CounterSports – The world's first distributed betting application
For the first time it is now possible to perform Bitcoin-based betting in a decentralized fashion, meaning without the need of entrusting your funds in the hands of a third party – all wagers made using our application are held in escrow by a smart contract until the wager is settled.
Links:Main page:
countersports.comCurrently on testnet:
test.countersports.comAmong the benefits:Secrecy:Users have complete anonymity when using our services.
Security:Users' funds are kept safe at the protocol level – thanks to the use of Bitcoin 2.0 technologies, the users are not required to transfer their coins into the custody of any application, and there is no centralized party that holds and manages users funds (no Mt.gox etc').
Transparency:Because the application works using the Bitcoin Blockchain, all of its actions are visible to anyone and can be retraced by anyone with great ease.
Reliability:The Counterparty protocol, which is the Bitcoin 2.0 protocol in which CounterSports is implemented, is based on secured Bitcoin transactions, thus utilizes the Bitcoin network's highly secured and dependable features.
General Bitcoin benefits:The use of Bitcoins holds numerous advantages over fiat currency (such as $, €, etc') - anonymity, independence, no inflation, cryptographic security, instant payments for any amount, and much more. Up until now, Bitcoin did not reach its full potential in existing large scale thriving industries, in which its special attributes gives it a distinctive edge and especially in the field of sport bets. The existence of a distributed and cryptographically secured system in which the operators of a betting application, or anyone else for that matter, have no ability to take / confiscate users funds, but can only decide which one of the participants is the winner of the pot is what distinguishes the CounterSports application from any and all other sport betting websites, whether Bitcoin-based or Fiat-based. Introducing the sport bets industry into the world of Bitcoin can elevate the Bitcoin economy to great new heights.
Better rates:For any wager, there is a counter wager, commonly referred to as 'The House wager' or 'Lay'. In old fashioned betting websites and casinos the user plays against the house in the fixed unattractive rates determined by the 'House', and so the 'House' gains if and when the user looses. The CounterSports application synchronizes users' bets and allows users to choose their own rates and bet directly between users. There is no middleman, thus all arbitrage revenue is there for the users to profit.
* In order to kickstart the application, counter wagers will be made on behalf of the CounterSports application for bets that are- a. within the rates presented by the site as a non-organic rate (organic, meaning that a verified bet has been placed by a user); b. in lines where no rate-attractive, organic bets exist. This mechanism was set in place for a double purpose – both to allow users to know the real world rate for their wager and to ensure that the first attractive betters of every line will always have their offers matched for at least a portion of their wager.
Mobile friendly:The CounterSports application was designed for both desktop computer, Smartphone and tablet users. More importantly, users that run android based devices can bet directly from their mobile phone using the well vetted, open source Electrum wallet (released November 5, 2011).
What wagers can I make?How many times did you get to see a match and said to yourselves "I don't know who will win, but I know there will not be a tie"? In the CounterSports application you can choose to wager on the option that you think will happen and also for the opposite option, meaning everything but the specified result. For the aforementioned case, it is possible to place a bet that will award you with the pot in case of a draw (placing this kind of bet is called 'back', meaning that you are 'backing' the possibility of a draw), or alternatively, you could place a bet that will award you with the pot in all cases except the draw, which means that it does not matter which team wins, as long as the result is not a draw, you will take the pot (placing this kind of bet is called 'lay', meaning that you are 'laying' an opposition to the possibility of a draw).
The CounterSports application currently receives matches from all the major soccer leagues, including the 2014 world cup in Brazil. At this time we analyze results from 30 different leagues from 20 countries.
During the summer, the main event will be the 2014 world cup in Brazil, and when soccer regular seasons will resume, matches from the top European soccer leagues will be available: Champions League, English premier league, Bundesliga (Germany), La Liga (Spain), Serie A (Italy) and much, much more.
Incorporating additional lines, sports and countries is already in play.
How to make a bet?1. Browse through the various lines available on the CounterSports application until you find one that you want your make your bet on.
2. Insert the details of the bet that you want to make (your betting address, wager amount and your desired rate. All other details are preconfigured to match the bet type which you have selected, but those could also be changed from the bet making page).
3. Paste the line of text corresponding to your wallet type (Each supported wallet type has its own line of text to be pasted in your local wallet) and hit send.
Done!
Your bet has now been placed and can be matched by other users from the Bitcoin network.
Since the CounterSports application is based on the Bitcoin blockchain, and implemented using the Counterparty protocol, in order to use it, one must acquire some Bitcoins and as many XCP as one would like to place as wagers. All wagers, counter wagers and pots are denominated in the form of XCP, which is the native currency of the Counterparty protocol. It is possible to acquire XCP through a traditional exchange service, such as
http://bter.com/trade/xcp_btc or
https://www.poloniex.com/exchange/btc_xcp, and it could also be purchased using Counterparty's built-in decentralized exchange.
Placing bets, buy/sell orders on the decentralized exchange, and many other options are made easy through a free service called CounterWallet- a user friendly online wallet, built by the Counterparty protocol original developers. It is important to point out that we have great appreciation towards the Counterparty core developers but we are not them, we are independent developers.
However, in order to reach the great mass of Bitcoin holders, and to make it simple for users who have never used a digital currency, and as is clear from the above example, a bet could just as easily be made from a standard Bitcoin-qt or electrum wallet.
Screenshots:
Brazil 2014 World Cup General bets
Example match page
Example league page
Example market page
Some of our future plans:1. Incorporating additional sports.
2. Incorporating global events.
3. Expanding the betting possibilities for each single event.
4. Binary options.
5. CounterWallet seamless integration.
6. Issuance of the CounterSports application on top of the Counterparty protocol.
Links:Main page:
countersports.comCurrently on testnet:
test.countersports.comCross - post for our (pre) announcement.
Your feedback is very much welcomed.
