Sportsbooks should use Bitcoin as a deposit/withdrawal method

I just had an amazing experience with a withdrawal from a sportsbook. This is legitimately the first time I’ve been able to say that in years; basically the only time I’ve been able to say it since the days of neteller.

I won a good amount of btc yesterday with the Packers and Bears (Thanks NFC North!), and wanted to take some money off the table. I requested a withdrawal of 27btc from betcoinsports.com . This is not a small amount of money. Bitcoin has been ranging from $750/btc to $1000/btc, so this is basically anywhere between $20,000 to $27,000.

The withdrawal cost .0001 btc, which is $.75, less than a dollar, which the sportsbook picked up. And better than that, it only took MINUTES to get to me instead of weeks waiting for a check. And on top of THAT, it went to my own personal bitcoin address, which is a relatively anonymous 34 character address.

Not counting Neteller, the closest I ever got to this was trying to get a check from 5Dimes, BetJam, or theGreek back in the day. Except that usually cost money ($30’ish bucks a check compared to $.75). It would take a week to get to me (compared to minutes). And then I’d sometimes get the third degree from my bank for depositing this weird check from the book itself, or a weird check from a payment processor.

Sportsbooks, YOU SHOULD USE BITCOIN!

It is AMAZING.

P.S. Further benefits for the books include
(1) No possible chargebacks from your customers like you have from e-checks or credit cards
(2) No fees to cover for your clients from Western Union or Moneygram (It’ll cost you $1.00 to receive your money instead of the $65 Western Union Fee and the payment processor fee on top of that to collect)

tl;dr everyone, encourage your books to accept bitcoin. It will make everyone's lives easier.

banana-santa



happy-elfgif

Did you deposit with bitcoin, and what was the price when you did if so?

The Falls said:

Did you deposit with bitcoin, and what was the price when you did if so?

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I deposited some waaay back at $100, and some more recently at $800-$900

What if you bet 10 bitcoins on a game when they're worth $1k each. You win, but during the game bitcoins drop to $500 each. How would that work? Betting with an unstable type of money doesn't make sense to me.

StyIez said:

What if you bet 10 bitcoins on a game when they're worth $1k each. You win, but during the game bitcoins drop to $500 each. How would that work? Betting with an unstable type of money doesn't make sense to me.

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A book can deal with this in one of two ways:


1) Always price everything in bitcoins. This is what betcoinsports.com does. All your bets are always in bitcoin. Yes, you will have exchange rate risk, but you accept it. On the plus side, you ALWAYS have action lol, so you won't be placing bets because you're bored?


2) Use coinbase or another provider to instantly convert your bitcoins to USD, and then have the sportsbook bet in USD. Now your balance is in USD, and you are insulated from the exchange rate risk. You win $1000? Great, you cash out $1000 in btc, and then immediately convert that bitcoin to USD, and put it in your bank account.


So, as a bettor, let's use examples of how this would go. Let's say bitcoin is worth $100/btc. You deposit $500. If you used sportsbook 1 above, that priced everything in bitcoin, your sportsbook account would have 5 btc. Let's say then that you proceed to win 2 more btc. Your total account value is now 7btc.


BUT WAIT, the USD/btc exchange rate has fluctuated now to $300/btc. You cash out your 7btc, and then convert it to USD. You now have $300/btc * 7btc = $2100.


Of course, the opposite could happen. Let's say the USD/btc exchange rate has fluctuated now to $75/btc. You cash out your 7btc, and then convert it to USD. You now have $75/btc * 7 btc = $490. Doh.


...which is a reason that you might want to use a book that uses the approach of sportsbook 2 above.


Let's start with the same scenario above. You deposit $500 with btc at $100/btc. The sportsbook immediately exchanges those btc for USD. So you have $500 in your account. Let's say you make the same bets as you did above, but in dollars, so now you have $700 in your account.


You then cash out your $700 in btc, which at the going rate of $300/btc, is 2.3btc. This is *fewer* bitcoin that you originally deposited with, but if you only care about USD, you don't care about that. You cash out your 2.3btc, and walk away with $700: $200 more than your initial $500 investment.


It's really no different if btc falls to $75/btc. When you cash out your $700, you will then receive 9.3 btc. This is *more* bitcoin that you originally deposited with, but if you only care about USD, you don't care about that. Same dealio, you cash out, and then you walk away with $700: $200 more than your initial investment.


