USAThe History of Crash Gambling: From Eric Springers MoneyPot To Today's Plane & Rockets!
Crash gambling has increased in popularity since its inception in 2014. Like the stock market would rise and crash, the crash games follow the same premise, except they allow you to bet money and cash out before the crash. We’ll take you on a journey from its past to what lies ahead.
The Emergence of Crash Gambling
To understand the root of crash gambling, we’d have to return to 2014 in Guadalajara, Mexico. A Canadian developer and Bitcoin enthusiast by the name of Eric Springer introduced what would be the world’s first crash game through the Bitcointalk forum.
Bitcoin itself was still a new phenomenon, but Eric Springer had an idea to develop a game involving Bitcoin betting. He called the game MoneyPot, which didn’t have literal crashes like today’s games.
He based the game on the volatility of the cryptocurrency market. Products in the crypto space would track well and multiply rapidly until suddenly dropping in value to zero. People smart enough to leave their investments before the crash enjoyed their earnings, while those who waited too long lost everything. It’s on this idea that Springer developed MoneyPot.
The design was fundamental as it only featured a graph and chart line with the multiplier. Even though the game was in its infancy, it had automation features and a 1% house edge. It was provably fair, meaning no external influence could determine or influence the result or crash.
Springer had to keep the game going with his personal savings - around 77 BTC at the time. To his credit, he kept developing the game to improve it and even sent players free bits to enjoy it (much like the bonuses you get from online casinos today).
A year after creating the game, he sold the company to another crypto member, Ryan Havar. The game’s name changed to Bustabit and moved to a new site. Its popularity continued upward under Havar, who introduced new features to spruce up the gaming experience.
Bustabit enjoyed enormous success and became known as the “social gambling game”. The game changed hands again to Daniel Evans, who had helped increase the player base to a point where crash games started gaining attention from online casinos and other game developers.
Evolution of Crash Gambling
When Ryan Havar took over the basic Bustabit from Eric Springer, he tried to add a different element to the crash game. One of the new features he introduced was the “last-longer bonus”. As the name implies, the player who was last to cash out before the game crashed received a bonus.
Being a multiplayer game, each player could see who else was playing the game. Havar then collected 1% of each player’s wager to make up the bonus funds that would go to the player who lasted the longest. Essentially, he created a digital version of the “chicken” game.
Between 2015 and 2017, there was a boom in crash gambling as online casinos and software developers took notice. The crash gaming idea then spread to other websites, including Counter-Strike: GO, where players could enter the game to win gear and skins.
In 2016, developers open-sourced the code from Bustabit, which led to them creating similar games. It was during this period that the crash gambling term came into prominence. Two years later, crash gambling went mainstream, with two titles becoming available at prominent online casinos.
BC Originals offered Crash, and Stake Originals created Chartbet. Stake had introduced the game with an enticing 0.5% house edge, making it irresistible. Both sites kept the provably fair features and listened to what the game’s players wanted.
These two games can be credited for the massive boom of crash gambling evident today. Because of the popularity of those games, more casinos started adopting crash games, and software developers had to keep up with the demand.
Today, crash games are available at cryptocurrency and traditional online casinos, and they have evolved to a point where they’re entertainment. Developers have included creative graphics that add spice to the experience instead of watching the graph line travel up with the multiplier.
The reason why they work so well is due to their algorithm. Crash game algorithms are codes enabling the software to determine a number between one and whatever the maximum number is. The number that the code selects is the point at which the game will crash or end. Game developers have kept these algorithms in to ensure fairness and prevent outside interference with the game’s results.
Spribe, another software developer, introduced Aviator in February 2019. While he based the game on the core principles of crash gambling, it features an airplane and cool sound effects that enhance the gaming experience. This game has become somewhat of a phenomenon at online casinos, with every reputable site featuring it. Players gravitate toward it because of its simple yet eye-catching design.
