When Cloudbet was launched back in October 2013 it was the first major site that enabled users to bet on sports with bitcoin. Our mission was to address the shortcomings of fiat bookmakers by leveraging the power of bitcoin in an intuitive platform – we wanted (and still strive) to provide ‘the easiest way to bet with bitcoin.’
November 2013 – Adjusting our limits
With a background in professional betting the Cloudbet team understood the importance of offering meaningful betting limits – mainstream fiat bookmakers routinely limit or even close the accounts of successful bettors – which is why from the start, maximum bets were set at 50BTC, but back in those days with the price fluctuating so much, minimum limits were pricing out smaller players.
Knowing that to succeed we had to offer what people wanted, we took on board feedback in our early stages and adjusted the minimum bet limits down to 0.001BTC for most events. That is still the case today but we have retained their exceptionally high maximum limits, as demonstrated at the 2018 World Cup where we were accepting 100BTC bets on the final. The same is true of our casino where you can play table games for up 5BTC a hand.
February 2014 – Cloudbet Live Casino launch
Though we started out wanting to be the home of bitcoin sports betting, it soon became clear that our users wanted other ways to play. So with the launch of our live bitcoin casino, we made sure that our users could play with live dealers, just like you would in real life.
Our casino has seen a number of successful players, the most impressive of which was the record 160 BTC ‘Troll Hunters’ winner, to players learning the ropes in the free to play area, our casino welcomes everyone.
May 2014 – Trust & Security
As much as we recognized the importance of gaining trust we also realized that we had to demonstrate that funds held by Cloudbet were secure, so the decision was made that Cloudbet would go to market offering cold storage as standard. If you’re not sure what that means you can read this article about why it’s important, but in short we keep all funds offline – except for those required to honor withdrawals – where they are impossible for hackers to reach. And we’ve done that since day one.
In May 2014 we introduced two-factor authentication (2FA). Widely available thanks to the Google Authenticator app, it gives users a second level of authentication, to help keep your Cloudbet account secure.
Security has remained a fundamental aspect of our service, and as recently as June of 2018 we took further measures to make accounts even more secure, adding SMS Verification. By registering your phone number to your account you get a further layer of security.
January 2017 – The First Steps For Localisation
Though Bitcoin has proven itself to be a global currency, we knew that as long as our site was only available in English, we wouldn’t be offering the best experience possible. That’s why in January 2017, we rolled out Korean and Indonesian translations for our site. This was followed by Turkish, Chinese and Russian. In our quest to bring bitcoin gambling to as wide an audience as possible, we’ll be looking to add even more in the coming months.
May 2018 – More than just a bitcoin betting site
Cloudbet has come a long way over the last five years, but because our business is predicated on cryptocurrency, our progress is also a testament to bitcoin’s resilience. In order to talk about Cloudbet’s intrinsic connection to the wider Bitcoin movement, we created our blog in May of 2018; it is also the means to tell this story. It’s the place to find so much more than just betting tips. They’ve interviewed leading figures in cryptocurrency, provide regular analysis of sporting events and deep dives into what the future might hold for bitcoin.