sports betting wagering innovator launches brand-new start-up
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17 November 2021
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By Douglas Fraser
Business and economy editor, Scotland
Among Scotland's most effective innovation groups is starting again with a brand-new company - and has secured the most significant preliminary 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 aims to launch a new open source software platform, on which others can in sports betting, in the first half of next year.
The business is recruiting personnel 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 conflict with FanDuel's later phase financiers over the method which they structured a takeover, which left the Edinburgh group without a share of the increasing valuation.
Mr Eccles stated that a person thing he gained from the FanDuel experience was to select investors thoroughly.
He told BBC Scotland: "We took a lot of lessons from that, one of which was the value of who we pick as financiers in this brand-new service, to ensure their worths are lined up with ours, that they take their fiduciary duties properly, which they're the right partners for us."
The $21m seed financing for BetDEX includes stakes taken by 7 backers of US innovation firms, including two large funds - Paradigm and FTX - which specialise in investing in companies running with crypto-currencies.
Varun Sudhakar, chief executive of BetDEX, said: "The sports betting wagering market charges high prices for bad products and limits trades by its most successful users.
"BetDEX is diametrically opposed to this technique. We will effectively contend against incumbents with a significantly superior item and low costs, which is now possible with the development of the blockchain technology."
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As chairman of the new firm, Mr Eccles stated it might look familiar to retail punters utilized to existing online firms.
'Pool of skill'
However, he states that those who use its platform to run their own wagering firms will have the ability to innovate and create a wider range of wagering items.
He said the normal share taken by online bookmakers is 7% to 10% of a stake, however BetDEX needs to permit for that to fall below 1%.
The company will establish its own wagering apps to operate on the platform.
Mr Eccles stated these would take an "smart, thoughtful" approach to the method they are marketed to protect those who have a hard time with problem gambling.
He stated the team of around 500 software engineers who helped construct FanDuel from Scotland revealed that it remains the place to construct a company. BetDEX has the exact same head of technology, Stuart Tonner.
"A lot of that [FanDuel] success was built on a highly proficient, really skilled engineering group, that constructed this item that might process millions of bets and millions of users.
"There's a real skill pool of experienced engineers who helped us develop our product and that's what we desire to utilize for BetDEX also."
Related topics
Edinburgh
sports betting wagering
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Paddy Power buys fantasy sports betting website
23 May 2018
FanDuel creator leaves company
Published
20 November 2017
1
Sports Betting Innovator Launches Brand-new Start-up
novellabeazley edited this page 2025-01-02 10:54:46 +00:00