Betswap.gg – the road to success
Interview with Konstantinos Christodolou, Head of Product
Can you tell us what Betswap.gg is and why you decided to launch this venture?
Betswap.gg is the only web3 betting exchange, completely built on the polygon blockchain. The placed bets are completely non-custodial which ensures that all winning bets are directly credited to the player’s external wallet. Betswap.gg never holds any funds from the player. This in turn creates the second and third part of our DNA, permissionless and trustless as players do not need approval from any central authority to get their winnings. As a platform, we only facilitate the matching of bets between users and provide the results to the smart contract. All our developments are based on these principles, and we never compromise our DNA and our values. We launched this venture because we realized there is a need for players to bet in a decentralized exchange, which we believe will transition from a niche to the norm. Furthermore, we identified problems in the method of onboarding players in traditional sportsbooks and an even bigger issue of financial restrictions in deposits and withdrawals. We know that by keeping our foundations solid, the non-custodial, permissionless and trustless DNA, will be where the future growth of sports betting lies.
What is your product vision and how do you plan to achieve this?
Our product vision is for Betswap.gg to be the dominant betting exchange in the world and the easiest to use for mainstream punters, while generating revenues from multiple sources. We will be the leading web3 gaming platform, where punters can bet on sports, casino, live casino and other games, by combining the speed and frictionless betting experience of Web 2.0, with ease of onboarding, permissionless and trustlessness of Web 3.0. We are already in the process of developing the only non-custodial gaming wallet on the blockchain. This will allow users to transact with games using traditional transaction methods, but their funds are never held by anyone at any point, thus maintaining the trustlessness aspect of our DNA. The users have full control over their wallet and Betswap.gg can’t touch it, even if we wanted to, thus also satisfying the permissionless aspect of our DNA. We plan to launch our new wallet in Q2 2023, which opens up the horizon to more third-party integrations and the possibility of adding new features such as parlay bets. We also understand that not all game providers can work with our technology, so we started developing our own games where users can play on the blockchain.
What challenges do you phase in relation to your business model and how do these differ from traditional sportsbooks?
Taking on the betswap.gg challenge, we understand that we face both the challenges of traditional exchanges and the challenges of blockchain. The combination of these requires novel solutions, which is part of why working at betswap.gg is such a pleasure. We need to find solutions to problems that exist in both spaces and because of the combination of the two. For example we need to create a pleasant onboarding experience, while discovering elements of Web 2.0 that allows the user not to feel the difference from what they are normally used to, while selecting and implementing blockchain technology. Familiarity is an important element for traditional bettors and we try to find ways to deliver such an experience without sacrificing our DNA and values. A great example of how the combination of sportsbook exchange and blockchain technology can create challenges that are greater than the sum of their parts is liquidity. When a bet is placed, all the funds from both parties need to be locked in a smart contract, which in practice reduces liquidity. We needed to find novel solutions to a unique problem.
In the sports betting exchange aspect of our platform, we face the same challenges as any betting exchange, such as the aforementioned issue of liquidity, revenue generation from market makers and the limitations of exchange betting. On the blockchain aspect, we face challenges such as user journey familiarization of our players, onboarding players from traditional sportsbooks and exchanges and bridging the knowledge of these players between fiat and crypto wallet management. We have a strategic plan in place, where we tackle all these questions and more. We love such challenges and I strongly believe that by maintaining our values, keep finding new solutions to new problems, we will create a unique platform for a better experience for everyone.
What makes Betswap.gg unique and why would bettors prefer to use your platform instead of one of your competitors?
Betswap leads the charge as far as sports betting exchanges are concerned. We came first to market in September 2022 and have seen tremendous activity in the last 5 months. What makes us unique is continuous innovation in our product. We don’t accept good enough, we always strive to deliver more than what our clients expect. This continues to give us the edge we need to achieve our vision to be the foremost player in the sports and casino platform in the world. The answer to what makes us unique is that simply, there is no platform out there where all transactions are permissionless, trustless and user funds are non-custodial. Being the first in the market allowed us to have the necessary liquidity to run an exchange efficiently, which gives us a similar advantage to whomever has the lead in artificial intelligence; it is very difficult to catch up.
We also have a very active community on discord and specific channels where our customers and investors can propose ideas and report bugs. This community spirit is very important to us, because our audience is global, with different preferences and this helps us understand how our customers think and what they want. We are very transparent about our roadmap and open to all suggestions.
What is your long-term roadmap?
Our long-term roadmap was designed based on our values and our product vision. The team sat down in a meeting room for days, identified our weaknesses and challenges and then created strategic goals to achieve our vision. Our three pillars are Innovation, Liquidity and revenue generation. Any development we plan on our roadmap must satisfy at least one pillar. For the innovation part, I already discussed the wallet on a blockchain solution, but we are also working with third-party organizations in the web3 space, who innovated themselves and we are early adopters of their technology. A good example of this is the on-ramping and off-ramping of funds from fiat money to a crypto wallet. Some organizations out there focused a lot of time to solve this issue, we adopted it, and we focused on our technology. For the revenue generation part, we plan to introduce parlay bets on the blockchain, which may sound simple, but in an exchange this creates some novel challenges, however we plan to be the first betting exchange on the blockchain that offers this feature. We also plan to redesign our frontend, but maintain the simplicity required for new players who want to bet on a decentralized betting exchange, but also attract players from traditional sportsbooks who understand our product’s value proposition. There is a lot of effort going on the backend to allow us to offer unique products to market makers. I can’t say much about this as yet, but visit the Betswap.gg platform often to see the latest updates.
