From Sportsbook to Web3: How Betting Platforms Are Building Token Economies

Crypto used to just be at the cashier of an online casino. Players deposited Bitcoin or USDT, placed their bets and withdrew whatever was left. But gaming platforms know crypto can do more than move money in and out. We have entered the era of the platform token.

Online gambling has become a massive digital economy in its own right. It generated $293 billion in gross gaming revenue in 2024, representing 41% of the global gambling market. By 2030, it's expected to reach $530 billion.

At the same time, crypto is already familiar to a majority of the industry's players. Altcoins accounted for almost half of crypto bets in 2024, up from only 25% a year earlier.

For operators, that creates an interesting opportunity to build one utility themselves around their own customers.

One of the latest tokens to be released from an established platform is the recently launched token from 1win. The company has operated since 2016 and serves more than 30 million registered players across 100+ countries, with an existing business spanning casino games, sportsbook and esports, crypto payments and other entertainment products. 

1win is taking a different approach to crypto than most projects in the space. It has real revenue coming, on top of over 10 years of operation, so its token comes after its business is fully built out. Its business is profitable without a token. $1WIN is instead going to sit on top of what already exists.

The Solana-based token has a fixed supply of one billion $1WIN and is designed for use across gaming, betting, lotteries and rewards. Of the total supply, 51% is allocated to user-facing mechanisms including game reward pools, Wager Rewards and its Telegram Mini App distribution.

1win plans to connect the token to the economics of the platform. 10% of revenue generated from gameplay conducted with $1WIN will fund weekly open-market token buybacks. Separately, 10% of $1WIN spent through supported products will be permanently burned.

Rollbit has built similar economics around RLB. Its Buy & Burn program uses portions of revenue from three existing businesses—10% from casino, 20% from sportsbook and 30% from crypto futures—to purchase RLB, with tokens then removed from supply.

Shuffle has taken another version of the model with SHFL. Players can wager SHFL, receive enhanced VIP rewards and stake it for entry into the platform's lottery. Shuffle also ties token burns to gaming activity. Its Q2 2026 token update reported that 76.7 million SHFL, or roughly 7.7% of the original one-billion-token maximum supply, had already been burned by June 26.

BetFury's BFG provides another variation. BFG can be used for casino and sports betting, staking and rewards, while BetFury says its buyback, lock and burn model uses revenue from several platform activities to conduct regular market buybacks.

There is an obvious reason gaming operators are experimenting with these models. Betting platforms already spend heavily on cashback, VIP rewards, affiliate programs and customer retention. A native token can bring some of those systems into a single digital asset that users can earn, spend, hold or move outside the platform.

For 1win, that connection is particularly visible in the distribution model. Rather than reserving most of $1WIN for investors or the company treasury, more than half is designated for mechanisms linked to player activity.

The connection between token purchases and player rewards is also visible in 1win's Lucky Drive promotion. Through October 30, every $100 spent in the $1WIN token sale earns an additional ticket for the November 15 giveaway, featuring a Lamborghini Urus. To qualify, participants must deposit funds on 1win from the same Solana wallet used to purchase the token. The giveaway allows a maximum of 32 tickets per user, including tickets earned through regular participation.

Gaming tokens are becoming more sophisticated than the old formula of launching a coin, offering a large bonus for using it and relying on speculation to do the rest.

It reverses the sequence. Build the sportsbook. Build the casino. Build the audience and revenue. Then build a token that gives those users something additional to do. For operators like 1win, Web3 is turning an existing digital economy into a tokenized one.