The Los Angeles and Las Vegas game day has been an evolving one.
Rams and Chargers fans will flock to SoFi Stadium on a Football Sunday in LA to watch the major national games. Go to Vegas, and the mood changes as the Allegiant Stadium echoes to the Raiders, and the sportsbooks on the Strip, with people watching the point spread on the depositors, and monitoring last-minute news on the players before making their bets.
In addition to the classic forms of betting, a layer exists online: so-called crypto gambling sites, where people can bet with digital money, like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Those platforms do not belong to the NFL and are different from state-licensed sportsbooks that are doing business in Nevada. They belong to the larger digital betting environment that encompasses contemporary professional sports.
How Betting Works in Vegas
Las Vegas is well known for controlled sports betting. Nevada legalized sports betting many years before most other states in the US and made the city an epicenter of licensed sportsbook operations.
Sportsbooks in Las Vegas today are under the regulation of the state of Nevada, and provide both in-person and mobile wagering under the legal framework of the state.
Separate from that regulated system, there are also offshore or internationally licensed platforms that receive deposits of sports betting in cryptocurrency. Their jurisdictional legal status is different, and consumer protection might not match that of sportsbooks regulated by the state.
Bettors should not disregard that difference.
The Digital Tools Californians Use
The residents of Southern California make daily payments through mobile payment applications and digital finances. But online sports betting is not permitted in the state as such, people within the state continue to be subjected to advertisements and talk online about sites where people place bets with crypto.
There are individuals who already have cryptocurrency, and they may decide to use it to engage in sports betting. With that said, however, there is no publicly available data to indicate that crypto betting is a significant portion of the US market. When you look at the total money bet, the licensed sportsbooks are still the ones reporting the vast majority of it.
How Crypto Moves Money Differently
The platforms that deal with digital assets betting usually enable users to:
Transfer money by depositing Bitcoins in a wallet
Custody crypto balances
Take out money on digital assets
Due to the blockchain nature of crypto transactions, the system does not necessarily settle in the same way as a standard card or bank transfer does. Nevertheless, the speed of the transaction is affected by the network conditions and the processing policies of the platform, and it is not always faster in all cases.
The price of cryptocurrencies is volatile as well. Bitcoin and other online currencies have undergone steep changes in their prices over the last few years, and they may introduce another financial risk when used in a bet.
Rules and What They Mean for You
The majority of cryptocurrency-based betting sites lack an offshore license or any other form of regulation, as compared to a sportsbook licensed in Nevada or other states in the US. This means:
Your protection rules may not be similar
Your rights as a consumer could be different
Determining who to address in case anything goes wrong may be a bit complicated, as the laws vary in each state within the US
When considering betting with crypto, it is essential to understand the legal situation in your area, the actual risks of gambling, and that crypto prices may fluctuate drastically.
Part of a Bigger Tech Picture
Mobile ticketing, contactless concessions, fantasy sports apps, and more - professional football is becoming more and more connected to digital infrastructure.
The digital-asset wagering platforms fall under that broader development. They are not supplanting the old-fashioned sportsbooks, and neither are they the model of sports betting in the US. They are, however, one of many avenues through which technology has further influenced the relationship fans have with the sports business.
The atmosphere of being in the stadium has not been lost. And in Nevada, long-standing sports betting has been well-regulated. The technology consumed by the fans surrounding the game, though, is still evolving, and involves mobile applications and digital tools utilized by fans while standing in the stands and cheering.