Advantages of Using Bitcoin in Sports Betting

By Hank Blaine • April 21, 2023

Bitcoin, like the entire U.S. economy, took a backward step in 2022. But like many things, Bitcoin has bounced back with a vengeance.

For sports betting handicappers, Bitcoin is the currency of choice. Check out why many sports bettors have begun to utilize the world’s most popular cryptocurrency to make bets, accept payouts, and fund their sports betting accounts.

We’ve listed the top six advantages to using BTC when we bet on sports. Before reading further note that all six exist in relation to each other. Speed is meaningless by itself. But when connected to security, costs, and accessibility, speed becomes an advantage.

Top 6 Advantages of Using Bitcoin in Sports Betting

Speed

By speed, we mean transaction speed. Funding our betting accounts with Bitcoin usually takes a half an hour or less.

When it comes to payouts, there are few things as fast as Bitcoin. Withdrawing via Bitcoin can take up to 24 hours, because payment processors must confirm you are who you say you are, but usually happens within a couple of hours.

Security

Bitcoin is the most secure blockchain protocol in existence. The reason why is that nodes (computers), over 10,000 of them worldwide, must agree that the same transaction is valid before miners compete to create the block for the transaction.

Not only that, but specific BTC blockchain codes, the one assigned to you by companies like Coinbase and Cash App, are specific to you. So, when you request a withdrawal, there’s close to zero chance for an outside entity to steal your withdrawal.

The only way for this to happen is if 51% of the nodes, something like 6,000 different computers, decided to steal your specific transaction and they’d have to steal it at the same time, which is improbable if not impossible.

Costs

Because BTC transactions are peer-to-peer, costs are minimal. When you fund your sports betting account with a credit card, you must pay the card manager, usually Visa or Mastercard.

The card manager, or card processor, charges you a fee. Often, you are charged two separate fees, first by the processor, second by the merchant, in this case, your online sportsbook.

Bitcoin is peer-to-peer, there is no middleman. In the case of a middleman, Coinbase or Cash App are examples, the fees are almost nonexistent depending on your plan with them.

Accessibility

Anybody can make Bitcoin transactions. A credit card company mustn’t approve you first, you receive the card, and then attempt to add funds to your betting account.

Bitcoin is private (see 6). Coinbase, Cash App, and other third-party cryptocurrency facilitators don’t care why you want to send your BTC or where you are receiving your BTC from.

Transparency

The Bitcoin blockchain is a publicly distributed blockchain ledger, meaning anybody can see the transactions. We can even see how many Bitcoins exist in each wallet.

The more transparent a ledger is, no matter if it's in a notebook or on a blockchain, the more difficult it is to create fraudulent transactions.

Privacy

But just because the Bitcoin chain is transparent, it doesn’t mean that the transactions aren’t private. BTC transactions are pseudonymous, meaning your wallet address on the blockchain identifies you, but any information about you, your full name, social security if you have one, age, address, etc. doesn’t exist anywhere on the chain.