Super Bowl Sunday is rapidly approaching, and American football enthusiasts worldwide are anticipating the showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers on February 11.
As someone who has been in the online gambling industry for nearly 20 years, I know the Super Bowl signifies one of the biggest days of the year for betting. For the first time, I can remember, 2024 marks an opportunity for anyone to make instant, small casual wagers on the Super Bowl, thanks to the micropayment capabilities of the Bitcoin SV (BSV).
Lil Bit is an on-chain casino and sportsbook allowing users to bet on live sporting events, casino games, and more with BSV. For those who are weary of digital currency after all the negativity in the media, you can rest assured your funds are safe when enjoying Lil Bit’s offerings because at no point does Lil Bit have control of your funds.
I’ve always admired Lil Bit’s vision and enjoyed hosting Pete as one of my guests for a
CoinGeek Roundtable episode. After reading Joshua Henslee’s recent piece on Lil Bit, I was inspired to reconnect with Pete and get the full scoop on how our readers can amp up their Super Bowl fun with small casual wagers.
Becky: Hi Pete, it’s a pleasure to be in touch again. The Super Bowl is coming up! What kind of promotions do you have in store at Lil Bit?
Pete: For the Super Bowl, we have added hundreds of different prop bets and will have extra bonuses for our ROI-based leaderboard! Anyone can win our weekly leaderboard regardless of the amount wagered. We reward good money management rather than the most placed bets, or largest wager won.
We are also working on a free lil wager giveaway that will be announced soon.
Becky: Amazing, watch this space… Ok, so we know you do things a “lil bit” differently at Lil Bit…let’s dig into this for our readers.
What is the process for opening up a wallet at Lil Bit and obtaining Bitcoin SV? What about bettors who are new to digital currency and prefer to use credit cards?
Pete: Creating an account with lilb.it is as easy as registering and confirming your email. When registered, a non-custodial (self-custody) BSV wallet is automatically created for you, as well as a corresponding paymail (instead of using clunky long digital currency addresses, a paymail is similar to an email but for money). BSV can be easily deposited into your wallet.
Buying digital currency, in general, can be time-consuming and technical. We have a module that allows you to purchase a small amount of BSV and are currently working with wallet providers to explore even easier ways to onramp new users in the simplest way possible.
Our platform is also developing ways for users to not only bet with Bitcoin but also EARN IT through various ways, such as by promoting the site, a certain game, or even a wager they made themselves.
Becky: All sounds amazing, but what about the negative press surrounding digital currency exchanges lately…what would you say to bettors who are nervous about signing up with an application associated with blockchain & digital currency?
Pete: Our site was built with solving this very problem in mind—Bitcoin itself was created to solve this. Other digital currency sportsbooks allow you to deposit your digital currency into a wallet they control. They also allow your wager and winnings to be denominated in digital currency rather than dollars. But in the end, when you click PLACE BET, no coins have been moved. This is no different than the current system that blockchain technology promised to disrupt.
How we differ is that when you place a bet, you are actually sending Bitcoin, thus creating a timestamp of the wager itself on the blockchain. Also, when you WIN, your winnings are sent directly to your OWN wallet. This drastically reduces the ‘trust’ people need to have using our platform.
If a platform such as Stake were to close its doors, the digital currency they were holding as a deposit for its clients would become inaccessible to the clients. I know this outcome seems unlikely, but just look at the Billion-dollar “crypto” exchange FTX or QuadrigaCX and ask their clients if they saw their bankruptcy coming.
Our wallets are non-custodial, so only the user themselves have access to them and can always have access to their funds no matter what happens to the platform.
Becky: Perfect, thank you. How are you taking advantage of BSV’s micropayment capabilities at Lil Bit? How can bettors enjoy micropayments for Super Bowl entertainment?
Pete: Micropayments are a great way to show the ease with which Bitcoin can actually be used to revolutionize sports betting.
What enables micropayments and still plagues the world of digital currency are the fees related to the transaction itself. You incur a fee per transaction using any other popular digital currency coins. These transaction fees can range anywhere from $1.50 up to even $50. The fees are based on how many people are currently using the network, and it can take hours and sometimes days for the transaction to be verified. BSV does not suffer from dramatically fluctuating fees—each transaction costs around 0.00001 cents.
The Super Bowl accentuates the possibility of micro-transaction betting as there are many more people who would like to wager on the game or the thousands of prop bets, even if they’re just small casual wagers. You can make even sub 1 cent wagers or parlays with
lilb.it. These types of bets are not even feasible for other platforms as the fees to withdraw their winnings from the site would exceed the actual winning.
Becky: Very cool. What sort of referral program do you have? How quickly will customers have access to their referral funds?
Pete: Our referral program works a ‘lil bit’ differently than traditional ones. Anyone who refers a new client to the site automatically earns a percentage of their referees’ bets
WHEN they place the bet. We do not base referral earnings on whether or not their referral won or lost. There are no weekly carryovers or negative earnings because the player either won or lost. When your referral places a bet, you are instantly sent a percentage of their bet in Bitcoin to your non-custodial wallet—not weekly or monthly.
Becky: Love it. Is there anything else about Lil Bit you’d like to share in the lead-up to the Super Bowl and beyond?
Pete: Yes, we recently built out the classic Video Poker game Jacks or Better on-chain and will soon introduce a progressive jackpot.
We also launched a Prediction Market where people can wager on the outcome of live world events regarding sports, politics, elections, the economy, and pop culture—you can literally put your money where your mouth is. The first question is regarding the upcoming court trial COPA v Wright. The case concerns the ‘Identity Issue,’ namely whether Dr. Craig Wright is the pseudonymous ‘Satoshi Nakamoto.’ Our users can wager on the question, “Will Craig S Wright be recognized as Satoshi Nakamoto?”
Soon, all users can create and promote their bets and earn Bitcoin on our prediction market platform. Our end goal is to make it as easy as possible for all our users to buy a lil bit, spend a lil bit, and earn a lil bit.
Becky: All sounds amazing, Pete; thank you so much for joining me during this busy time, and keep up the good work!
Watch: Micropayments are the key to masses: Haste’s Joe DePinto & Ian Duckworth
New to blockchain? Check out CoinGeek’s Blockchain for Beginners section, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about blockchain technology.
