As we’re headed into this weekend for Super Bowl LVIII, there’s a significant amount of speculation that this year in particular, there will be a significant rise in people putting down there bets for Super Bowl Sunday. According to a recent poll from the American Gaming Association, there’ll be an estimated 67.8 million Americans betting a record breaking $23.1 billion dollars — a 35% increase compared to 2023, which means that roughly 1 out of 4 American adults will be placing a bet.
Fore’s Superbowl Sunday
Given all the mania around the Super Bowl this year, it comes as no surprise that likewise on Fore Protocol, that there’s a flood of different markets surrounding the Super Bowl — points scored, who wins the MVP, what the toin coss will be, or my favorite, what Taylor Swift will be wearing at the game:
If you haven’t read through my previous articles in regards to Fore, you’ll know that the stark disadvantage with all the 60+ million people who aren’t using Fore are all paying out a handicap from centralized bookmakers who determine the odds and payouts for them. Each role on Fore — Creator, Player, Analyst — play part of a decentralized bookmaking system that allows for the fairest (and potentially most lucrative) odds there are. Breaking down each role:
Creators are those who literally those who create their own market, are also incentivized to do so for they win 0.5% of the total market payout. The more liquidity they’re able to attract to the market, the more they can make regardless of the outcome.
Players are those who take whichever position they choose for their market. If they pick the winning position, they win their share of the rewards that come straight from their opponents. With the way that markets are setup on Fore, the odds for each position are actually determined by the players, not the market creators or the validators.
Validators are NFT holders who by staking their NFTs, are tasked to determine which position of each market was correct. As I’ve written about before, depending on the tier of your NFT validators can compound their rewards from validating correctly, earning to upwards of 900% APY.
Additionally because everything including payouts are determined by smart contracts, the winning positions don’t have to worry about foul play, and they can even even raise a dispute if they so choose.
Who runs the disputes?
There’s a couple different routes a dispute can go — either a high guard (an analyst with a Black NFT) or the folks at UMA. On UMA protocol, $UMA Stakers will take a live vote, analyzing all the data that’s available and essentially take a blind vote as to where or not the dispute is valid, or at the very least, whether or not the initially-validated market should be reconsidered on a different time frame.
Within UMA’s voting scheme, one can vote a ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ but also as to whether or not it too early to determine the true outcome of the market. Additionally, regardless of whether or not the they agree with the vote or not, UMA voters will continuously vote until a true consensus is made, giving the disputer the ultimate fair shot for their position to be considered.
Similar to Fore Analysts, UMA stakers are are heavily incentivized to vote and vote correctly, for they’ll earn $UMA (at a rate up to 32% APR) if they do, and/or risk getting slashed if they don’t.
Fore’s expansion
Beyond their journey to increased decentralization, Fore recently announced in their last AMA some very bullish catalysts that are coming in 2024:
Among these, the most bullish ones include:
▹Their first new CEX listing of $FORE next week
▹The ability to accept other assets besides $FORE on the platform
▹Fore Global 2.0 (which just went live) — which allows the entire Fore Protocol app (including all of its markets), to be read in 8 more different languages, with more coming soon
Having gone to the last AMA myself, it’s clear that the team is continuing to build, and more importantly they’re continuing to deliver.
Conclusion
Fore doesn’t come without its risks — NFTs can be burned if you validate incorrectly, and furthermore any type of bookmaking is inherently risky as well, decentralized or not. All that being said, I think Fore is an extremely fun and easy app to use, and I’ll be excited to see what happens this Sunday!
Are you taking any positions on Fore? If so, I’d be interested in hearing about it in the comments below. Interested in trying it out? Consider supporting my blog and use my referral link to get $10 off your first market on FORE Predict: https://app.foreprotocol.io/?referrer_id=RrpqFpPEADWWyAqN. Additionally Fore is also still running a $FORE prize pool in their current Zealy sprint. If you’re interested in trying to earn some yourself, I’d recommend checking it out: And check out #zealy to earn some $FORE in their current sprint while there’s still time!
And as always, thanks for taking the time to read this and be sure to follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/CryptosWith) to get all my latest updates. Also, looking for a gift for your Crypto-loving/hating friend? Give them a REKT journal to cheer them up!
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and this is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please as always, do your own research and find what investments are best for you. Cheers everyone!