The esports industry is one of the fastest growing industries in entertainment. Right now, more than half a billion people play competitive video games or watch esports tournaments regularly. Many also enjoy betting on them.
If want to bet on esports using cryptocurrency, Thunderpick will provide you with numerous betting markets and full coverage for a dozen different titles, ranging from League of Legends to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
Check out the markets here: thunderpick.com/en/esports
Why Use Crypto to Place Bets on Esports Matches
When you use crypto, your identity is hidden. Nobody is going to track your actions and that gives you independence from what your local back or local government might think.
For a lot of people, betting with fiat is made challenging by the local authorities, who will either not permit it or restrict people’s access to the bookmakers that can offer them proper coverage of the esports they enjoy watching and betting on. This leaves them with very limited options.
A bookmaker that focuses almost exclusively on traditional sports will not do a proper job when covering esports. It takes a lot of dedication to provide more than a dozen different betting markets for a wide range of tournaments.
As a bettor, you don’t just want to be able to bet on the S-tier events and to do it in a simplistic way such as picking the winner. You want coverage of S-tier, A-tier, and even B-tier tournaments, and you want to be able to place live bets on a lot of betting markets. That way, you can fully utilize your esports knowledge to your advantage.
Placing esports bets using crypto gives you the ability to access esports betting sites like Thunderpick and engage in this hobby from wherever you like. There are no restrictions and everything is both legit and 100% secure.
What Types of Cryptocurrencies Can You Use to Place Bets
Depending on the bookmaker you choose, you will be able to use one or more cryptocurrencies to place esports bets. The most common options are these:
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, so it’s no wonder that bookmakers that offer crypto betting services make it possible for you to use Bitcoin when placing bets.
However, because of the transaction fees and the fact that 1 Bitcoin is worth a huge amount, this may not always be the ideal cryptocurrency to use when placing esports bets.
Ethereum
Ethereum is a second-generation blockchain technology and at this point, it is almost as famous as Bitcoin. Functionally, Ethereum is arguably better than Bitcoin and will give you superior payment options. Its value is also considerably smaller per unit, so you’ll need to memorize fewer zeroes when placing bets.
Litecoin
Litecoin may not be as versatile and as spectacular as Ethereum, but it’s still decent for small transactions. It has a market cap of around $3.8 billion and its price does not fluctuate as much. If you own Litecoin, you’ll be pleased to learn that Thunderpick allows Litecoin deposits and withdrawals.
Tether
Tether is many people’s favorite cryptocurrency for betting because its value always stays the same. This means that you can enjoy the benefits of anonymity that come with using crypto, but at the same time you’re protected against price fluctuations.
Quite often, the crypto market goes wild and makes people want to either sell their crypto or buy more of it. To avoid most of the problems, you can use Tether for esports betting and your earnings will never be in trouble.
Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash was created in the 2017 Bitcoin fork and was designed to be a more usable version of Bitcoin. The transaction fees are better and the price per unit is much smaller, which means that it’s easier to know how much you’re transferring from one account to another.
XRP
XRP is another solid cryptocurrency and you can be sure that it will never go bust unless the whole crypto industry goes bust, because it was created by a bunch of banks. In many ways, XRP is an anti-crypto and many hate it for it. But if you don’t mind using something that strays to some degree from the values of blockchain technology, you can place bets with it without any issues.
How to Place Esports Bets Using Cryptocurrencies
Betting with crypto is very similar to betting with fiat. You simply choose a match and a betting market and you wager the amount you desire on the outcome. If you already own crypto, all you need to do is make a deposit by transferring the amount you desire from your crypto ledger or your Coinbase (or some other trading platform) account to your bookmaker account. After that, you can start placing bets.
If you do not own crypto, you can create an account on a trading platform like Coinbase and then exchange your fiat to buy crypto. The first thing you’ll need to do is verify your identity. After you complete this process, which takes around 5 minutes, you can transfer money to your account and buy crypto with it.
The ideal currency that you should buy first is Tether, because its price is stable and you won’t feel panicky during the ups and downs that the crypto market is famous for. However, if you’re familiar with the industry, you can go ahead and buy yourself some Ethereum or even Bitcoin.
The choice here is entirely yours but you should ask yourself one question: is esports betting the only thing want to do with crypto or am I also interested in trading?
If you only care about esports betting, then you should buy something that’s convenient to use. And that will probably be either Tether or Bitcoin Cash.
Whether you’re interested in betting on Overwatch or Valorant, cryptocurrencies can make your life much easier. And they can also give you a lot more options than fiat.