'We're on track to be the world's biggest dApp:' CDx spinoff launches, betting on crypto-sports gambling

It was just four months ago that the founders of CDx decided to abandon their much-anticipated project.

But, it appears a phoenix may have risen from the ashes. The $4 million in funds and tech once geared at tokenizing and trading credit derivatives have been recast into a new decentralised sports betting platform, dubbed SportX.

The inspiration was co-founder Andrew Young’s own double-edged success betting on the outcome of the UK general election, where his wagers were so lucrative he got banned from betting giant 365.

“I won around $10,000,” he says, adding he soon realised he’d been kicked off the site.

Coupled with the realisation that demand for CDx was underwhelming, the three former bank-traders took the leap into the world of decentralised betting. Its founders say it’s a long overdue update to traditional gambling.

“A centralised sports betting platform just takes the opposite side. There’s a misalignment of incentives and you can get kicked off,” they told The Block.

Instead, SportX offers peer-to-peer betting on three major sports, with users playing in Dai – a currency pegged to the dollar. That offers both a stable currency with which to bet in while fulfilling the founders hope of “complete decentralisation,” where they do not resolve the market or set the odds.

Notably however, no KYC is needed for users, meaning the company is geoblocking users in the US for instance, following the likes of Veil.

A big fish in a growing pond

SportX isn’t alone, however. Its competitors include not only far bigger centralised platforms – including Betfair - but other decentralised betting sites like Augur and Unikrn, a platform focused on esports.

But if its first week in action is anything to go by, the company says, it's on good footing. The site oversaw $100,000 in volume across 700 individual bets, noting Veil’s first working week saw $20,000 in comparison.

They also have an aggressive, targeted marketing strategy in place. It budgeted $50,000 to pay out to around 1,000 frat students in Dai or retail gift cards to advertise the platform by posting a green square on Instagram, parodying the campaign for the infamous FYRE festival.

“We’re targeting those already in the crypto ecosystem, already using dapps,” they say, noting that 73% of sports betters are young men worldwide and that the pastime is something of a ritual at universities.

Rates seem appealing too, with SportX taking a 2% fee per bet (which with the token reward, is even slightly less).

In addition, they’re hoping issuing a localised token will give them a competitive edge. Rather than being bought in an ICO, early users will earn tokens with each bet – even when they don’t win. They’ll eventually be able to cash them in to bet and even for equity in the company. Until users come to the site en masse however, it will use a market-making bot to boost liquidity.

Although 160 unique addresses registered in two weeks may sound like baby steps, it's in fact nearly 10% of the way to their goal of becoming the top dApp, which has around 1,000 users currently.

“We think [on chain] sports betting will help blockchain go mainstream," the company's founders said.