SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Despite the heavy blows dealt to cryptocurrencies earlier this year, SOFTSWISS has pointed to steady activity in crypto betting during H1.
The crypto crash of May was a major hurdle in the cryptocurrencies’ upward trajectory in recent years, as the sector lost over $100bn in value in just a few minutes, with blockchain giant Bitcoin falling by 5%.
However, looking back over the first six months of the year, SOFTSWISS’ research showed that crypto bettors were undeterred by the developments – drastic changes in value are nothing new to the sector.
Crypto bets accounted for 34.8% of total wagering volume during H1 – an increase of 5% on the previous year. On the other hand, when the ratio of different currencies during the first two quarters were analysed, crypto’s share fell by 2.37%.
SOFTSWISS asserts that this small decline is a ‘short-term tendency, despite overall growth’, as the firm’s Chief Operating Officer, Vitali Matsukevich, added: “This slight decline during the second quarter should not affect the overall trend towards an increase in the share of cryptocurrencies in the total volume of bets.
“We have been seeing stable growth for several years, which contributes to the further development of crypto gambling. A crypto community is growing among players.
“The interests of this audience now largely influence the growth of the whole industry. Operators that meet the needs of this community gain a competitive advantage and become market leaders.”
In SOFTSWISS’ view, cryptocurrencies are showing resilience against the hurdles 2022 has thrown at them so far, and ‘still penetrating deeper into the igaming industry’, as well as other sectors.
This is not to say that more challenges are not on the horizon, however, as the company pointed towards increasing regulation as ‘diversification’ of the digital currencies, which it predicts will have a ‘significant impact on the development of igaming’.
A range of financial regulatory agencies, such as the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), are paying more attention to crypto developments.
Meanwhile, potential regulation of stablecoins in the US remains on the horizon, although discussions on the bill in the House Financial Services Committee apparently stalled earlier this week.
Matsukevich continued: “Stricter regulation of crypto operations, of course, will have an impact on the development speed of this business area.
“However, the huge potential of crypto projects and, accordingly, interest from leading industry representatives will play a decisive role.
We will see further growth in this niche combined with a new non-standard approach to the gamification of the playing process with novelties such as NFT and tokens.”
Lastly, SOFTSWISS analysis showed that Bitcoin remains the most popular cryptocurrency for betting at 71.2% of all transactions during H1, followed by Ethereum at 14.7% and Litecoin at 6.15% – a continuation of a trend demonstrated in an earlier report.
