Warning: This is a long one, so if you want the TL;DR, click here and get right to it. Otherwise, read on for some in-depth, high-level crypto betting strategery you probably never knew you needed. You’ll be glad you did.
Several online sports betting sites offer stablecoin support in their bet funding suites.
In fact, BetOnline Sportsbook supports two different stable coins: Tether and USD Coin.
These are cryptocurrencies in the truest sense – that is, they’re built atop blockchain networks and record all transactions to an immutable open ledger.
However, for those just getting started in crypto – or for those players that exclusively use crypto for online sports gambling – their use cases might not be outwardly clear.
After all, both Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are tied to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio.
As investments, then, they’re not ideal.
Their values can never go up.
Tether and USD Coin will be worth exactly one dollar next week, next month, next year, and next decade.
When other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin have grown in value by hundreds of percent since 2020 alone, it may seem like a waste to deposit or withdraw using USDT or USDC.
You’d miss out on all those potential gains just because you chose a stablecoin to handle your banking needs instead of any other supported crypto coin.
Remember, you always have several options when depositing, and the sites that accept these stablecoins also accept all or most of the following:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Stellar (XLM)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Chainlink (LINK)
And more are being added all the time.
So, given the fact that every single one of the above crypto assets has seen substantial gains year-over-year (see the numbers here), why would anyone fund their sports betting with – or request payouts in – USDT or USDC?
Well, there are actually a few reasons.
The most popular crypto coins – despite showing substantial monthly and yearly positive gains – go through plenty of price dips.
We’re in a dip right now, in fact.
In most cases, these dips don’t last for months (though they sometimes can), and they rarely last for a year or more.
Typically, a given dip is as short-lived as a significant boom, and most crypto values fall and/or rise by up to 10% per day as a matter of course.
As a bettor, that can help you.
But it can also hurt you.
Let’s say you deposited in Bitcoin, and the Bitcoin price instantly goes down.
Because you can (and should!) leave crypto in your betting account as crypto, you may now find yourself in a position where you’ve already lost value on your deposit without ever making a wager!
Of course, the opposite scenario is also true.
Let’s say you’ve deposited in Bitcoin, and the BTC price instantly goes up.
If you’ve left that BTC in your sportsbook account as BTC (or mBTC, aka milliBitcoin), you can realize those gains while your Bitcoin is tied up in your betting bankroll.
This gives you extra money to bet with, and if the BTC price is still up when it’s time to collect, your associated payouts will be worth that much more.
But!
If the price drops and you need to request a payout immediately to handle the various ongoing bills and one-off surprises of day-to-day life, you’ll actually lose money.
Or, at the very least, you’ll withdraw less than you could have had you withdrawn sooner.
The following sections demonstrate the utility of stablecoins as they fit into the above scenarios.
Stablecoin Deposits
For deposits, stablecoins let you top off your betting bankroll whenever you want to lock in a crypto price that is trading at a low dollar amount.
This does take some strategy and foresight on your part (which should actually add to your engagement, given that this sort of thing is exactly what makes sports betting so inherently entertaining in the first place).
For example, imagine you’ve just signed up at BetOnline AG, and you want all the benefits of betting with crypto (i.e. guaranteed deposits, no added fees, enhanced bonuses, etc.), but the crypto market is surging.
Given that every big surge is historically followed in short order by a pretty decent dump, it wouldn’t be smart to deposit in Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, etc. at this time.
The values of these coins are sure to fall between now and the time you meet all your sports betting bonus rollover requirements to withdraw your winnings.
If that happens, your winnings will net out lower than they’d otherwise have been.
Stablecoins like USDT and USDC, then, safeguard against this.
By depositing in stable coins, you still get the crypto benefits offered by your legal sports betting site, but you take on none of the risks of falling crypto prices when the market wanes.
Sure, you could just leave your crypto balance in your sportsbook account until the market pumps back up, but that prevents you from doing other moneymaking things like swing trading, day trading, and so on.
Crypto holders and investors want to be able to take advantage of hedging between assets, trading one asset when it’s high for another asset when it’s low, and various other stack-building strategies.
More advanced traders even employ arbitrage opportunities between exchanges themselves.
But you can’t do any of these things until your crypto is off your betting site and in your exchange account.
So, in order to set yourself up for maximization (and maximization is always key), when the market is going up in a rapid fashion, making stablecoin deposits – that is, depositing with “US dollars” in the form of cryptocurrencies that can easily be exchanged for other crypto assets once pulled back out to the exchanges – is the smart thing to do.
Yes, you could accomplish the same thing depositing in USD directly, but then you’d be hit with added fees, face potential UIGEA interference, and you wouldn’t get the best bonuses.
Again, maximization is the thing.
Put simply, if you think the popular assets supported by your favorite betting site are currently trading at a temporary high and you foresee a drop in the near term, don’t deposit with BTC or other typical altcoins.
Instead, deposit with Tether or USD Coin.
Stablecoin Withdrawals
When it comes to withdrawals – regardless of the manner in which you’ve deposited – you can use stablecoins to your benefit depending on crypto market conditions.
The concept – Buy Low, Sell High™ – remains the mantra, just as with deposits.
For example, imagine you’ve been betting in BTC, and you’re ready to pull out your winnings.
But Bitcoin is trading high, and a small crash seems looming.
You want your money out so you can take advantage of that crash on the exchanges by snatching up various altcoins at lower-than-average prices and growing your portfolio.
But if you pull out when BTC is high – and you pull it out as BTC – you run the risk of a dump before you can take advantage of that high price.
Most betting sites process crypto requests extremely rapidly (under two hours), but even waiting that long can sometimes cut deeply into your profit potential.
In this case, withdrawing in Tether or USD Coin is the answer.
This locks in the dollar value of your Bitcoin betting winnings at their peak, and those winnings get sent straight to your exchange as USDT or USDC.
Then, if BTC falls in the meantime, your associated dollar value doesn’t.
Then, just follow the dip, and buy back in – whether you pick up BTC, LTC, ETH, DOGE, etc. – when those assets are trading lower.
This gives you more of each given asset in terms of total coins, which means that the next inevitable bull run will yield payouts even bigger than your haul from the sportsbooks.
Now, many players might wonder why this is necessary on the payout side.
You could simply pull your money out in BTC, and once it’s on the exchanges, trade that BTC for a stablecoin with which to time your trades.
While this is true, there are crypto fees to consider.
Remember, every time you make a crypto trade – that is, every time you move crypto from one wallet to another – you are charged a native blockchain fee for the crypto transaction in question.
Why get hit with fees twice?
Claiming withdrawals in a stablecoin and sending those coins straight to your exchange account is one transfer. Ergo, one fee.
Claiming withdrawals in BTC and having it sent to your exchange account is similarly one transfer and one fee, but converting that BTC to a stablecoin once it’s on the exchanges is another transfer and another fee.
Plus, every extra transfer you make takes time out of the equation, and when you’re buying dips, time is not your friend.
But we’re your friend, and that’s why we’ve put together this little stablecoin betting PSA.
TL;DR: If the crypto market is dipping and is at or near its monthly low across the board, go ahead and deposit with a non-stablecoin cryptocurrency. If the crypto market is booming and is at or near a monthly high, deposit with a stablecoin (USDT or USDC).
Similarly, if the market is up and it’s time to withdraw, pull your money out in a stablecoin. If the market’s down when it’s time to claim your payout, request your money in the form of a non-stablecoin. Swing trade, rinse, and repeat.
