What is Overtime Markets? What are the advantages of Overtime? How to bet on Overtime? How to profit on Overtime?
What is Overtime Markets?
Overtime Markets is a sports betting protocol with deployments on the Optimism and Arbitrum blockchains. Overtime allows for instant bet placement directly to smart contracts, meaning there are no restrictions that are usually associated with sports betting.
Overtime is based on the Thales options protocol. The protocol uses an AMM (automated market maker) function to allow users instant liquidity on the outcome they wish to back. The odds are set by an oracle which takes the odds from Pinnacle and posts them on-chain. The oracle updates the odds every few hours, and more frequently as the start of the event approaches. The Pinnacle odds act as “suggested odds” or a midpoint upon which fees/vig and skew is applied.
The fees are split into the safebox fee which is used to build up a fund to cover any losses obtained by the protocol, and the minimum spread, which ensures the AMM runs profitably most of the time. Together they form what is traditionally known as the overround or vig.
The skew is the system used by Overtime to attempt to keep the risk balanced on each outcome in the market market. If one outcome has taken more money than the others, a skew is applied to the odds. This means the decimal odds of the unbacked outcomes get higher and the backed outcome gets lower. This skew mechanism allows the unbacked odds to become attractive for bettors to step in and back the outcome or arbitrage the unbacked odds with another venue, balancing the Overtime risk.
Because Overtime uses an AMM system, the more you stake, the lower decimal odds you get, like slippage in a token swap AMM. This is implemented by calculating the impact of your bet on the skew and applying it to the bet before you place it. However, liquidity is deep at Overtime so this skew or slippage is only noticeable at large stakes.
Since Overtime is based on an options protocol, the underlying mechanics are not as simple as placing bets. Users are actually buying a binary option token of the outcome they wish to back. If the outcome wins, the token is worth $1. If the outcome loses, it is worth $0. The price you pay for the token is determined by the odds. Odds of 2.0 means the token will cost $0.5 to buy.
If your outcome wins, you must claim your winnings by trading your outcome token for sUSD (on Optimism) or USDC (on Arbitrum) within 90 days.
Since Overtime liquidity from Optimism and Arbitrum is aggregated by Purebet, you can easily see the decimal or American odds of each bet and have your bet automatically place on the blockchain with the bet odds. We also pay winnings directly to your wallet so there is no need to claim your winnings — we do it for you.
Overtime was created and is run by the Thales DAO. This consists of a core council of policy makers and engineers who suggest software changes and implement them, but all changes must be approved by a vote of THALES token holders.
How do you use Overtime Markets?
Overtime Markets has separate deployments on 2 blockchains (Optimism and Arbitrum). To bet with Overtime, you simply need to connect your EVM wallet, like Metamask, to the Overtime website and select which network you want to use. Both networks use ETH as the gas fee token since they are both Ethereum L2s. Optimism uses sUSD (from Synthetix) as the base asset for betting, however you can also bet with USDC, USDT, or DAI and the bet placement process will convert those tokens for you. On Arbitrum, bets are placed using USDC only (for now).
The UI is deployed using IPFS and is accessible from any country and can be used without KYC. Some users may prefer to bet directly through the deployed contracts. The contract can be queried for the price of each outcome token, and used to place bets.
Both Optimism and Arbitrum deployments of Overtime are also integrated into Purebet, an on-chain sports betting aggregator. This means users can bet against whichever deployment has the highest odds, without bridging funds between each chain.
What are the advantages of Overtime Markets?
Overtime Markets is a decentralised, permissionless, and non-custodial sports betting venue which runs on oracles and smart contracts. This means that at no point are your funds in the hands of someone else. There are no KYC checks or geoblocking — all the Overtime smart contracts see is your wallet address. There is no need to trust someone else not to steal your money or refuse a withdrawal. All bets are settled automatically via an oracle so there is no risk of your winning bet slips randomly getting cancelled.
Overtime also offers instant placement of bets, rather than having to wait on a counterparty like exchanges. They also offer parlays so you can up the risk and the potential reward.
Overall, Overtime has many advantages over traditional black market or unlicenced sportsbooks who are likely to steal your funds and sell your personal information.
How to make money on Overtime Markets?
The first option for making money from Overtime is to bet on winners, but that is easier said than done.
A more fool-proof method is arbitrage — taking positions on a market in which you profit no matter what outcome wins. This can be done between Overtime on Optimism and Overtime on Arbitrum; or both Overtime deployments and another bookmaker. It is important to consider both deployments as separate venues. Both use the same oracle so the midpoint odds are the same, but the AMMs are independent so the skew on each deployment for an outcome will be different. Once the skew on an outcome reaches 3% and higher, an arbitrage opportunity is likely to arise.
Using Purebet, you can execute an arbitrage between either Overtime deployment and any other on-chain venue. Purebet accounts for all fees at other venues (like exchange commission fees and transaction fees) so you do not need to worry about calculating the impact of them. By executing arbs at Purebet, both sides of the trade are in the same currency and placed with the same wallet, so you do not need to swap and bridge your assets to place trades at different venues. Since both sides of the trade are directly reconciled into the same wallet, you don’t need to move funds around post-settlement. Purebet even sends winnings directly to your wallet so you don’t need to claim Overtime winnings.
This is the second in our series of overviews of protocols integrated into Purebet. The first is about the Monaco Protocol on Solana and can be found here. This article was originally published on February 16th, 2023
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