Beware online gambling sites bearing initial coin offerings

An online social sportsbook is the latest to jump into the proprietary alt-coin pond, although it remains to be seen whether its customers will be the ones who end up taking a bath.

Forbes recently profiled Vancouver-based FansUnite, a social sports betting site that currently allows users to wager with free-play credits. However, the site has larger ambitions of taking real-money wagers starting next year via a proprietary digital currency it’s calling the FansUnite Token (FAN).

The company says it intends to hold a Token Generation Event – aka an initial coin offering – that will allow customers to acquire FAN. The company acknowledges that FAN’s real-world value will be “tied to the speculative value of the FansUnite Token itself on the open market as well as the utility and use of the FansUnite Token on the FansUnite platform.”

Customers in the US and Canada won’t be allowed to participate in the Token Generation Event, and FansUnite’s sportsbook platform will remain inaccessible inside the US. But FansUnite co-founder Duncan McIntyre told Forbes that his site’s “new and compelling value proposition” meant FansUnite was “perfectly situated” to capitalize on the imminent legalization of US sports betting.