through any of the usual exchanges like BTC-E or ETH-E.

Where do you get ether?

Ether is available on a number of exchanges, such as the Ethereum platform, the Swiss crypto-exchange ETHChron, the Hong Kong crypto-exchange KEA, the Binance exchange, and the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin. You can also buy ether on marketplaces that are based on different cryptocurrencies like Binance, Tezos.

An initial token

Tokens used for a specific protocol, platform, ICO, bounty program
Digital tokens needed to run a smart contract
Ether tokens used for Ether deposits to the smart contract, e.g. ETH and EtherDelta.

Who owns ether?

Ether is owned by two public owners, Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood. The public owner is controlled by Buterin, who gives away 50 Ether per year to the owners of he most successful projects. The public owner is run by Gavin Wood, who controls around 20% of the Ether total supply.

After paying the owners with Ether, it becomes public in everyone’s ownership and is added to Ether transactions. When Ether is not used for a predetermined period (often 24-36 months), its total supply is cut.

Who can buy ether?

You can buy Ether on many exchanges and via private ether trading platforms. For those who don’t know who to buy ether from, just look on the traders’ platforms listed on the Google Shopping or Amazon Shopping search engines.

What if I don’t have a cryptocurrency wallet yet?

There are many wallets available to store and trade your ether.

Where to buy Ether

There are multiple ways to buy Ether, and there are exchanges which are supported by all major cryptocurrencies: BTC-E, XBT-E, GDAX, Gemini, CEX.io, Pantera, and Kraken.

How to use Ether

With the exception of buying Ether tokens, which are distributed by the developers, doing anything on the platform is extremely simple. It requires you to register with the Ethereum program, and the ETH tokens are created on-demand on the exchange by anyone with a specific function.

Examples of Ethereum Usage

Understanding Ethereum, you need to have some sort of smart contract written on Ethereum, either on the protocol or in some other platform. Most of the time the smart contract on the protocol is referred to as the “smart contract on the protocol”.

What is the only difference between a “contract on the protocol” and a “smart contract”?

One of the main differences is that in a contract on the protocol, no one gets rich – everyone gets some benefit as long as the smart contract is able to meet certain conditions. So, for example, a Swiss company will still receive their salaries and bonuses.

Here are some examples of such scenarios:

A Swiss company wants to issue dividends to its shareholders. The smart contract must certify that the company is compliant with a tax law in that jurisdiction. If the Swiss company were to issue taxable dividends, they would be subject to tax in Switzerland.

You want to buy a property and you want to buy the most up-to-date photos of the property. The smart contract must certify that there are no unapproved changes to the ownership on the property, including for example, having recently sold the property.

At the time of writing, a company wants to issue dividends to its shareholders. The smart contract must certify that the company has already paid its capital to the fund, with the proper tax taking effect when the payout is made. The company is liable for taxes on its dividend.

…and more!
Before you start writing a smart contract, there are some important things to take into consideration:

Your requirement is not a requirement of a protocol. In case of a provider providing an unapproved smart contract, the provider may be fined by the respective jurisdiction. However, you will not be fined for creating a smart contract by yourself. Creating smart contracts is not so much a matter of freedom as of privacy. For instance, if you want to add a super smart contract to a VPN client that is maintained by the central trust, it would not be possible. However, if you build a smart contract by yourself, you won’t be able to spy on your friends or find out anything that you are not authorized to know.

What are Smart Contracts?

Smart Contracts are based on cryptographic tokens on Ethereum, which act like shares in the company they were issued. Companies have agreed to abide by certain terms and guidelines set by the blockchain.

This means they have agreed to limit trading volume, and hold the same contracts on the same day (meaning trading is capped to a certain volume).

Founded by two academics, ConsenSys was set up to build a transparent and secure decentralized application. The primary aim is to create a platform for application developers to build applications on Ethereum, rather than simply to run their own applications on Ethereum.

Examples for Ethereum Apps

Apps based on Ethereum have two main benefits:

Decentralized applications

One of the main ways of reducing the costs associated with using Ethereum is through the use of smart contracts, which are essentially applications written on a blockchain. You can read more about smart contracts in our in-depth guide here. Smart contracts enable easier access to the services of third parties and make it easier to build and manage other applications and services on the blockchain.

