does sports gambling affect bitcoin or vice versa?
With the most tech-savvy Millennials and Gen Zers pushing the number of bitcoin users over 300 million on a global basis, it is certain that cryptocurrencies are no longer a bubble. They are here to stay, and they are here to stay big time.
Millennials and Gen Zers are the two core demographics of sports betting products. These two generations actually make up almost 65% of the entire betting customer base. And they are also the two core demographics in bitcoin adoption, meaning they are the age groups that are typically the most frequent adopters and adopters of cryptocurrencies. So it is not a surprise that the sports game and the cryptos overlap and in this way it creates a separate segment, crypto games, which is growing at a rapid rate.
The intersection of crypto and sports betting makes you wonder if it is bitcoin that has increased sports gambling or vice versa. Is it the case that bettors are mainstreaming bitcoin gambling, because they find digital currencies much more convenient, safe and efficient?
Or is it that those who either maintain bitcoin or are generally interested in crypto are turning to sports betting as a way to trade and/or gain more digital currencies?
It’s a question of what came first, the chicken or the egg!
And in fact, it can be both, because on the one hand, players today are tech-savvy and have strong digital capabilities, so they will naturally turn to digital currencies, blockchain technology and be the first to adopt innovations.
Yet, on the other hand, the innovation adopters who had initially embraced the digital currencies and crypto world are likely to turn to bitcoin gambling and sports betting.
Bitcoin is driving growth in sports betting
As bitcoin becomes more prevalent among the tech-inclined, digitally savvy, younger generations, it gradually permeates their lives, routines, financial transactions, habits and activities. Cryptos are now more than just digital currencies – they are assets and they are treated as such.
The online gambling world is one of the first industries to experiment with bitcoin and embrace the use of cryptocurrencies for betting and gambling. So by deduction, online gambling sites have proven to be exemplary platforms for bitcoin transactions and activities.
Thus, the innovation-intensive nature of the online gambling and sports betting industry itself serves as a customer acquisition model for the bitcoin casinos and cryptogambling sites. The more the industry shows such pioneering behaviour, the more the digital and tech-savvy generations will want to be a part of it.
Sports betting drives bitcoin growth
Now it is also that sports gambling affects bitcoin, and in fact this direction is much more explicit than the other way around. Sports betting is growing at phenomenal rates around the world and punters are constantly trying to find safer, more reliable and faster ways to transact with betting sites.
The emergence of cryptocurrencies has precisely been the answer to a problem that lies not only in the structural forces within the gambling industry, but in the general relationships between the various agents in the industry. Bitcoin and its accompanying blockchain technology have offered a whole new conceptualization of transactions, which are decentralized, anonymous, secure, immutable and fast as hell.
So more and more players chose to gamble with bitcoin instead of the traditional fiat currencies, and as this also becomes a more widespread option among online casinos and sports betting sites, there is an increasing rate of bitcoin adoption and there is a greater demand for crypto!
Each of the two directions in the relationship between cryptocurrencies and sports gambling is quite justified. But in the end it doesn’t matter. One thing is for sure, the two overlap and they create the wonderful world of crypto gambling.
