Azuro has launched a new decentralized betting protocol built on blockchain technology. The innovative protocol packs a one-two punch of smart contracts that automatically handle bets and DAO governance, where the community calls the shots.
While Azuro is indeed a promising new player, does it have enough clout to disrupt established giants? Can it truly revolutionize sports betting? We explore these questions and more in this detailed guide.
What is Azuro: Breaking down the basics
Azuro is an on-chain prediction layer for EVM chains. It offers a suite of modular tools, oracle solutions, and liquidity management for developers building on EVM-compatible blockchains. This modular approach allows for the creation of powerful prediction and gaming applications.
At its core, Azuro is an innovative infrastructure and liquidity layer specifically designed for on-chain predictions. It brings along a unique liquidity pool design called the Liquidity Tree, which dynamically maintains and creates market liquidity.
In other words, this unique design of the liquidity pool keeps the betting action flowing smoothly by constantly adapting to handle new sports markets and all sorts of games. The best part is that anyone can get in on the action. Azuro’s open framework allows developers to create new apps, features, and even entirely new betting products, all built on top of Azuro’s foundation.
The Azuro Protocol
The Azuro Protocol consists of a suite of smart contracts that can be constantly upgraded. These smart contracts work together like building blocks to enable anyone to create their own prediction apps and games. Azuro offers pre-built components that make creating applications on its protocol an easy task.
Want to dive deeper? Yo ucan check the audits of Azuro smart contracts here.
The Azuro DAO: The community calls the shots
The Azuro DAO is the brain trust behind the whole operation. It is powered by an AZUR token, which gives the community a say in how things work. This means more community involvement and decision-making — the power is in the people’s hands!
Deep liquidity
One of Azuro’s biggest strengths is its approach to money. By combining resources into one big pool, Azuro offers deeper liquidity than traditional betting options. Its tooling and Oracle solutions are designed to work smoothly across any blockchain, starting with those compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). Moreover, Azuro’s open design philosophy means that launching a prediction site or app is not only cost-effective but also risk-free and achievable in just a few hours.
Azuro’s vision
Overall, Azuro isn’t just about picking winners and losers. Rather, it’s about rethinking risk, ownership, and how we participate in betting in this blockchain era. It brings along a giant pool of resources to attract users and power a sophisticated platform for decentralized predictions and gaming. Azuro aims to compete with traditional betting giants like Stake.com by focusing on community-driven solutions and breaking down barriers.
How does Azuro work under the hood?
Azuro’s betting action revolves around its Prediction Engines, a complex system governed by smart contracts. These contracts are not just the brains behind creating conditions — they also handle the nitty-gritty, such as processing bets, calculating payouts, and even rewarding affiliates.
These engines are plugged into the pool through something called the Factory. The Factory contract facilitates the deployment of Pools and their corresponding Betting Engines. This way, the platform ensures that all betting activities are managed securely via the LP contract.
A look at the core components of Azuro’s blockchain architecture:
Azuro currently has two engine types:
- PrematchCore: This engine tackles pre-match bets.
- BetExpress: This one’s built for combo bets, letting you combine multiple wagers for potentially bigger wins.
Both engines inherit their core logic from the CoreBase contract, which serves as the platform’s foundation for all multi-outcome betting action.
Understanding Conditions
Every market on a Pool within the Azuro ecosystem is called a Condition. Data providers manage these Conditions, which are basically information packets containing everything you need to know about a bet. This includes game details, odds, potential payouts, and even how much money is backing each side (reinforcement) and the house commission (margin).
A pre-match Condition might include specifics like the game ID, how much you’d win on each outcome, virtual funds used to set the odds, and the total bets placed. This level of transparency ensures a fair and reliable betting experience for everyone.
The role of pools
A Pool in Azuro is essentially a cohesive system of smart contracts that forms the backbone of the betting platform. Anyone can deploy a Pool using the Factory contract, which includes the LP contract (the main gateway to the Pool’s operations) and the Access contract (which facilitates easy control over the Pool’s functions by its owner).
This structure allows the Pool owner to integrate an unlimited number of Betting Engines, which further improves the platform’s flexibility and functionality.
Decoding odds and their calculation
Odds in Azuro aren’t just numbers — they’re the essence of every bet that tells you you how much you stand to win versus what you put down. Here’s how it works: odds are calculated by comparing the total pool of money in a Condition to the funds allocated for each specific outcome.
This calculation creates a dynamic system where the odds evolve as bets are placed. This way, it ensures that the betting environment remains fair and reactive. Initially, the platform sets the odds using the virtual funds distributed among the outcomes when the Condition is first created. As the game progresses and more bets roll in, these odds are fine-tuned to match the changing landscape. Doing so ensures that every bettor is on a level playing field.
