sports betting wagering innovator launches brand-new start-up
17 November 2021
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By Douglas Fraser
Business and economy editor, Scotland
One of Scotland's most successful innovation groups is beginning once again with a new company - and has secured the biggest initial financial investment of any British start-up company.
BetDEX is being led by Nigel Eccles, who co-founded fantasy sports betting wagering website FanDuel in 2009 in Edinburgh.
The new firm has seed funding of $21m.
It intends to launch a brand-new open source software application platform, on which others can innovate in sports betting, in the first half of next year.
The business is hiring staff from a base in Scotland.
FanDuel was sold to Flutter - previously named Paddy Power Betfair - in 2018 and is now worth more than $30bn.
However, Mr Eccles and other co-founders remain in legal dispute with FanDuel's later stage financiers over the method which they structured a takeover, which left the Edinburgh team without a share of the increasing valuation.
Mr that a person thing he found out from the FanDuel experience was to pick financiers thoroughly.
He informed BBC Scotland: "We took a lot of lessons from that, among which was the importance of who we choose as investors in this brand-new service, to guarantee their worths are aligned with ours, that they take their fiduciary duties properly, and that they're the ideal partners for us."
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The $21m seed financing for BetDEX consists of stakes taken by seven backers of US innovation firms, consisting of 2 big funds - Paradigm and FTX - which specialise in investing in business operating with crypto-currencies.
Varun Sudhakar, president of BetDEX, stated: "The sports betting industry charges high rates for bad items and limits trades by its most successful users.
"BetDEX is diametrically opposed to this technique. We will effectively contend against incumbents with a considerably exceptional product and low fees, which is now possible with the advent of the blockchain technology."
As chairman of the new firm, Mr Eccles said it might look familiar to retail punters utilized to existing online companies.
'Pool of skill'
However, he says that those who utilize its platform to run their own wagering companies will be able to innovate and create a larger variety of sports betting products.
He said the typical share taken by online bookies is 7% to 10% of a stake, however BetDEX must permit that to fall listed below 1%.
The company will develop its own sports betting apps to operate on the platform.
Mr Eccles said these would take an "smart, thoughtful" method to the method they are marketed to protect those who struggle with problem sports betting.
He said the group of around 500 software application engineers who helped develop FanDuel from Scotland showed that it stays the location to develop a firm. BetDEX has the exact same head of technology, Stuart Tonner.
"A great deal of that [FanDuel] success was built on a highly proficient, very gifted engineering group, that built this product that could process countless bets and countless users.
"There's a real skill swimming pool of skilled engineers who helped us develop our product which's what we wish to leverage for BetDEX also."
Related subjects
Edinburgh
sports betting wagering
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1
Sports Betting Innovator Launches new Start-up
elizabethhandf edited this page 2025-02-12 20:40:40 +00:00