Peer-to-peer sports betting is crypto’s next killer app

Decentralized sports betting enables gamblers to not only beat the house but also own it

article-image

Marko Aliaksandr/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Dominated by large centralized entities, an everlasting theme of the $104.78 billion global sports betting industry is playing against The House. In each bet a user takes, they’re up against the centralized entity that facilitates betting, whether that be an online platform or an in-person site. This means that no matter what bet a user takes, they’re always in a disadvantageous David vs. Goliath scenario—the old adage that “The House always wins” has stood the test of time, for good reason. 

In addition to users being permanent underdogs, off-chain gambling is ridden with issues that have been simply accepted as industry standards—a fact of life. These are the most prevalent:

  • Fraud and manipulation
  • High fees
  • Slow payouts 
  • Winners lose access to platforms

Luckily for bettors, by innovating around blockchain technology, SX Bet has emerged as the largest Web3 betting exchange globally—a growing alternative platform that operates outside of the traditional industry’s confines and offers far more markets than other blockchain-native competitors.

Since its inception in 2019, the project has committed to spearheading the transformation of sports gambling, focusing on offering an experience that users can’t get in the traditional, off-chain sports betting world. It has experienced rapid growth, garnering an all-time trading volume of $350 million and thousands of daily transactions. 

Loading Tweet..

On the platform, sports betters experience the benefits of decentralization, some of which include:

  • Users can offer and accept bets as they compete against each other through peer-to-peer betting instead of endlessly challenging The House.
  • Purchasing the platform’s native SX Network token enables users to participate in the governance of the platform, granting holders the ability to effectively have ownership of the platform and “be The House.”

The SX Bet approach is to innovate to encourage more betting activity, foster transparency, enhance market efficiency, and elevate the integrity and overall quality of the sports betting market. In true form, the SX Bet Team and community are aligned with the ethos of Web3, which values access, transparency, and fairness.


A better platform for all

Operating as a betting exchange, the SX Bet advantage can be broken down into three primary pillars: better liquidity, better odds, and winning is encouraged.

“We think it’s time for a revolution. It’s time to make sports betting more equitable, accessible, and rewarding for all sports bettors out there.” 

Andrew Young, CEO & Co-founder of SX Bet

Better liquidity smoothes the UX

Using SX Bet, any bettor can offer odds, but the majority of liquidity is from major market makers that leverage SX Bet’s free API access to create markets, offer odds, and provide liquidity for other users to take. The protocol enables shared liquidity, leading to exponential scaling through increased liquidity, reduced fees, and a smoother UX.

Better odds generate bigger wins for bettors

Market makers on the SX Bet platform can create their own odds freely, a feature that fosters competition to provide the most enticing offers to bettors. This results in bettors getting the best possible odds that the free market is willing to offer, which translates to more dollars in the pockets of bettors. 

Flipping the script on “The House always wins”

Traditional Sportsbooks (including competing blockchain sportsbooks) only make money when their users lose. This is because they operate as the “house” and are on the other side of every bet. To ensure “The House always wins,” these sportsbooks often engage in the unethical practices of banning or limiting their users to protect their profits, and may even refuse to honor withdrawals. SX Bet breaks away from the industry norm and embraces a fundamentally different philosophy: 

Winning is Encouraged.

Benefiting from the nature of its decentralization, SX Bet is unable to ban or limit winning bettors and user funds are protected with payout guarantees because SX Bet never has control of them. In practice, all wagers are held in escrow by open-source smart contracts until a winner is determined. Wagers are then settled transparently. This enables SX Bet to circumvent the traditional sports betting standard of using vulnerable, manipulative in-house servers. It is an absolute game changer for user security and profitability. 

Driving sports betting forward with innovation

SX Bet revolutionized the sports betting industry by offering a more transparent, secure, and convenient experience than traditional sportsbooks. Today, they’re continuing to build a better platform through innovation, with highlights including bet mining, the creation of an API that enables bettors to automate their strategies, betting bot tools available to all users, and a WIP goal of slashing betting costs (or the vig) by 90%.

Bet Mining: Become an Owner as You Bet

Bet mining is another revolutionary aspect of SX Bet, allowing users to earn SX tokens with every winning bet. Bet mining aligns the platform’s interests with its users, providing an opportunity to become part-owners of the protocol. As the user base grows, SX Bet becomes increasingly attractive to market makers, who offer more competitive odds, which in turn attracts more users, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of growth.

A free API and sophisticated betting bots mean anyone can become a notable bookkeeper

The technology of sports betting is rapidly evolving, and one of the leading innovations is automated betting. At the forefront of this innovation is SX Bet, which has created an API that enables bettors to build a betting bot to automate their strategies and capitalize on real-time market dynamics. 

While many exchanges charge exorbitant fees for API access, SX Bet gives everyone access to their API for free because doing so offers a new realm of opportunities for bettors and creates a more equitable betting landscape. 

Market-making strategies are the core focus for sports bettors building betting bots on SX Bet. With the support of betting bots, anyone can become a significant contributor and beneficiary of the SX Bet ecosystem because users can become bookmakers themselves.

This modern approach to sports betting holds several advantages over manual betting:

  • Perform tasks more rapidly and efficiently, 
  • Post-bet offers across a multitude of markets in a brief period
  • Promptly respond to market changes.

SX Bet’s Next Industry Disruption: Slash the Vig

SX Bet’s latest mission revolves around slashing betting costs (the vig) by 90% and putting more profits in the pockets of bettors. This reduction represents a 10% higher payout for bettors, exemplifying SX Bet’s commitment to providing better odds and a more equitable betting environment.

For the sports bettors out there, this means transitioning from the industry standard odds of -110/-110 (1.90/1.90) to industry-leading odds of -101/-101 (1.99/1.99).

In simple terms, this means a $100 bet on a 50–50 outcome pays you $99 in profit—not $90 as it does currently—a 10% higher payout for bettors.


SX Bet’s vision for a better future in sports betting

SX Bet intends to continue to lead the way in revolutionizing the sports betting industry. With its innovative features, including peer-to-peer parlay betting, free API access, and the commitment to lead the industry in reducing betting costs, SX Bet is an innovative and rewarding betting experience. 

The platform’s dedication to security, transparency, and community governance sets it apart from traditional sportsbooks and other crypto-betting platforms. By embracing the ethos of web3 technology, SX Bet is democratizing sports betting, empowering users to take ownership and actively shaping the future of the industry.

The revolution of sports betting has arrived.

Try SX Bet today and complete enhanced verification to receive a $20 free bet. To stay in tune with the future of the platform, follow SX Bet on Twitter and join the Discord community.

This content is sponsored by SX Bet. 


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

Turns out that owning the end-user via a crypto wallet is quite a prosperous business

article-image

The announcement followed growing speculation that Gensler would announce his exit before Trump takes office next year

article-image

HashKey’s Jupiter Zheng highlighted three success areas he’s watching: Ethereum, Solana and certain tokens in DeFi

article-image

Jack explored the various AI and memecoin projects that have sprung up over the past month

article-image

If gold remains steady today, a single move from bitcoin to $98,500 would do it

article-image

Revenue estimates for the third quarter come in at $33 billion, which would be an 83% increase from the prior year