What's the difference between this last scenario and deposit/withdrawal options now? You only have to wait MINUTES for your money instead of days/weeks; the withdrawal fees are cheaper; and now you don't have to freaking go to a random Western Union and wire money to some stranger in Nicaragua to deposit at your book. You just buy some bitcoins through coinbase or something like that.


Holy crap, that was longer than I expected. tl;dr, you can always use sportsbooks that opt to keep everything in USD instead of in btc if you want to avoid the exchange rate risk.

great stuff here - - lets see more of this from the sportsbooks

Can you deposit with real money and withdraw with bitcoins?

I have used a book that converts the cash or bitcoin into your sportsbook account.

Example. John deposits 5 bitcoins at X book via their wallet. BTC value was 1k per bitcoin, he gets 5k credited to his account US dollars. He gets whatever bonuses, etc. He wins 1k, wants to cash that out. Now, they check the spot price of BTC and transfer out that many BTC to the original wallet.

It can work both ways. BTC can go up and down, that is why you have to take in/send out the same way, that makes it fair.

PM me if you want more details. Payouts are processed within 24 hours but they use the BTC spot price of whenever your request was made so no one gets screwed.

any books accept usa ?

I'm thinking of implementing bitcoins into my services as well, good info here guys.

What book did you use? What if I want to deposit only $200? Can I buy a fraction of a bitcoin?

CHOPTALK said:

Can you deposit with real money and withdraw with bitcoins?

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Yes. I think some books allow you to straight up purchase btc with USD and then have btc in the book. They usually run through a service like coinbase or something to do that. I believe http://www.betcoinsports.com/ does something like that.

If the book you find doesn't do that, you can always just do it manually yourself: buy btc with USD, then deposit the btc, then withdraw in btc.

Akillies said:

any books accept usa ?

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I think all btc sportsbook do at the moment. My favorite is betcoinsports so far, though I've also heard good things about bookbiz.bit (haven't used it yet). Bitcoinsports.eu used to be a good out until lately; it looks like they might be having liquidity issues now.

KingofNicotine said:

What book did you use? What if I want to deposit only $200? Can I buy a fraction of a bitcoin?

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Yes, you can buy fractions of a bitcoin. They are divisible to 8 decimal places, so you can buy as little as .00000001 btc.

I am very happy with http://www.betcoinsports.com for now. To be honest, I was a little worried with the 27btc withdrawal, but this experience has been great and I recommend them to all.

If you do end up signing up, please use my name (ensignlee) as a referral if you could. If you can't, no biggie, but they do have a referral bonus which is supposed to benefit both of us, and free btc are better than non-free btc haha.

Just found 4 sports books rated A+ to A that use Bitcoin.....Only one offers a phone service but no live betting,the other three have no phone or live chat,one dosent even have Email,phone or live chat.....Really not sure these ratings are legit, also These 4 books haven't been in existence to long....Not to sure Id be comfortable depositing with a book with no live chat or phone service.

Joedogs said:

Just found 4 sports books rated A+ to A that use Bitcoin.....Only one offers a phone service but no live betting,the other three have no phone or live chat,one dosent even have Email,phone or live chat.....Really not sure these ratings are legit, also These 4 books haven't been in existence to long....Not to sure Id be comfortable depositing with a book with no live chat or phone service.

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I'm starting to sound like a shill here lol, but http://www.betcoinsports.com/ offers what you're looking for.

They do have live betting, and have a phone number you can call to make wagers. I've been pretty impressed with their software so far as well. And of course, that they were able to give me a $27k payout with no hassles.

Here's their thread on bitcointalk, a bitcoin forum: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=281850.msg3995782#msg3995782

You are right though. Btc hasn't really been a big thing for very long (only since 2010), and so there aren't any btc books that have been alive for a long time. Don't deposit more than you can lose, and try not to let your balance run up too high. There is always counterparty risk.

ensign Lee,doeslive your book have live chat or have a live phone rep if needed?

Joedogs said:

ensign Lee,doeslive your book have live chat or have a live phone rep if needed?

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Phone rep yes.

Not sure about live chat, probably not.

I'm gonna definitely use that site next time I deposit. The only thing is getting used to bitcoins and all that. I remember last time I used them my bitcoin address kept changing everything I logged in and out of the computer. These learning curves are what keep it from being more popular.

Sorry for the third degree ensign,Its just an interesting new concept, It could possibly be the future of sports betting on line.