Personalised payments

One of the exciting developments on the horizon is the development of the AltanaPay solution, which allows you to accept payments from hundreds of merchants. This is possible because AltanaPay only accepts transactions sent through Ether, meaning that the funds sent are not affected by the credit card fees and bank fees. The AltanaPay platform is open source, meaning anyone can use it for creating their own applications.

Decentralised marketplace

Another cool feature of the Ethereum platform is the ability to create any kind of business or service. Creating a decentralised marketplace on the Ethereum platform can be just as simple as creating a simple website on GitHub. Building your own marketplace is relatively easy: the process involves creating an Ethereum smart contract which contains the criteria that the platform will need to meet before it is operational. The new website will then be issued on the Ethereum platform, and a fee will be charged on the transactions. Each business needs to have its own Proof of Work algorithm, but the main criteria is that it should be “fair”.

Creating your own software on the Ethereum platform is just a matter of writing a relatively simple contract. To try your hand at creating a decentralized website, check out our guide to building your own blockchain-based site.

What is important to note about the Ethereum platform is that it is highly stable and adaptable – more than any other blockchain. The system allows developers to develop both new and existing applications and it is extremely scalable.

This is why Ethereum has taken over as the leading platform for developing Ethereum-based applications. However, it also means that there are alternatives to Ethereum as well – even if the original goal has been achieved – and people have also built innovative applications on top of the Ethereum platform that have shown to be more stable than Ethereum.

Uchain

Uchain was developed as a solution to the problem of decentralized applications and smart contracts. It provides its users with a platform to create decentralized applications, running on the Ethereum network. Uchain’s applications are created through the use of a set of smart contracts that are verified and enforced by the Uchain app, which provides users with a public and private key.

Advantages of Uchain:

Easily integrate and run and deploy public/private key-based applications with simple setup. Also ensures the accuracy of the updates.

Uchain enables their users to create a more stable application and provides complete control over the creation and deployment of apps.

Credentials for users in Ethereum are stored on the Ethereum network and not on any other network.

A great feature of Uchain is that the Ethereum network runs independently from other networks and nodes – meaning that nodes can be replaced easily. Also, if an attack takes place on any of the other networks or nodes, all transactions in the affected network will continue without any issues.

Branched Chain is another Ethereum-based platform, which serves as a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange and exchange of services. You can purchase Bitcoin with Ether, Ethereum transactions, and even connect to websites that provide the same services. With many exchanges accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Branched Chain takes it one step further.

Because it allows users to buy or sell various cryptocurrencies through its platform, Branched Chain allows users to trade among themselves with nearly real-time information.

Another Ethereum-based platform, Parity, facilitates peer-to-peer contracts. It enables developers to build decentralized applications, and it has also been known to have a strong development community.

Branched Chain is a good alternative to Uchain, but unlike Uchain, it does not have the same level of adoption among developers and users.

Additionally, other Ethereum-based solutions do not create an official web interface for creating new applications. Thus, they are not yet known for their user-friendly developer platform or web interface.

Mining Ether

When someone creates a transaction on Ethereum, the contract that needs to be completed is assigned a random number, or a proof of work.

At some point in the future, the miner will have to solve the puzzle, which is basically a series of numbers. A private key gets sent to a public address.

The public address is used to create a new transaction. The miner now needs to add some extra data to it to unlock the next reward for their work.

Ether is mined through solving the puzzle. Most ether-based contracts won’t need a password, since it will work as long as the miner receives the ether. So all you need to do to mine ether is simply buy it with ether or transfer it to your wallet.

Ether contracts usually include a reward contract. The value of the reward contract depends on the amount of work done by the miner. The reward contract is used for every new transaction.

Transaction fees are paid by miners in the form of ether payments. This is different from other cryptocurrencies. This is because most other cryptocurrencies charge for certain transactions. Ether’s transactions are free because no transaction fees are used for them.

Ether can also be used for speculative purposes. For example, you might want to launch a decentralized advertising platform or you could use it to purchase securities.

There are many other cryptocurrencies on the market, but there are a few with a lot of market capitalization and more services. So it can be worthwhile to look up the features of some of these altcoins.

Wallet access

A common practice for using cryptocurrencies is to store them offline. You can do this through sending them to a trusted third-party.

There are several wallets available in the market today. One of the most popular is Waves, which enables you to store your ether in a safe place and exchange it for other cryptocurrencies easily.

Other services are based on more traditional platforms. Poloniex is the most common example. This is because it is the most well-known exchange in the market, although many others are also available.