I have just signed up to Bitkup, here is how it works. Bitkup charges users a one-time entry fee of 50 m฿ that is put in a prize pool with everyone’s entry fee. Users then make predictions on the outcome of all games in the World Cup and get points if they guess correctly.Bitkup will display a leaderboard showing how all users are doing compared to each other. Lastly, when everyone’s score is final Bitkup will distribute the pool of funds to the winners!This gives users interest and excitement in every match! Bitkup also features cool and friendly web design and is by a team of crypto true believers. Details
Games go for 90 minutes and Germany wins 😉
Competition structure and scoring
The FIFA World Cup runs in Brazil from June 13 to July 14. It is made up of 32 teams playing 64 games.
Bitkup users predict the score of each match and receive 3 points if they guess the correct score or 1 point if they get the score wrong but the result (Team A/Team B/Draw) is right.
So if you predict a game will end 2-2 and it ends 2-2 you get 3 points. If it ends 1-1 or 3-3 you get 1 point because you predicted the result would be a draw. If it ends 2-1 or any non-draw you get 0 points. There is also a bonus bet to predict the overall winner for 10 points.
So far there is around 3500 m฿ in the pool, which will keep increasing until kick-off. The operators are taking a 20% cut and the top 20 users will share the rest as winnings on this payouts scale.
| 1st place | 50% |
| 2nd place | 15% |
| 3rd place | 13% |
| Places 4-20 | 1.3% |
Bitkup is just the first example of this model we will see with crypto. In fact, there are already platforms being developed for groups of friends to run crypto betting pools on anything into which a few people or a few million people can enter.
Review
Bitkup is a good start to this but I have a few gripes. It’s not clear if the score used for grading knockout games will include periods of extra time. Their terms and conditions suggest it will but this is not standard in correct score soccer betting.
Edit: Bitkup updated this based on my suggestion, now matches will be scored based on full-time results not including extra time or penalties.
I would like to see more social features like a community chat box.
Edit: This has now been included.
The site often throws up an error and does not record your predictions after you press the “All in” button, meaning you often have to enter your predictions again.
The operator’s cut of 20% is WAY too high. As the Bitkup team has had to build everything from scratch they still won’t make their money back on this first endeavor but they now have a platform on which to offer further pools in the future. The operator cut will get lower and lower when there is competition, down to 1% and then eventually 0% house edge.
You can see how I am getting on in the competition by checking the Bitkup leaderboard for the user name “BitcoinBettingGuide”. If you want to make bets on individual games we recommend Cloudbet.
Bitkup is yet another example of how the gambling industry pushes the envelope of technology and censorship resistance moving the crypto ecosystem forward!
