bit.ly
sports betting wagering innovator launches new start-up
bit.ly
17 November 2021
bet9ja.com
Share

close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Douglas Fraser

Business and economy editor, Scotland

One of Scotland’s most successful innovation teams is beginning 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 site FanDuel in 2009 in Edinburgh.

The new firm has seed financing of $21m.

It intends to release a new open source software application platform, on which others can innovate in sports betting, in the first half of next year.

The company is hiring personnel from a base in Scotland.

FanDuel was offered to Flutter - formerly called Paddy Power Betfair - in 2018 and is now worth more than $30bn.

However, Mr Eccles and other co-founders are 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 rising assessment.

Mr Eccles stated that one thing he discovered from the FanDuel experience was to pick investors thoroughly.

He informed BBC Scotland: “We took a lot of lessons from that, among which was the value of who we select as financiers in this brand-new service, to guarantee their values are lined up with ours, that they take their fiduciary tasks responsibly, and that they’re the right partners for us.”

The $21m seed funding for BetDEX consists of stakes taken by seven backers of US innovation companies, two large funds - Paradigm and FTX - which specialise in buying business running with crypto-currencies.

Varun Sudhakar, president of BetDEX, said: “The sports betting wagering industry charges high rates for poor items and limitations trades by its most successful users.

“BetDEX is diametrically opposed to this approach. We will successfully complete versus incumbents with a markedly exceptional product and low costs, which is now possible with the development of the blockchain technology.”

As chairman of the brand-new company, Mr Eccles said 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 sports betting firms will be able to innovate and create a wider series of wagering products.

He said the typical share taken by online bookies is 7% to 10% of a stake, but BetDEX needs to enable that to fall listed below 1%.

The business will establish its own sports betting apps to operate on the platform.

Mr Eccles said these would take an “smart, thoughtful” approach to the way they are marketed to protect those who fight with problem gambling.

He stated the group of around 500 software application engineers who helped construct FanDuel from Scotland revealed that it remains the location to develop a firm. BetDEX has the exact same head of innovation, Stuart Tonner.

“A lot of that [FanDuel] success was built on an extremely experienced, extremely skilled engineering group, that built this product that could process millions of bets and countless users.

“There’s a real talent swimming pool of skilled engineers who assisted us develop our item and that’s what we wish to leverage 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 company

Published

20 November 2017