Betting & Bitcoin In The United States
Worldwide bitcoin trading has long been very difficult to predict, and to many, it’s been disappointing. At least as a currency, Bitcoin hasn’t been adopted in the sweeping and rapid way some expected, and it certainly hasn’t supplanted fiat currencies around the world – though that isn’t to say it isn’t out there. Contrary to how it may seem or what some people might tell you, there are plenty of ways to use bitcoin in the world, from retail to travel booking, and there may soon be many more of these opportunities in the United States.
Looking into trading volume by country it actually becomes clear that the U.S. already uses bitcoin more than any other country on Earth. This may come as a surprise, particularly given that some Americans still feel it’s hard to find reasonable opportunities to spend bitcoin. It’s not as if we’ve reached a point at which the Starbucks around the corner is taking bitcoin transactions for lattes. This same fact also keeps a lot of Americans from investing in or holding bitcoin. For many of the same Americans, however, this could be about to change thanks to the impending legalization of sports and event betting in most, if not all states across the country. This will represent a major shift in American policy toward games or events of chance with real money on the line, but thanks to a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, we will indeed see a United States sports betting market.
It might be hard for some to imagine what such a market would look like in the U.S. because sports betting has been widely outlawed for many years now. However, we can probably safely look the UK as an example. The leading platforms in the UK are varied but firmly established, competitive with one another because of the bonuses they offer and the ways in which they welcome new players. Underneath all of this, they’re all effectively the same, offering the most up-to-date odds and information they possibly can and catering to huge user bases.
This means they’re all looking to gain advantages against one another also, however, and one way they can do so, at least conceivably, is by offering more up-to-date payment methods. And bitcoin, in this sort of space, actually makes a lot of sense. Low fraud risk, ease of use, low transaction fees, and lack of third-party involvement are all cited among bitcoin’s benefits, and should all be appealing to people who are interested in placing bets online. This is an environment in which a lot of money changes hands, and security is of the utmost concern. Thus, it’s one in which bitcoin can serve a fairly direct purpose, rather than just being an interesting novelty.
If therefore, the U.S. betting market online takes a similar shape to the ones in Europe – with lots of platforms offering similar services but different perks and features – it follows that some of them will likely try to infuse bitcoin sooner rather than later. The sites that do so could remain on the side with some fringe appeal for bitcoin users, and that alone could provide at least a small boost for the cryptocurrency in American markets. On the other hand, if betting is as big as some predict it will be, the same sites could become major businesses and provide a far more significant boost not just to bitcoin but to the entire cryptocurrency market.
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