Sports betting 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 technology groups is starting once again with a new firm - and has protected the most significant preliminary investment of any British start-up business.
BetDEX is being led by Nigel Eccles, who co-founded fantasy sports betting website FanDuel in 2009 in Edinburgh.
The new firm has seed financing of $21m.
It intends to release a new open source software platform, on which others can innovate 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 are in legal disagreement with FanDuel's later phase financiers over the way in which they structured a takeover, which left the Edinburgh group without a share of the increasing assessment.
Mr Eccles said that one thing he gained from the FanDuel experience was to choose financiers thoroughly.
He informed BBC Scotland: "We took a great deal of lessons from that, one of which was the importance of who we choose as financiers in this new service, to ensure their worths are lined up with ours, that they take their fiduciary duties properly, and that they're the best partners for us."
The $21m seed financing for BetDEX includes stakes taken by seven backers of US technology companies, consisting of 2 large Paradigm and FTX - which specialise in purchasing business running with crypto-currencies.
Varun Sudhakar, primary executive of BetDEX, said: "The sports betting wagering industry charges high prices for poor items and limits trades by its most effective users.
"BetDEX is diametrically opposed to this technique. We will effectively complete against incumbents with a noticeably remarkable product and low costs, which is now possible with the introduction of the blockchain innovation."
As chairman of the new company, Mr Eccles said it could look familiar to retail punters used to existing online firms.
'Pool of skill'
However, he states that those who utilize its platform to run their own sports betting firms will have the ability to innovate and develop a broader variety of sports betting items.
He said the normal share taken by online bookmakers is 7% to 10% of a stake, but BetDEX needs to enable that to fall listed below 1%.
The company will establish its own sports betting apps to run on the platform.
Mr Eccles said these would take an "smart, thoughtful" technique to the method they are marketed to safeguard those who have problem with issue gaming.
He said the team of around 500 software engineers who helped develop FanDuel from Scotland showed that it remains the location to construct a company. BetDEX has the very same head of innovation, Stuart Tonner.
"A lot of that [FanDuel] success was developed on an extremely competent, extremely talented engineering team, that constructed this item that might process countless bets and countless users.
"There's a real talent pool of skilled engineers who helped us construct our item and that's what we wish to utilize for BetDEX also."
Related subjects
Edinburgh
sports betting wagering
More on this story
Paddy Power buys fantasy sports betting website
23 May 2018
FanDuel creator leaves business
Published
20 November 2017
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Sports Betting Innovator Launches Brand-new Start-up
edwardlachance edited this page 2025-01-02 11:54:04 +01:00