sports betting wagering innovator launches new start-up


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 new company - and has actually secured the biggest initial financial investment of any British start-up business.


BetDEX is being led by Nigel Eccles, who co-founded fantasy sports betting wagering website FanDuel in 2009 in Edinburgh.


The brand-new firm has seed financing of $21m.


It aims to introduce a brand-new open source software platform, on which others can innovate in sports betting wagering, in the very 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 conflict with FanDuel's later stage investors over the method which they structured a takeover, which left the Edinburgh team without a share of the rising assessment.


Mr Eccles said that one thing he found out from the FanDuel experience was to choose financiers carefully.


He told BBC Scotland: "We took a great deal of lessons from that, one of which was the value of who we select as investors in this brand-new company, to ensure their worths are lined up with ours, that they take their fiduciary responsibilities properly, and that they're the ideal partners for us."


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




Varun Sudhakar, president of BetDEX, said: "The sports betting market charges high prices for bad products and limitations trades by its most effective users.


"BetDEX is diametrically opposed to this technique. We will successfully contend against incumbents with a considerably exceptional product and low charges, which is now possible with the advent of the blockchain technology."


As chairman of the brand-new company, Mr Eccles said it could look familiar to retail punters used to existing online companies.


'Pool of talent'


However, he says that those who use its platform to run their own sports betting firms will have the ability to innovate and develop a larger variety of wagering items.


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


The business will develop its own sports betting apps to run on the platform.


Mr Eccles stated these would take an "smart, thoughtful" approach to the way they are marketed to protect those who have a hard time with problem gaming.


He stated the group of around 500 software application engineers who assisted build FanDuel from Scotland showed that it stays the place to develop a firm. BetDEX has the very same head of innovation, Stuart Tonner.


"A lot of that [FanDuel] success was constructed on an extremely skilled, really talented engineering group, that constructed this product that could process countless bets and millions of users.


"There's a genuine talent pool of knowledgeable engineers who helped us develop our item which's what we wish to utilize for BetDEX as well."


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Edinburgh


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Published


20 November 2017