If you’re an online sports bettor, chances are you’ve been at it for years.
Before 2018, you didn’t let something as passé as PASPA stop you from betting online, and now that the law’s gone, you aren’t changing your ways.
Domestic sportsbooks are great if you live near one – or if your state has legal online sports betting – but for the rest of us, well, we just keep on doing our thing.
And among the biggest reasons why has nothing to do with access or odds, despite both being objectively better at international betting sites.
No, one of the most compelling reasons to eschew local gambling options for the tried-and-true offshore model is simply this:
International betting sites accept cryptocurrencies and local sportsbooks do not (excepting Wyoming because Wyoming is awesome).
And crypto, as we all know, is the thing.
Recently, NFL GOAT Tom Brady deflated the fiat market when he declared his unbridled love for all things crypto, even going so far as to launch Autograph, a platform dedicated to NFT (non-fungible token) art and entertainment sales.
Brady played coy about the coins he supports, but Mr. Laser Eyes was quite clear in his position when interviewed during the recent CoinDesk Consensus 2021 conference:
“I’m a big believer in [cryptocurrency]. … I definitely think there’ll be more solutions as [crypto] is more widely adopted in all areas of our lives. …
I don’t think it’s going anywhere. … The world is changing. … And you can be ahead of the curve or behind it, and I’m choosing to be ahead of it.”
That’s a pretty grand endorsement.
And then, going the other route – but hyping the same market – was this circus sideshow.
Now, if you bet on this past weekend’s Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul “fight,” you probably made out like a bandit.
However, if you actually paid for the fiasco, well, no comment.
Still, in the leadup to that…event…was this odd weigh-in moment:
Ethereum what?
And then, during the “fight,” that promo was moved from Money’s shirt to his trunks:
Then, as expected, the whole world started asking the obvious question:
“What is EthereumMax?”
Then they looked into it, scratched their heads, and bought some regular old Ethereum instead.
And crypto crept-o ever on up.
Of course, you shouldn’t expect to see EthereumMax (EMAX) supported at any major legal online sportsbook, as these operators are notoriously picky about the cryptos they accept.
After all, Bovada just started taking Ethereum less than a month ago.
That said, hype is hype and interest is interest, and it’s clear that more people than ever are starting to pay attention to cryptocurrency.
And in the mainstream, much of that attention is being driven by famous athletes.
You know, maybe it is only a matter of time before domestic sportsbooks start accepting crypto.
After all, three years ago, you’d be called crazy for saying professional American sports teams would straight-up sponsor sports betting.
But the times, as Tom says, are a-changin’.
*For the record, EthereumMax is a useless shitcoin with a current market cap of LOL and a current price of $0.0000001488 per coin. Of course, if you put 10 bucks into EMAX today, you’d get 67,204,301 coins. If it then somehow went up to a mere $0.001 (i.e. still firmly in shitcoin territory), you’d turn a profit north of $67,000. Put in a hundred, and you’d be a multimillionaire. Put in a thousand, and…well, you get the idea. Honestly, for most bettors, shitcoins scratch the itch pretty well. All that said, buy Cardano instead. ADA is the future. You’re welcome. -Ed.
