The ZenSports team is stoked to announce two major initiatives for our company today.

Go To Market launch with automated payments

Initially, ZenSports launched its peer-to-peer mobile sports betting app back in September to only a handful of international customers outside the United States. The goal was to get deep product feedback, iterate quickly, and get to a point where it was clear that our product was 10 times better than any other sports betting product out there. Given that most sports betting websites look like they were built in 1995, the bar was set theoretically low. However, our standards are high, and we wanted to ensure we had a world class, native mobile app before going big. We’re now at that point, and by taking the time to get the user experience right, we’re perfectly positioned to go to market today and scale globally.

One important attribute of becoming a truly automated, mobile sports betting solution for customers is offering quick and easy methods for depositing funds to bet with. This is important because in the world of sports betting, bettors want to be able to quickly bet on a game or sporting event without having to wait hours or days for payments to process or without having to pay huge fees.

As part of today’s Go To Market launch, customers can now deposit funds into their ZenSports betting accounts within a matter of minutes and without having to pay any fees. Funds can be deposited using Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin. The way it works is simple:

1. Within our app, customers choose which cryptocurrency they want to deposit funds with, and ZenSports shows a temporary exchange rate and wallet address to send that particular cryptocurrency to.

2. Once a customer sends funds to that temporary wallet, ZenSports automatically keeps the customer updated on the status of the deposit by sending notifications both when the payment has been detected on the blockchain, and also when the payment has officially cleared the blockchain. This generally happens within a matter of just a few minutes.

3. Once the transaction has cleared the blockchain, the customer’s ZenSports account is automatically credited with the corresponding amount of USD to bet with and customers can begin placing bets.

Partnership signed with Nevada sports book to tap into U.S. market

Unlike the international market, where ZenSports’ peer-to-peer platform is looked at as being skill-based and not requiring licensing in most jurisdictions, the United States heavily regulates all forms of sports betting. In order for ZenSports to tap into the U.S. market, we’re required to get a license in each state that we wish to do business in.

That’s where a recent partnership agreement with an existing, licensed Nevada sports book comes into play. ZenSports has inked a deal with Baldini’s Casino and Sports Book in Sparks, Nevada to streamline the entire certification and licensing process in the United States.

Grant Lincoln, CEO of Baldini’s, recently came across our app, and was so impressed by the product and team, that he decided to invest in ZenSports and to help us get licensed, both in Nevada and the other 7 states that have already legalized sports betting.

“We knew we had to be a part of what they were doing because peer-to-peer is definitely the future of sports betting.” said Lincoln. “ZenSports has taken the traditional model of sports betting and turned it into a seamless, peer-to-peer experience for consumers. Signing up and placing bets are so simple using their mobile app. In return, we feel that we can really help them navigate the challenging waters of getting licensed in the United States.”

With the certification and licensing process in the United States generally considered to be a maze of bureaucracy and red tape, having a partner like Baldini’s will provide a big boost to ZenSports. Gaming and sports book regulators like to see experience and partnerships with existing licensees, and having the Baldini’s partnership will help streamline the application process. In addition, all regulators require software products like ZenSports to go through a deep technical review via companies like GLI or BMM, and Baldini’s will be able to help streamline that as well.

Getting the required technical certifications and multiple state licenses will put ZenSports at a tremendous advantage over other newcomers that may try and enter the sports betting market. Gaming and sports betting is a heavily regulated industry in the United States. Having a partner like Baldini’s will allow us to move much more quickly through the certification and application process compared to if we tried to do it alone. In addition, sports betting is not a crowded market where any two people in a garage can just get up and running in a weekend. There will be huge challenges that any newcomers will face in getting to the point where we’ll be at. We expect to have significant first-mover advantages because of our partnership with Baldini’s.

If you’re outside the United States, you can begin getting your sports betting on today by downloading our app from the App or Play Store:

App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zensports/id1186508396

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zensports.zensports