Betting in cryptocurrency: how foreign bookmakers work in Russia

Sanctions have an impact not only on Russian companies and local consumers. They create a new reality for foreign brands that want to continue operating in the Russian market. Restrictions on the part of financial companies are forcing them to look for alternative ways to transfer funds. In the current circumstances, cryptocurrencies have come in handy more than ever.

How the restrictions have affected the betting sector

Restrictions do not have a direct impact on the betting market in the Russian Federation. More than ten legal bookmakers continue to operate. Offshore companies have the hardest time: they cannot pay players via bank cards.

Problems with replenishment of accounts

By the night of March 5, 2022 it became known that the international companies Visa and Mastercard suspend work in Russia for an indefinite period. This information was reported by the founders of the financial corporations. Thanks to the media, by the morning of March 6, 2022, the news became known to almost the whole world.

The termination of the work of popular payment systems in the Russian Federation has the following consequences:

• Stopping transactions on cards from Russian issuers outside the country.
• Termination of the work of payment instruments issued abroad inside the Russian Federation.
• Ban on re-issuance of Visa/Mastercard cards by Russian banks.

Also, many international companies have closed channels for making ruble deposits using these payment systems. As a result of the restrictions, clients of bookmaker offices (BK) faced difficulties in the issue of replenishing internal accounts.

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What methods of making deposits in rubles are still available?

Some BCs still accept payment in RUB via electronic payment systems (EPS) such as Advcash and PAYEER. However, this deposit method often requires payment of commissions up to 5% and takes a long time. For these 2 reasons, bookmakers’ clients rarely use EPS.

Many Russian banks are on the sanctions lists. Their mobile applications have been removed from Google Play and App Store. Also, when making payments outside the Russian Federation, all bank transactions are blocked.

Possible restrictions for players of foreign BCs

At the moment, the threat of new sanctions remains. In the future, clients of foreign bookmakers will face other restrictions:

• Ending support for the Russian ruble. International bookmakers may stop any payments to players in RUB. Then the withdrawal of winnings from balances will become very difficult.
• Blocking of accounts. Bookmakers may start freezing winnings of players from Russia. As of April 13, 2022, no such cases have been recorded.

Can cryptocurrency facilitate the work of the gambling industry

By April 2022, depositing and cashing out accounts at betting shops has become more difficult. This is explained by the blocking of Visa and Mastercard cards and the end of the work of these companies in the market of the Russian Federation. As a result, many users had difficulties with making deposits and withdrawing winnings.

Cryptocurrencies help to mitigate the consequences of the departure of Visa and Mastercard. They cannot be hacked or blocked. As of April 13, 2022, some bookmakers have already started accepting deposits in popular coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum. One of these BCs is 1xBit. The betting service accepts payment in 35 popular cryptocurrencies, including:

When entering the promo code BITCOM in the registration field, the player receives a bonus:

• On the 1st deposit – 125% up to 1 BTC.
• On the 2nd deposit – 50% up to 1 BTC.
• On the 3rd deposit – 100% up to 2 BTC.
• On the 4th deposit – 50% up to 3 BTC.

Blockchain gambling

According to the aggregator CryptoSlate, there are 27 digital gambling projects as of April 13, 2022. They are based on blockchain technology and have branded utility tokens.

As of April 13, 2022, the daily turnover of virtual assets in the betting industry is $185 million on average. The total market capitalization is equal to $600 million.

Information about the 3 most popular gambling projects with distributed ledgers is presented in the table below.

Name	Brief description	Ticker and token price as of April 13, 2022
FUN	The project was established in 2021. It has a blockchain casino under its management. It operates on the Ethereum network. Also, XFUN cryptocurrency wallet is launched in Q1 2022.	FUN, $0.011
AtariChain	The project launched in 2020 and is owned by the American game maker Atari. By April 13, 2022, the company managed to implement a token, a decentralized exchange and a mobile wallet. Also, the creators of the project have developed a virtual casino in the Decentraland meta-universe.	ATRI, $0.019
CoinPoker	This cryptocurrency project is a decentralized poker room. It runs on smart contracts in the Ethereum blockchain. This makes the poker game fair and transparent, as any information can be verified.	CHP, $0.057

To play in Atari’s virtual casino in the Decentraland meta universe, you need to have an ATRI token. You can get this cryptocurrency by exchanging DEX for Atari.

Withdrawal

After the withdrawal of Visa and Mastercard payment systems from the Russian market, users of different BCs had problems with depositing and withdrawing winnings. As a result, some bookmakers decided to integrate support for cryptocurrency deposits. However, this practice has been in place before. For example, the 1xBit service created in 2016 accepted cryptocurrency deposits even before the sanctions were introduced.

There is no need to be afraid to use digital assets. As of April 2022, there are almost 700 cryptocurrency platforms for the quick purchase/sale of coins and tokens. Russian legislation does not prohibit the use of virtual assets. Also, cryptocurrencies can not be blocked due to their specifics.

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Author: Saifedean Ammous, an expert in cryptocurrency economics.