Lotteries are extremely popular in China, where many millions of people buy tickets every year in the hope of striking lucky.
This process has gone online over the last few years, as more and more people in the country gain access to the internet, and has only served to increase its popularity.
Lottery companies are certainly keeping up with the times in China, and one of the best examples of this comes from 500.com and its acquisition of BTC.com.
500.com is one of the biggest Chinese sports lottery providers, and it has now announced that it will buy BTC.com, which is one of the largest crypto-mining pools in the world.
Under the terms of this deal, 500.com will acquire the domain name as well as the cryptocurrency wallet of BTC.com, with the first transaction in this deal expected to go through by 15th April 2021.
This deal has led to a lot of bullishness on 500.com – it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, where its price was up more than 70% in pre-trading following this announcement.
This deal is one of the most obvious examples of the link between gambling/lotteries and crypto that has become established on a global scale over the last 12 months.
There are various crypto casinos and casino ETH providers who have begun offering customers the opportunity to place bets through cryptocurrency on various casino table games in this time.
Along with this, there are several advantages to these operations as well. They offer complete privacy to players, with players able to play and transact anonymously, while the underlying blockchain technology also offers complete security.
Players who win will be able to see the funds in their accounts nearly instantly, which is another result of the blockchain network. Thus, it is no surprise that the online gambling space has been revolutionized by these developments.
It is also known that China is one of the world leaders when it comes to crypto mining, and has some of the biggest crypto mining pools globally.
It accounts for more than half of the global hash rate, and thus an investment into this space by a gambling company makes sense to create more synergies, as well as take advantage of the existing blockchain and crypto technology that these pools have put in place to enhance their own gambling offerings.
The crypto mining industry in China is generating billions of dollars, even though there are some challenges to face as well, and at the same time, we are seeing various gambling firms, especially those with a strong online presence, develop their own blockchain-related businesses.
These include Bitcoin mining, mine operations and pools, and so an investment into this space by a Chinese gambling firm was perhaps to be expected.
Of course, it is also important to note that gambling is largely illegal in China, and these lotteries are the only legal way for Chinese citizens to participate in any form of gambling, other than travelling to Macau or Hong Kong.
Thus, with one of the leading lottery providers in China buying one of the biggest global Bitcoin mining pools, we may soon see similar products to those being offered by crypto gambling sites outside China, being created for Chinese players and lottery fans.
It remains to be seen if such products will be allowed, and indeed if there is demand for them, but 500.com will definitely be able to improve their own crypto prospects through this purchase, and we can expect to see more and more crypto-based products targeted towards Chinese customers in the near future.
