Bethereum (BTHR) ICO Analysis: A Decentralized Social Betting Platform

Executive Summary

Project Description

At the moment, the betting industry is struggling with a couple of problems. From fraudulent companies that refuse to pay out winnings to platforms with exorbitantly high fees and bets that are not entirely fair to the bettor. In addition to these, the amount that can be staked on games are limited and the entire setup was built to favour the house. Bethereum wants to do better than solve the problems above, the project wants to build an entirely new social betting platform that is as convenient for casual bettors as it is for big wagerers.

The Bethereum Core Framework will be the project’s backbone and it will reportedly consist of tools like the Bethereum wallet, a development SDK, smart contracts, and so on. Using these tools, participants on the platform should be able to bet with the assurance that the system is fair and secure — with smart contracts ensuring that the terms of deployment remain unchanged. According to Bethereum, the SDK will provide developers with the opportunity to build third-party betting applications on the platform; these apps will be available on an application layer on the Bethereum platform. The wallet will be used to store tokens and at the same time, provide users with a way to directly acquire BTHR tokens.

For a start, the Bethereum platform will focus on sports betting alone and users on the platform can create bets on the platform by simply setting the terms of the bet; with time, however, more events should be made available. In keeping with their claims of being a social betting platform, they plan to include features like leaderboards, achievements, favorite teams, in-built chats, local betting clubs, and time-based events. All these will be combined with data feeds, statistics, and so on. The project believes that these features will improve the relationship between bettor and the house, making it more like a community of like-minded individuals. The leaderboards and medal tally are also expected to drive competitiveness and consequently, incentivize bettors to remain on the platform.

Bethereum’s token, BTHR, will be used to facilitate all transactions involving bets e.g. AI-based betting predictions, along with other services that are expected to be made available in the future. All winning tickets will be charged a commision — 5% of the amount won, and payouts will reportedly be instant. 90% of the commissions collected on the platform will be used to pay for third-party service costs and the remaining 10% will be burned to reduce the number of tokens in circulation. Burning of tokens will not continue indefinitely, Bethereum will stop burning tokens either on the 31st of December, 2022 or when 50% of the total supply has been burned.

Existing Product

An iOS prototype of the Bethereum platform is available for download in the app store.

Roadmap

May 2018 Release of an iOs app prototype.

Q2 2018 BTHR on exchanges, team extension.

Q3 2018 Closed alpha, oracle/API feed, BTHR wallet.

Q4 2018 Public beta, developer SDK start.

Q1 2019 Web/iOS soft launch, esports/high roller club, agency partnerships.

Q2 2019 Global launch: iOS/Web/Android, local/live betting, affiliate program.

Q3 2019 Developer SDK, non-sport betting added, first third-party games.

Q4 2019 Machine-learning service, large game portfolio.

H1 2020 B2B/partner growth, multichannel portal, Bether as major standard.

Hard Cap and Valuation

There will be a total of 1 billion BTHR tokens and the project aims to raise 25,000 ETH for 60% of the token total. The 40% left will be shared as follows: 20% will be shared amongst team members and the project’s advisors, 12% is reserved for a long term budget, 5% will be used to cover token sales, and the final 3% will be used for bounties.

The team + advisor tokens are to be vested for 72 weeks while the tokens reserved for long term budget will be vested for 400 days. Therefore, the circulating supply after token sale will be 68% of the total.

Price Per Token

1 BTHR = 0.000057 ETH.

Important Dates

BTHR private sale has already ended and public presale is ongoing at the moment. The public presale is expected to end by 5 PM UTC on the 25th of April, 2018, and there is a 30% bonus for this round. The crowdsale proper is scheduled to start in May 2018, and it will reportedly start with a 15% bonus.

Marketing Power

As of the time this post was published, Bethereum had over 55,000 Telegram members, 17,500+ subscribers on Facebook, over 20,500 followers on Twitter, and over 1,400 Reddit readers. They also have a Github page.

Prominent Advisors

Philip Staehelin

Advisor to various projects in the crypto sphere (Cryptelo, Signals, Blocknify).
Board advisor to StartupYard, a seed accelerator for tech startups.

Team Members’ Areas of Expertise

Business experts

Martin Herman, Co-Founder.

Founder of Powerful Digital, a creative studio for graphics, for over 2 years (ongoing).
Co-founder of Powerful Medical, a medical research company for healthcare solutions, for 10 months (ongoing).
Co-founder and CTO of Droppie, a photo app, for a year.
Co-founder of PartyDope, a party app, for a year.
Co-founder of iCore & Abs, a personal trainer app, for 2 years.

Peter Gal, Co-Founder.

Board Advisor & Head of Bancassurance at Slovenská sporiteľňa for 6 months.
Director of Strategy, Innovations and Project at Poštová banka for 9 months.
Director of Strategy & New Business Development at Slovak Telekom for 2 years.
Bid Management Expert for B2B client at Slovak Telekom for 3 years.

Giacomo Tognoni, CEO.

Co-founder and CEO of Aykiro, a development studio that focuses on high-quality mobile games, for 3 years (ongoing).
Senior Business consultant at AvantGo for almost 2 years.