Crash gambling has progressed to the point where players stream their games on Twitch and other social media sites. Additionally, there are many other crash games available at online casinos. One casino, Crashino, has around 50 crash games in its gaming catalog.
People have also won massive amounts; some of these videos are available on YouTube, where the winnings go up to $500,000. Additionally, crash games are lightweight, which means you can access them using your smartphone without any delays. Of course, there are specific strategies that players now employ to make as much money from crash games as possible.
These strategies include using the automation cash-out function and the ability to place more than one wager at a time. Regarding the game designs, some excellent versions are available today, but if you’re looking for the classic graph lines versions, several titles use these graphics.
Popularity and Growth of Crash Gambling
According to industry experts Mordor Intelligence, crash games could eventually become the most played games at online casinos. One study between January and November 2022 showed that 6.53% of active players chose crash games.
While the percentage may appear small, you must consider the number of games at this particular casino. There were 5,500 games available, yet 6.53% of players chose crash games.
In the first ten months of 2022, Spribe games–primarily crash games–increased their foothold among active players by nearly five times, from 0.44% to 2.79%. Research into Google data from casino players showed that more people were searching for methods to hack the Aviator game, indicating its popularity.
The Role of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency
The skeleton of crash games indicates the trading of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies led to its creation. Eric Springer used the idea of Bitcoin charts and the ebbs and flows of the cryptocurrency to create the gaming revolution known today as crash gambling.
Initially, players could only use Bitcoins to gamble and win in cryptocurrency. Over time, crash gambling evolved to include fiat currencies - but without the original chart graphs for Bitcoin’s performance, we wouldn’t have crash gambling today.
Regulation and Legal Considerations
Crash gambling is legal in several countries around the world, including the UK, the USA, and Canada, to mention a few. The software developers must be certified and licensed by the same regulatory bodies overseeing online casinos.
Additionally, the games must be fair and pass independent tests from reputable organizations such as ECOGRA (E-Commerce Online Gambling Regulation and Assurance).
Companies like Spribe that produce crash games have licenses from 18 authorities worldwide, meaning their games are legal and can feature in online casinos.
Bear in mind that some countries, like Australia, have a nationwide ban on all online casino games, including crash gambling. In the US, you can only access crash games at online casinos in legalized states such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Michigan.
The Future of Crash Gambling
Of course, nobody knows the future, but we can predict where it’s heading, especially with crash gambling. We think that it might lead to NFTs and the Metaverse. Since we already see some characters in crash games, it’s only a matter of time before developers allow players to create unique characters that become playable NFTs.
Developers are probably in their labs working on including crash gambling in the Metaverse as you read this. For a moment, picture playing a popular crash game like JetX but with VR goggles.
It could immerse you in the game as you sit in a rocket and launch towards space. As a player, you press the eject button to leave the jet before it crashes. You’ll enjoy the same principle as the original crash games but with a realistic experience.
What’s next?
There’s no doubt that crash gambling has created a dent in the online casino gaming market. Crash games are easy to play and don’t require specific skills, much like slots.
Eric Springer, who created crash gambling, probably would have never imagined that his concept would snowball into the casino gaming genre it is today. Crash gambling has evolved to feature cooler, more intricate designs in online casinos worldwide, a few steps away from its original graph lines.
While it’s entertaining and available in most countries, we know that software developers like Spribe will be working on making crash games better and more immersive in the future.
FAQs on The History of Crash Gambling
The introduction of technology to crash gaming has allowed the genre to reach a broader audience, making it more entertaining and fun. Continuous development will enhance the experience in the coming years.
MoneyPot was the first crash game developed by Eric Springer, which then morphed into Bustabit under the leadership of Ryan Havar, a brand still alive today.
The idea of crash gambling was launched in 2014 when Eric Springer used the images of Bitcoin’s rises and crashes to create a game called MoneyPot.
This gaming genre will undoubtedly gain more popularity in the future. We could soon be playing crash games with VR headsets or designing personalized in-game characters with the design ideas of software providers and the entertainment potential.