Aver, a Web3 betting and prediction exchange, recently launched its public beta on Solana.
The public launch follows the project’s $7.5 million seed round earlier this year and “a successful closed-beta period in June.”
The project is backed by “heavyweights” in the sports betting and crypto domains – including Jump, Susquehanna (SIG) and Mirana Ventures.
Aver is reportedly the first project “to deliver a Web3 exchange experience that rivals the latency and benefits of Web2 betting platforms such as Betfair and Matchbook, while facilitating a path to address some of the significant shortcomings of Web2 exchanges.”
A spokesperson for Aver explained:
“Until now, crypto betting and prediction platforms have fallen into one of two categories – a centralized platform which accepts cryptocurrency as a form of funding; or an expensive and inefficient ‘Automated Market Maker’ (AMM) approach which bleeds liquidity providers and leads to uncompetitive or unsustainable pricing.”
Under the Automated Market Maker approach, liquidity providers “are passive and either: (a) are exposed to informed flow of traders or sudden jumps in price to their detriment; or (b) require such high margins to address this as to make the prices wildly uncompetitive.”
The Aver team has “succeeded in solving this problem, and has implemented a full orderbook-powered solution on the blockchain (the ‘protocol layer’), with the entire process – from placing orders to matching trades, resolving events and paying out settlements – taking place without reliance on any particular organization, centralized technologies or third parties.”
Previous attempts at betting markets on other blockchains, such as Ethereum, “have incurred high ‘gas’ costs and suffered from long transaction times, making the experience painful for the majority of users and unsustainable except in the case of high value bets.”
The cost of refreshing quotes or providing ‘passive’ liquidity in volatile events has meant liquidity “has been sparse to non-existent.” Instead, Aver is built on Solana, “where transaction costs and processing times are approximately 1/1000th of that on Ethereum – making it the first on-chain betting platform which is not only viable, but rivals the user-experience of Web2 platforms.”
The exchange is “entirely non-custodial – meaning there is no concept of ‘funds-at-rest’ or ‘fund-lock-up’ – a common feature and pain point of Web2 platforms.”
Participants do not need “to wire funds to an organization in order to participate, and capital doesn’t need to sit idle in a provider’s account – unused funds remain with the participant at all times, and winnings are immediately settled directly to participant wallets – not to a platform account.”
Fees captured by the protocol are “anticipated to be a fraction of those in Web2 comparable.”
On Aver, fees are “levied only when users win, at a rate ranging from just 0.5-2.0% of a trader’s profits.”
The platform launched “a public beta on 1 July 2022, having been in closed beta for the month of June.”
To interact with the platform, participants will “need a funded Solana wallet, though the project has plans to add further ways to on-board users from other blockchains and to add support for non-crypto-natives in the coming months.”
Aver is “a decentralized, peer-to-peer betting exchange built on the Solana blockchain.” It “enables trustless trading, settlement and resolution of bets and predictions – without reliance on any individuals or third-parties.’