Target market experts

No team member with market expertise in the betting industry. However, one of their advisors, Monja Prole is profoundly knowledgeable in the industry.

Marketing experts

Giacomo Tognoni, CEO.

Chief Commercial Officer at Vip operator (Telekom Austria Group) for almost 2 years.
Marketing Director, Residential & Small Business at Slovak Telekom for over a year.
Marketing Director, Business Segment at Slovak Telekom for a year.
Head of Product Marketing at Slovak Telekom for over a year.
EMEA Partner Marketing Manager/Central Brand Leader/Creative Manager/Marketing Manager at DELL over a 5-year timeframe.
Contractor for the redesigning of corporate web-based activities at Zentiva, an international pharma company, for almost 2 years.
E-Commerce Marketing Manager at British Telecom for a year.

Peter Gal, Co-Founder.

Director of ICT & B2B Product Marketing at Slovak Telekom for 3 years.
Manager of Corporate Segment Marketing at Slovak Telekom for a year.
Manager of B2B Product Marketing at Slovak Telekom for almost 5 years.

Viktor Jurasek, Head of Marketing.

Creative Director at Powerful Digital for 8 months (ongoing)
Graphic Designer at HEADS for almost 3 years.
Graphic Designer at PLATFORM — Design for Growth for almost 2 years.

Sarah Weiss, Marketing Manager.

Founder at ByBase, a street dance magazine, for almost 2 years (ongoing).
Artist Coordinator & Social Media Creator at The Legits Blast for almost 5 years.
Event Manager at StreetCOM, an event organization company, for almost 4 years.

Juraj Karovic, UI & UX Designer.

Founder of Goodfridays, a consulting company for brand development, for 8 years (ongoing).
Senior Graphic Designer at Sourceall for almost 3 years (ongoing).
Senior Graphic Designer at PLATFORM — Design for Growth for a year.
Senior Graphic Web Designer at Saatchi & Saatchi for a year.

Legal experts

No team member with legal expertise, however, the project is working with Parker & Hill Legal company.

Software engineering experts

Martin Herman, Co-Founder.

Co-founder and CTO of Droppie, a photo app, for a year.
Co-founder of PartyDope, a party app, for a year.
Co-founder of iCore & Abs, a personal trainer app, for 2 years.
Developer at iGramatika, a slovaks grammar app, for 3 years.

Michael Watzke, Full stack developer.

Owner of W Solutions for 13 years (ongoing).
Web Developer/Consultant at AutoObuv for almost 4 years.

Michal Duzek, Full stack developer.

Co-founder of We Make Games for almost 2 years.
Digital Creative Developer at ZARAGUZA Digital for 4 years.

Juraj Karovic, UI & UX Designer.

Senior Graphic Designer at Sourceall for almost 3 years (ongoing).
Senior Graphic Designer at PLATFORM — Design for Growth for a year.
Senior Graphic Web Desinger at Saatchi & Saatchi for a year.

Daniel Suchanovsky, Developer.

CEO & Lead Developer at Rutiner for almost 10 years.
Lead Developer at Elite Solutions for 2 years.
Web Developer at Student Agency for almost 2 years.

Blockchain development experts

Ondrej Sarnecky, Blockchain Developer

Blockchain Technology Consultant at Blockchain Slovakia for 8 months (ongoing).
Front-End Web Application Developer as a Freelancer at Intechon for a year.
Front-End Web Developer as a Freelancer at Wisdom Factory, a custom software development company, for 7 months.
QA Engineer & Tester at Gratex International, an enterprise software solution company, for a year.
Web Developer & Network Engineer as a Freelancer for almost 4 years.

Additionally, one of the project’s advisors, Dite Gashi, is an experienced blockchain architect and runs his own SmartContract auditing company.

Token economics experts

No team member with token economics expertise. However, 2 of their advisors — Philip Staehelin and Viktor Mikulasek — work for a seed investment company, signalling a familiarity with token economics.

Token sale structure

No team member with the required expertise, but advisors Peter Dendis and Philip Staehelin have been through token sales with several projects.

Conclusion

Strengths

Deflationary.
Built-in social engagement with huge community and potential network effects.
Easy buying of tokens through the app will boost mainstream adoption.
Low hard cap.
The betting market is worth ~$3 trillion.
Their prototype is functional and it looks good.

Potential risks for investors

The 5% commission is quite high. Some big betting platforms don’t charge that much.
The project will likely face some competition from big projects in the prediction markets e.g. their indirect competitors are Augur and Gnosis.
Community growth was inorganic — part of it was brought about by a bounty campaign.
The project doesn’t have a betting license in any country. They state that it’s not required and in most jurisdiction they can do without it, but it still constitutes a risk.

Disclaimers:

Nothing written in this article is a legal or an investment advice.
Information is provided on a best-effort basis and is subject to change without prior notice. Be sure to verify everything you read with a project team.

The analysis was produced by Research Center team members: Alexander Bugaj, Mark Jedd, Anna Muratova.

The project was brought to our attention by ICO Syndicate.

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