Wagerr Launches Sports Betting dApp: Can It Compete With Augur?

Wagerr has launched a new blockchain-based sports betting platform. The platform’s mainnet was released on September 15th, and users can now place bets and take advantage of the platform’s smart contracts and escrow services.

The platform is fully decentralized: Wagerr is “free of all regulatory bodies” and is anonymous. Registration requires only an email address. Transparency is provided thanks to a blockchain explorer, which allows users to be sure that everything is being done fairly.

Bettors will use the platform’s native WGR token for transactions. The platform collects a fairly low fee (6% on each bet), and half of the tokens collected by Wagerr are burnt. This practice should result in deflation and keep the price of the token high.

Failing Prediction Markets

Wagerr is a prediction market, a type of dApp that has become popular in recent months. Although many of these platforms have been launched, none has become an overwhelming success.

Augur is currently leading the pack and has sections specifically devoted to sports betting. However, the platform has been performing poorly since its launch, and has been receiving just dozens of users per day. Gnosis is also a big name, but is still in alpha.

Apart from these leaders, several minor players exist. In theory, the attraction of these platforms is the fact that they can evade the laws that make online betting and prediction markets a legal grey area. Blockchains and cryptocurrencies provide anonymity, which makes it easy to work around restrictions.

Yet, in actuality, blockchain-based prediction markets continue to be a niche interest.

Suggested Reading : Learn about two of the biggest dApp platforms: EOS and Ethereum.

Sports Betting

Unlike most prediction markets, which allow betting on events in general, Wagerr focuses exclusively on sports betting. This market has always been very lucrative, as Wagerr’s press release notes:

“Gambling, specifically sports betting, is a phenomenally large industry, generating revenue in the trillions of dollars each year.”

This is an exaggeration, but more conservative estimates are also substantial. This might not be a good thing, though, as Wagerr may have a lot of competition in the future. The recent legalization of sports betting could gradually introduce many more sports betting platforms that aren’t blockchain-based.

In any case, sports betting probably has more mainstream appeal than platforms like Augur do. Whether Wagerr can capitalize on that remains to be seen.

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