{"id":57092,"date":"2018-10-23T21:52:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T21:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/329227"},"modified":"2018-10-23T21:52:00","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T21:52:00","slug":"betting-platform-nabs-license-for-cryptocurrency-gambling-on-esports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2018\/10\/23\/betting-platform-nabs-license-for-cryptocurrency-gambling-on-esports\/","title":{"rendered":"Betting platform nabs license for cryptocurrency gambling on eSports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The live-betting esports platform Unikrn had its crypto-gambling\u00a0license approved by the Isle of Man earlier today, paving the way for\u00a0Unikrn users to legally gamble on competitive video games using crypto-currency.<\/p>\n<p>As reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2018\/10\/23\/unikrn-gets-gambling-license-for-crypto-based-betting-on-esports-and-games\/\">VentureBeat<\/a>, Unikrn\u00a0was\u00a0previously only\u00a0licensed to provide real-money betting on esports in the U.K. and Australia, but now the company\u00a0can handle crypto gambling in 20 regions through\u00a0its in-house\u00a0currency (the\u00a0UnikoinGold token)\u00a0or traditional currencies\u00a0like the U.S. dollar.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that Unikrn\u00a0is now licensed by the Isle of Man (reputedly a rigorous licensor of online gambling operations)\u00a0means Unkirn\u00a0can allow\u00a0gambling bets using\u00a0crypto-based currency betting (which is currently legal in 41 U.S. states) for skill-based esports matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This is a big deal for esports betting in America, since a federal law banning such gambling\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/318074\/Supreme_Court_lifts_ban_on_esports_gambling_allowing_statebystate_legalization.php\">was lifted earlier this year<\/a>, with the United States Supreme Court allowing state-by-state legalization instead. It&#8217;s worth noting that states still have to pass their own laws to legalize and regulate sports betting following the Supreme Court\u2019s decision, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/319661\/New_Jersey_bans_esports_betting_with_new_unclear_legislation.php\">with New Jersey most recently<\/a> outlawing esports betting.<\/p>\n<p>While Unikrn has played host to real-money wagering on video game tournaments since 2014, it&#8217;s taking advantage of the licensing announcement to\u00a0roll\u00a0out a bunch of new services (including the afore-mentioned crypto-currency system).\u00a0In countries where sports betting is legal, Unikrn\u00a0users will not only be able to make bets on major esports competitions, but will be able to bet money on themselves with skill-based bets.<\/p>\n<p>Unikrn chief Rahul Sood\u00a0seems intent on establishing a path for esports betting in American casinos, as Unikrn already has a venue at the MGM Grand Hotel &amp; Casino in Las Vegas where users can wager on themselves in esports\u00a0tournaments\u00a0similar to poker.<\/p>\n<p>A blog post written by Sood, which can be <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@rahulsood\/unikrn-has-seen-big-launches-but-today-is-our-biggest-launch-since-2014-9c4a479bb5?_branch_match_id=348134287867068733\">found here<\/a>, goes into more detail about the license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The live-betting esports platform Unikrn had its crypto-gambling\u00a0license approved by the Isle of Man earlier today, paving the way for\u00a0Unikrn users to legally gamble on competitive video games using crypto-currency. As reported by VentureBeat, Unikrn\u00a0was\u00a0previously only\u00a0licensed to provide real-money betting on esports in the U.K. and Australia, but now the company\u00a0can handle crypto gambling in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}