All you Bitcoin millionaires, we have some good news for you! Forget about Vegas and squandering hard earned Benjamins in casinos. Think more about just sitting in the comfort of your home and playing your beloved roulette and blackjack. Well to cut it short, we introduce you to CakeBet! This application is taking the gaming world by storm as it brings the ‘Sin City’ to you.
CakeBet is a gaming platform that allows friends to play competitive games with each other. No matter where you are in the world your favorite casino games is just a click away. This platform is all about connecting people in the Bitcoin community through games that run in your browser.
Meet The Co-founders!
Ideated and co-founded by Jordan Steeves and Vanessa Castañeda, CakeBet is here to make online gaming fun and interactive. The CakeBet team is a tight-knit, international group of Bitcoin enthusiasts. They are a brilliant bunch of designers and engineers who enjoy LAN parties, hikes in the woods, and scintillating conversations about politics.
Jordan Steeves is a lifelong gamer who founded his first company while in high school in Washington. The company called Cykle made eco-friendly water bottles out of a hybrid cardboard/plastic material. Steeves attended Western Washington University and studied abroad at Fudan University in Shanghai, China, where his academic focus was international business. He is the first in his family to go to University. His professional influences include Peter Thiel, Abraham Lincoln, and General Zod from Superman. “Because he’s very persistent,” Steeves explains.
Vanessa Castañeda is an entrepreneur who first heard of Bitcoin in Austin, Texas when a guy handed her one. “He gave me an actual, tangible Bitcoin and told me how it was going to destroy the existing pillars of power,” Castañeda said. “So I accepted it and promptly forgot where I put it.” Boy did she regret that in 2014. Prior to co-founding CakeBet, she was the original Communications Director for 3 Day Startup, a startup accelerator that has launched 79 companies on 5 continents. She has also worked as an Editor for the Aol/ Huffington Post Media Group, and served as the Treasurer of the NAHJ Bay Area Chapter’s Board of Directors. She holds an MA from Stanford University and a BJ from The University of Texas at Austin.
How It Works?
Let’s face it; taking a trip to Las Vegas with your friends can get really expensive; and not a lot of places accept Bitcoin. CakeBet digitizes the casino experience and allows you to play competitive games with your Bitcoin from the comfort of your browser. CakeBet provides an online multiplayer gaming experience that lets you play like a LAN game, without all the setup. You go to the site; your friends get online at the same time; and you all start playing together.
Right now you have to bring your own friends. However, they are building ways for you to find new ones.
The Driving Force!
“I was hanging out with a few friends, tossing around the idea of going to Las Vegas or Atlantic City. The trip sounded like it would be a ton of fun. It also sounded very expensive. We would have had to buy plane tickets, hotel rooms, plus food and drink. And I wouldn’t have been able to use my Bitcoin when we got there. So I got some friends together to build a platform that let me play casino games with my friends who have Bitcoin—no matter where they are in the world,” says Vanessa.
Road Blocks & Contenders!
One of the biggest hurdles the team had to face was making a game that is simple enough for even their non technical friends to use. They spent a few weeks hashing out which features were the right ones to incorporate into the platform and which ones they could live without. All this hard work has surely paid off as now users can play almost instantly. All one has to do is visit the site to start playing. No downloads are required.
In terms of competition, 888casino, Ladbrokes, and Betfair do pose as potential contenders. The team has identified them as companies with similar product offerings and a significant market share. However, CakeBet does not lease games from gaming software houses. The team is proud of the fact that they build their own games that are provably fair.
On Expansion Plans & Target Audience!
Right now the team is working on streamlining their games so that they work on mobile devices. The goal is to create a consistent experience for players that feel the same across all devices. When they finish that they will start building new games.
At the moment, CakeBet players are early majority technology adopters, aged 20-40, who speak English and have Bitcoin. While CakeBet is available to anyone who has access to the internet, the team is specifically targeting people in Australia, China, and the United Kingdom.
Monetizing Model!
Right now the games are monetized through player buy ins. The team makes money through roulette and multiplayer blackjack.
“Taking a look at the big picture, we are going after a $40 billion market that is ready for innovation. Our long-term goal is to make CakeBet.com the place to go for all types of betting with Bitcoin. Betting with Bitcoin should be a piece of cake. After we finish building our next game, we plan to diversify our revenue streams through partnerships with hospitality and leisure businesses,” further adds the team.
Psst… Special Offer For Our Readers!
All you Startup Dopers we come with some exciting news. Players who make new accounts after clicking on this link will get 1,000 free satoshis to play with. So let the games begin!!
For more details and to create an account, do visit: http://cakebet.com
