With the 2018 FIFA World Cup right around the corner, fans around the world are getting excited—and a new player is coming onto the field.

When it comes to the sports space, particularly football (soccer), this blockchain ecosystem just make sense. Why? Fans want to choose the players and coaches that make up their teams. This is a newly evolved age of online sports, where fans can enjoy a new feel to the traditional football-watching experience.

The 2018 FIFA World Cup takes place from June 14^th to July 15^th with 32 teams competing in Russia for the sport’s most prestigious trophy. With the arrival of these teams, comes the arrival of millions of fans who are willing to pay, play, and have a killer time. But, there’s also a new player in this tournament—a blockchain game that allows users to predict the 2018 World Cup winners for Ethereum cryptocurrency prizes.

The eSports space has been adjusting its playing field for a digital audience with companies like Bountie, Enjin, UNIKRN, Firstblood.io, and many others. Now, a new player, CryptoCup, has entered the game. CryptoCup is a World Cup prediction game that leverages blockchain technology, allowing users to build their own ERC-721 tokens which represent the teams they have picked to win the World Cup matches. Think of it as owning a digital representation of your sports bracket.

Alternatives like what CryptoCup and other companies are bringing to the space are providing new alternatives to assure data integrity, which is important for those fans who like to wager on their virtual teams. It brings a whole new meaning to ownership and control of your virtual team.

Additionally, these companies have to bring value to football clubs and the athletes. The question is how? Tokens and financial support. These tokens allow for new means of financial support pertaining to TV rights, ticketing, sponsorship, hospitality, and other sources of income. This opens up a new door for these clubs to raise money and better connect with fans. And the World Cup is the perfect start to kicking this off.

How DApps Can Provide For A Fun “Crypto-Bracket” For The 2018 World Cup

Every generation has their phase of collecting unique items that they expect to hold some kind of high value in the future. For millennial, it started with Beanie Babies and Pokemon cards. For today’s generation, it’s DApps and crypto-collectibles.

CryptoCup is categorized as one of the first DApps that is not considered to be a “collectible.” A “DApp”, or decentralized application can best be defined as an open-source software application that is implemented on a decentralized blockchain and is fueled using tokens which are generated using a protocol/algorithm. The rationale behind the increasing popularity of these collectibles like Crypto-Kitties, is that blockchain technology is able to provide a unique, secure, and verifiable ownership for collectors. It’s a new way of showing off ownership of digital assets—yes, that includes your virtual sports teams.

“With over 3 billion people in the world, almost half the world tunes into the World Cup; we wanted to combine that popularity with blockchain technology in order to build something entirely different than an ICO or crypto-collectible,” said Federico Goldberg, the CEO and Co-Founder of CryptoCup.

Specifically, collectors are able to have a visual representation of the items they own, including the extrinsic value such as high market value or other rare qualities.

Using ‘MetaMask’ For DApps Allows For Efficient Management of Your Ethereum Wallet

CryptoCup operates through a smart contract, making the game completely transparent and unalterable. Most importantly, records are stored in a decentralized, public blockchain. As there continues to be a heavy debate across the world as to the legality of online sports gambling, CryptoCup acquired its gambling license in Costa Rica, providing for an open game to users from all countries where sports gambling is legal.

Players login through MetaMask and build their tokens by making predictions as to the 64 matches in the tournament, similar to how you would for any other bracket in a sports tournament. For those unfamiliar with MetaMask, it is a web-browser plugin and a unique tool that works with Google Chrome, Opera, and Firefox, allowing users to tap into their Ethereum wallet right from their browser.

How To Play The Game

As mentioned earlier, users are able to build their own ERC-721 tokens, which represents the predictions individuals make. These tokens cannot be replicated and are unique and personalized to each user. However, the tokens are able to be utilized on the Ethereum blockchain, playing into the market’s wave of increasing or decreasing valuations.

Players get points for their correct picks during the World Cup; those points are tallied to determine the overall winners. With CryptoCup, a quarter of the pot is used to cover platform costs. The remaining pot is split between the top 10% of the pool and the last player. For every transaction between users, a 5% commission fee is charged, which also goes into the prize pool.

“Decentralization is a great way to clear up much of the corruption that comes with sports gambling. We have created a fair, honest and transparent betting project,” CryptoCup engineer Martin Nagelberg said. “The concept will also be easy to scale to other sporting events, such as the UEFA Champions League, the NFL and the NHL.

The World Cup platform is exciting, as we grew up loving the sport and tournament, but it’s also just the tip of the iceberg.”