I was reading Pomp’s tweet earlier today and I was struck that he missed one minor thing :).

I love reading his Twitter, and highly recommend it to any of you who want to learn about Blockchain and Cryptocurrency… But man we gotta start supporting some amazing projects, the ones who are currently buried, and emerging, from underneath a pile of rubble. It’s time to unearth us, and help us tell the story!

Last week Unikrn had our biggest launch in our 4 year history. We are now the first and only live betting company in the world to get a license from the Isle of Man that covers the following;

Crypto and Fiat betting on Sportsbook (esports and sports)

Crypto and Fiat betting on Online Casino

Crypto and Fiat betting on the new Unikrn Skill Betting Platform

This license covers around 20 countries, and spans 4 continents. Also notable that this license covers current and upcoming products, we’ll share more details of those as they launch.

This license wasn’t easy to acquire, there was a ton of work on our end from working with regulators, building proper KYC and AML systems onto our platform, building a strong product, working with lawyers from around the world, and going through an audit of our platform that most companies would fail for various reasons.

Not only did we get a license, but we also launched amazing new products to go with it;

Live Esportsbook: We launched an entirely new esportsbook live betting product that allows customers to watch matches and place live bets using UKG and Fiat during the matches.

We launched an entirely new esportsbook live betting product that allows customers to watch matches and place live bets using UKG and Fiat during the matches. Skill Betting on Video Games: We launched our new skill betting product which you’ll also see in markets around the world that let’s gamers bet on themselves in games that they love, exclusively with UKG, without having to wait for someone to bet against!

We launched our new skill betting product which you’ll also see in markets around the world that let’s gamers bet on themselves in games that they love, exclusively with UKG, without having to wait for someone to bet against! Powered by Bittrex Token Acquisition Solution: We made it easy to acquire UKG directly on our platform with a “Powered by Bittrex” solution that allows our customers to use various forms of payment to buy UKG directly off the market.

Unikrn is effectively doing everything we can to make crypto mainstream, which makes for a strong and safe investment ecosystem for institutional players, and is generally great for the entire industry.

It’s time for the crypto/blockchain industry to celebrate successes like this, and condemn and help modify some of the behavior that took place last year. Retail money in crypto has all but disappeared, for now, and all we can do is build great platforms and businesses who will drive real institutional and government support in this space. In the future I believe we’ll see a bull market that’s much bigger and more focussed than the last one we saw earlier this year — but this will require a bit of regulation, just enough to protect consumers while enabling innovation.

In the last bull market there were too many scams with no oversight. There were a number of greedy money grabbing opportunists who’s activities made this space *very* hard for legit operators to build real businesses. For example, we had to navigate around exchanges who wanted to charge massive amounts of crypto just to “list” on their exchange — and on top of that many expected us to drive fake volume by using market making services that they offer. This is crazy, and it’s unacceptable. On top of this much of the crypto media, except for a few good eggs, offered us coverage if we paid massive amounts of crypto to them — these are just a couple of examples of how change is needed for our ecosystem to thrive.

So yes, we need good operators who understand how to innovate, and work with regulators so consumers are protected, and mainstream investors feel comfortable investing money in our industry. I can only imagine Coinbase’s value of 8 Billion USD would be nowhere close to where it is if not for their focus on proper licenses and legal operating framework.

I promise you no matter what, Unikrn will continue to build an amazing global esports company. We are everything we say we are and more, and our brand is loved and used by esports fans and gamers from around the world. Now that we have our licenses in place, expect us to scale — and we’ll continue to launch new and exciting features for all of our users!

In the meantime here’s some great coverage of our launch last week, please share and spread the word!

Unikrn Launch Coverage:

Variety Magazine: Esports Gets Legalized Sports Gambling

Associated Press: Esport betting platform gets license for video game gambling

VentureBeat: Unikrn gets gambling license for crypto-based betting on esports and games

SportTechie: Unikrn Blockchain Betting Platform Receives License for Esports Gambling

Axios PM Newsletter: 1 gambling thing

CalvinAyre: Unikrn wins Isle of Man crypto and real-money betting license

BlockTribune: Fortnite, Dota 2, League Of Legends — Unikrn Starts Esports Betting On Games

CryptoNinjas: Unikrn’s crypto betting platform for eSports approved for Isle of Man license

EsportsInsider: Unikrn announces rollout of crypto-betting service

Washington Post: Esport betting platform gets license for video game gambling

Business Insider: Esport betting platform gets license for video game gambling

Daily Mail: Esport betting platform gets license for video game gambling

ABC News: Esport betting platform gets license for video game gambling

New York Daily News: Video game betting is coming

Seattle Times: Esport betting platform gets license for video game gambling

Las Vegas Review Journal: Esports betting company gets license for video game gambling

Coinspectator: Unikrn wins Isle of Man crypto and real-money betting license

WCJB ABC: Esport betting platform gets license for video game gambling

CCN: Mark Cuban-Backed ICO Receives Esports Crypto Betting License

As we continue our roll-out we’re reminded about how much hard work our team has put into this, and how much our community has supported us. Thank you for your support!