Social gambling entering the spotlight
Stakes, one of the new crypto betting sites which blend the excitement of sports betting with new Web3 technologies, has raised $5.3 million in the new funding round.
The investment round was led by Digital Currency Group (DCG), FBG Capital, and CMS Holdings and also marks an important milestone in Stakes’s development. In January 2022, the company graduated from the IAC incubator.
Excitement for Stakes grows bigger as investors have chosen to fund a platform with a new approach to sports betting. Stakes have successfully integrated NFT rewards as “proof-of-flex” since minting over 8,000 NFTs and rewarding 2,500 for their predictions.
Stakes’ free-to-play approach allows every user to make wagers and bet against their friend. However, the social component of the platform is what makes Stakes different. Players can use the in-app feed to predict sporting outcomes by competing against their friends, other sports fans, and even influencers.
NFTs play an essential role in reforming fandom and network participation. For example, on Stakes, winners and high-calibre sports scoring “prophets” can use NFTs to mark a remarkable “I called it” moment.
The new investment series is intended to help Stakes restructure how sports fans interact with Web3 technologies. In addition, Stakes is tapping into a new market segment by simply NFTs affordances to make sports betting and score predictions way more entertaining.
By combining sports and community and providing new digital means of showing recognition as proof-of-flex and community knowledge, Stakes is umping the anty on how fandom can be included in the latest technological shift from Web 2.0 to Web3.
The lure of NFT gambling
NFTs have become highly volatile assets simply because the excitement and market hype is a passing trend within the industry, turning NFTs into speculative purchases. NFT holders have always been categorized into NFT buyers and flippers, where the latter uses gambling-like strategies to generate profit.- although that’s not always possible.
Although NFTs as technology provide value to the digital landscape, they’ve gained a reputation as gambling tools. As a result, it won’t be long until existing NFT collections will be used as collateral on some of the best gambling platforms.