Reinforcement: Ensuring payouts
Reinforcement acts as Azuro’s financial safety net. It allocates initial liquidity to each game depending on the betting odds at setup. This way, it makes sure that there’s always enough money to cover wins. This method caps the pool’s potential losses, demonstrating Azuro’s proactive approach to risk management.
Innovative liquidity management: The Liquidity Tree
Azuro’s liquidity borrows heavily from the segment tree design from computer science. The unique structure makes cash handling seamless.
Each deposit becomes a “leaf,” part of a bigger tree that offers a real-time snapshot of where money stands. Add, pull out, or shuffle funds around for games — it’s all streamlined to keep the betting smooth and steady.
This innovative peer-to-pool model supports thousands of liquid betting markets. It offers competitive odds and a rich set of features, including accumulators and multi-outcome bets. Additionally, it also transforms the blockchain betting experience by aligning it closely with traditional sportsbook offerings. Azuro’s Liquidity Tree not only enhances betting dynamics but also sets the stage for the growth of specialized prediction markets.
Leveraging virtual funds
Virtual Funds are crucial — they gauge how likely an outcome might be. The bigger the pot for an outcome, the slimmer the odds of it. As bets come in, these funds adjust on the fly, keeping the odds fresh and fair. It’s a built-in balancing act that ditches the need for manual tweaks and keeps the odds honest, protecting the heart of the betting action.
A quick look at some key Azuro statistics
As of late April 2024, Azura has so far raked in a net revenue of nearly $3 million. The total transaction volume on Azuro is approaching the $300 million milestone. Total number of transactions on the platform has surpassed 4.3 million, of which about 481,000 was in March 2023 alone. Azure boasts more than 22,000 unique users thus far, with more than 2,000 active monthly users on average.
The platform boasts a network of nearly 4,500 liquidity providers, locking over $8 million in total value (TVL).
Pre-launch funding
Azuro announced the successful closure of its pre-launch funding in April 2024. The company confirmed that it had raised $11 million in total from several investors, including the likes of Fenbushi Capital, SevenX Ventures, Polymorphic Capital, Arrington Capital, and G1 Ventures. Red Beard Ventures, and Dewhales.
This round was preceded by a strategic funding round of $4 million in 2022, which brought the total funds raised by the company up to the point to $7.5 million.
“This new investment round arrives at a critical development stage for Azuro. We have recently entered the third phase of the Azuro Score program, the final step before the $AZUR launch,”
Azuro announcing closure of pre-launch round: Medium
Azuro’s strategic partnerships
Azuro is actively forging partnerships with key industry players to further polish and expand its offering. Thus far, efforts have been largely successful, with the platform joining forces with several leading blockchain and crypto companies.
For instance, in January 2023, Azuro teamed up with Polygon. This move quickly bore fruit and Azuro’s monthly volumes soared to nearly $30 million, spread across about 500,000 transactions. By February 2024, Azuro emerged as the biggest revenue generator on Polygon PoS, which marked a significant milestone in accessibility and growth.
Similarly, the platform’s partnership with Gnosis helps revolutionize the user experience. It keeps network fees low for high-volume, low-value transactions characteristic of games and prediction markets. On Gnosis Chain, fees are paid in xDai stablecoin, which significantly cuts down on volatility and streamlines transactions for users.
The Graph is another of Azuro’s key strategic partners. Azuro leverages Graph’s powerful APIs to ensure data transparency. This alliance empowers users with real-time access to comprehensive market data, transforming how they interact with and understand the betting landscape.
Similarly, In April 2024, Azuro announced a partnership with deBridge to address chain bridging, a key user experience challenge. The new collaboration integrates deBridge’s bridging and swapping solutions into applications built on Azuro’s infrastructure. This simplifies the transaction process for users on the Polygon and Gnosis networks by allowing them to move assets between blockchains more efficiently.
These are just the proverbial tip of the iceberg when it comes to Azuro’s strategic partnerships. The company is actively pursuing new collaborations to expand its global betting market footprint.
Are we looking at the future of blockchain predictions?
Azuro’s effort to shine the light on the follies of conventional betting platforms and its ability to bypass those weaknesses using blockchain technology has yielded a net positive result.
The future of on-chain betting holds considerable promise so long as it can capitalize on the inherent strengths of cryptocurrencies. Some of these strengths include open design and the ability to create innovative financial applications. Azuro has uniquely positioned itself to leverage these strengths. The ecosystem offers a fertile ground for groundbreaking advancements, with possibilities for introducing entirely new risk layers to existing games, applications, and even the metaverse.
Frequently asked questions
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Can I create new betting products on Azuro?
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