Welcome to the SportX Battle Royale

Just over a month ago, we launched SportX V1, a product we believe to be the best cryptocurrency sports betting exchange. To celebrate, we ran a betting competition called the SportX Battle Royale.

The competition ran from May 30th to June 9th, with a prize pool of 10,000 DAI. Team scores were based on the total amount returned (bet + profit) for all winning bets. Players could play as an individual or add friends to their team (up to a maximum of five people per team).

10,000 DAI Prize Pool

Of the total prize pool, 2,000 DAI was given away in daily draws, with the remaining 8,000 DAI awarded to the top 10 teams.

Admittedly, we were a bit nervous to launch the SportX Battle Royale. $10,000 is a lot of prize money to pay out for a competition that might be a huge flop.

Fortunately, our amazing user base proved us completely wrong: the results of the betting competition blew us away. Over an 11-day period, SportX users bet a total of 186,631 DAI across 3,441 wagers.

The day with the highest payout? Monday, June 3rd, when 24,000 DAI was paid out to winners. This included winnings from Game 2 of the NBA Finals, the French Open Round of 16 play, and Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

After wrapping up the competition and paying out all of the prizes, we reflected on what worked and what we’d change for our next trading competition.

What did we learn?

1. Teams win more (unless you’re a whale)

It may seem obvious, but teams with multiple bettors had the most success, winning 9 of the top 10 prizes. However, there were two solo teams in the top 15, with one finishing 5th overall.

2. Favourites paid, but sharp bookmakers found value on underdogs

Betting on heavy favourites was a successful strategy employed by Vynshow’s Glorious Knights, Broker News Network and 537. On the opposite side of the book, this led to outstanding value for underdog bookmakers (who received odds 200-300% better than regular sportsbooks). These underdog bookmakers (I’m Trying Jennifer & DJ Smokey) won massive payouts when upsets occurred.



3. Competition makes everything more exciting

To keep everyone in the loop, we posted daily updates about team standings to Discord and Instagram. Naturally, this led to some friendly trash talk and increased competition, especially as teams four through eleven jostled for position during the final few days.

4. Crypto users are skeptical

With our pre-launch marketing, we tried to make sure that everyone in crypto heard about the SportX Battle Royale and had the opportunity to join. Despite solid online exposure, we learned that most crypto users are highly skeptical of new projects.

Since 90%+ of all crypto projects have either failed to deliver on their promises or misappropriated investor funds, we understand the skepticism. Still, building trust in the SportX brand will remain a steady challenge, given the skeptical nature of crypto users.

A special thank you to ETH, ETH2, and Codingalex for joining SportX and providing valuable feedback!

5. You can’t please everyone… some people just take the money and run

After we started to promote the competition, we quickly found that about 30% of users that signed up for the Battle Royale had no interest in actually participating. These users weren’t interested in learning about new features or trading competition rules… they just wanted free crypto. Check out this example:



We understand if sports betting isn’t for you… but if you’re going to ask for free crypto, at least say please.

Although disappointing, dealing with these types of people is a natural part of being a crypto company. The good news is that the community of dapp users who are actively trying and using new projects will only continue to grow.

How can we improve for next time?

After the SportX Beta launch (back in March), we dramatically upgraded the product for our V1 launch by simplifying the onboarding process and removing the need to hold ETH. During the Battle Royale trading competition, we are incredibly thankful for the feedback that our users provided. Here were the most common suggestions/complaints:

SportX Feedback: Add baseball

Ask and you shall receive. Last week we added MLB, Formula 1 and CFL to SportX along with expanded tennis, golf, and soccer coverage.

SportX Feedback: Bet Confirmations are slow

Until recently, bets would take anywhere from 20-100 seconds to confirm. Following a major upgrade to our trading engine, we are happy to annouce that all bets are now confirmed instantly!

Battle Royale: Scoring should be based on profit, not return

We agree completely. The initial format of the competition allowed a few deep-pocketed teams to flex their bank accounts and take a commanding lead early. Future versions of the SportX Battle Royale will score teams based on profit, not return.

It’s hard to get something perfect the first time, but we’re extremely happy with the success of our first Battle Royale Trading Competition. Along with over 186,000 DAI traded during an 11-day period, we received valuable feedback about both SportX and the format of the competition.

After further product upgrades and a few rule tweaks to make future competitions more fair, we definitely plan on holding more trading competitions in the future.

Explore the SportX Dapp

About SportX

SportX is the world’s best crypto sports betting exchange, where users bet peer-to-peer against other bettors. Built on Ethereum and powered by Dai, SportX is a decentralized sports betting exchange that always places its users first. To learn more, visit SportX and click Get Started.