Sony has patented a real-money, Bitcoin esports betting platform

Sony is one of those technology companies that do not specialize in one type of product but manage several fronts, some with greater success than others: if PlayStation continues to grow and has emerged as the great victor of this generation of consoles, with nothing on the horizon to make it fear losing this position.

The purchase of the EVO wrestling tournament does not seem to be Sony’s only target in the esports landscape, although it may end up being the least controversial of the plans on the horizon. Especially if this patent for a betting platform finally ends up being developed.

Registered last May 13 – although it was filed at the end of 2019 – by Michael Chow, one of PlayStation’s machine learning engineers, the patent description talks about a betting odds system intended to provide information to the viewer for pecuniary or non-pecuniary bets.

Sony’s esports betting patent

The idea is that, in advance, the user can access virtual simulations on the odds of winning with their next bet, for example by reviewing statistics, simulations and previous games to discern whether or not a grenade can take out three enemies.

From there the platform would determine what the chances are of that happening from that moment until the end of the game and would allow the user to place the bet with different options such as, for example, withdrawing the prize in advance by reducing the income or even placing mutual bets (bets placed by several bettors in a common bag that is subsequently distributed in proportion to the amount wagered).

With regard to the possibility of placing pecuniary or non-pecuniary bets, it is implied that, as with games such as CS: GO, there is the possibility of betting with in-game items instead of real money, although, unlike in that case, this possibility is also raised on the platform.

As with other company patents, the registered information does not necessarily imply that Sony has initiated the development of the idea or that it intends to do so, but it does mean that it has secured this possibility against possible competitors.

For the moment neither Sony nor PlayStation has publicly shown their intention to develop a betting platform for esports, a move that would undoubtedly generate a lot of controversies as it has done on other platforms or with the problem of loot boxes.