The other day, WINk ran a poll on the official Twitter account, asking if they should add a sportsbook provider (Betby):
So far, an overwhelming majority voted yes. But who are Betby? Most participants in the poll most likely voted on the "add sportsbook", rather than specific {provider}. A large percentage of voters probably does not even know that WINk already has a sportsbook provider integrated. Question is, why they want to add Betby to their crypto gambling platform? Would it be an improvement? Could it impact the price of $WIN coin?
I would assume that most readers knows that WINk already offer crypto sports betting on their site. They added sports all the way back in April 2019, and have it to this day. You can check it out directly on their crypto betting site, https://www.wink.org/, just need to have TronLink available to login and view it.
The provider of their existing sportsbook solution is Betsy. Despite the name, they are not affiliated with Betby in any way. On their website they have Sportsbet.io, Bitcasino.io, and OlyBet listed as partners.
However, I cannot see if Olybet really use Betsy in any way - based on their product, it does not look like it. Bitcasino.io does not have a sportsbook but is owned by the same company as Sportsbet.io. I cannot verify if they use Betsy, the skinning is entirely different from the WINk crypto sportsbook. At the same time, Betsy launched their new sportsbook UI about one month ago, could be that Sportsbet.io is running on the new while WINk is running on the old.
If Sportsbet.io is using Betsy, then I'd say it is a good grade regarding the quality of the sportsbook product provided. Which in my opinion would not really give WINk a reason to switch to Betby. Unless, better commercial deal with Betby. The user experience of Sportsbet.io sportsbook is far superior to that of WINk. The WINk sportsbook looks cool, but usability is quite poor. Navigation is a mess compared to other sportsbooks, and the margins could certainly be better. In my own educated opinion, the sportsbook is a complete mess from a UX perspective. Anyone betting with more than a couple of sportsbooks would likely discard it over other options. Now, WINk does not have to worry too much about that, one of their unique selling points is $WIN and being the biggest crypto betting platform on the Tron chain.
I could think of a couple of reasons why switching to a new, better sportsbook provider could make sense here.
While sports betting typically only makes up around 20-25% of the revenue in an online gambling site (casino and live casino is the moneymaker), it still makes sense to offer the best possible product. Increase acquisition, retention and cross-selling. Plus, more users would benefit $WIN and ultimate drive the price of $WIN coin up.
Betby is a rather new kid on the block. They got their B2B - Critical Supply Licence from the MGA (Malta Gaming Authority) in 2020. They only provide sports content, with the fixed odds being the bread and butter. They got simulators and virtual sports as well. In other words, they are well-equipped to cover everything WINk are getting from Betsy at the moment.
Both Betsy and Betby are missing what has become more or less standard in sportsbooks nowadays - cashout, partial cashout and the possibility to build your own bet (typically referred to as Bet Builder). So, even with Betby, we are looking at a rather plain sportsbook product in the WINk crypto gambling platform.
What is positive with Betby is that the offering is better, there is more market depth, and the esports offering looks solid. Overall the UI is not that far off from Betsy, some concepts around cards and the horizontal menus are shared. But Betby does it much cleaner, easier interaction and overview.
I would assume that WINk also gets the front-end of the Betby sportsbook. So, essentially, the demo version but branded to WINk. Betby sportsbook is a great improvement. Especially if WINk want to put some more weight on esports betting.
Despite Betby only being around since 2020, they have managed to build up a solid portfolio of customers, which I was able to verify easily (was unable to verify claims from Betsy around what companies have their solution integrated).
Another strong point from Betby is that they have been shortlisted for many awards, including Best Sportsbook Platform Supplier two years in a row and Best Sports Betting Supplier two years in a row. They did not win any awards, but the competition in stiff, and usually, it takes some time to get everything right. The many partners and shortlisting gives a good indication to the quality of their product. More indicators that Betby would be a better option compared to Betsy.
I don't think that the value of $WIN coin would be impacted either positively or negatively by adding Betby. If they were adding a sportsbook for the first time, then yes. But now they would replace an existing provider with another. Although the new provider is much better, I doubt it will lead to a massive spike in new users and new $WIN hodlers.
But with that said, by all means - add Betby sportsbook to your crypto gambling platform! I as a $WIN hodler approve.
