Sports betting innovator launches brand-new start-up
17 November 2021
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By Douglas Fraser
Business and economy editor, Scotland
Among Scotland's most effective innovation teams is beginning once again with a new company - and has actually secured the biggest initial investment of any British start-up business.
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BetDEX is being led by Nigel Eccles, who co-founded dream sports betting website FanDuel in 2009 in Edinburgh.
The brand-new firm has seed funding of $21m.
It intends to introduce a new open source software application platform, on which others can innovate in sports betting, in the very first half of next year.
The business is hiring personnel from a base in Scotland.
FanDuel was offered to Flutter - previously called 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 group without a share of the rising appraisal.
Mr Eccles stated that one thing he gained from the FanDuel experience was to pick financiers .
He told BBC Scotland: "We took a great deal of lessons from that, among which was the value of who we select as investors in this brand-new organization, to guarantee their worths are lined up with ours, that they take their fiduciary responsibilities properly, which they're the best partners for us."
The $21m seed funding for BetDEX consists of stakes taken by seven backers of US technology firms, consisting of 2 large funds - Paradigm and FTX - which specialise in purchasing business operating with crypto-currencies.
Varun Sudhakar, chief executive of BetDEX, said: "The sports betting wagering market charges high prices for poor items and limits trades by its most successful users.
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"BetDEX is diametrically opposed to this approach. We will successfully complete against incumbents with a noticeably exceptional item and low fees, which is now possible with the introduction of the blockchain technology."
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As chairman of the new firm, Mr Eccles stated it might look familiar to retail punters used to existing online companies.
'Pool of skill'
However, he says that those who use its platform to run their own sports betting companies will be able to innovate and create a broader variety of wagering items.
He said the normal share taken by online bookies is 7% to 10% of a stake, but BetDEX needs to enable that to fall below 1%.
The company will develop its own sports betting apps to operate on the platform.
Mr Eccles stated these would take an "intelligent, thoughtful" technique to the way they are marketed to protect those who have problem with issue gaming.
He said the group of around 500 software application engineers who helped construct FanDuel from Scotland showed that it remains the place to develop a firm. BetDEX has the exact same head of innovation, Stuart Tonner.
"A great deal of that [FanDuel] success was constructed on a highly experienced, extremely gifted engineering team, that constructed this product that could process countless bets and millions of users.
"There's a real skill swimming pool of skilled engineers who helped us develop our item and that's what we wish to leverage for BetDEX as well."
Related topics
Edinburgh
sports betting wagering
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FanDuel creator leaves business
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1
Sports Betting Innovator Launches new Start-up
Thomas Trowbridge edited this page 2025-01-04 15:26:00 +00:00