Sports betting innovator launches brand-new start-up

17 November 2021

Share
bit.ly
close panel

Share page

Copy link

About sharing

By Douglas Fraser

Business and economy editor, Scotland

One of Scotland's most successful technology groups is beginning once again with a brand-new company - and has protected the most significant preliminary financial investment of any British start-up business.

BetDEX is being led by Nigel Eccles, who co-founded dream sports betting site FanDuel in 2009 in Edinburgh.

The new company has seed funding of $21m.
bet9ja.com
It intends to introduce a brand-new open source software application platform, on which others can in sports betting wagering, in the first half of next year.

The business is hiring 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 dispute with FanDuel's later phase financiers over the method in which they structured a takeover, which left the Edinburgh team without a share of the rising appraisal.

Mr Eccles said that a person thing he gained from the FanDuel experience was to pick financiers carefully.
bet9ja.com
He told BBC Scotland: "We took a lot of lessons from that, one of which was the value of who we select as financiers in this new company, to ensure their worths are aligned with ours, that they take their fiduciary tasks responsibly, which they're the ideal partners for us."

The $21m seed funding for BetDEX consists of 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, primary executive of BetDEX, stated: "The sports betting wagering industry charges high rates for bad items and limits trades by its most successful users.

"BetDEX is diametrically opposed to this technique. We will successfully compete against incumbents with a markedly superior product and low costs, which is now possible with the arrival of the blockchain technology."

As chairman of the brand-new company, 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 wagering companies will have the ability to innovate and produce a broader series of wagering items.

He stated the common share taken by online bookmakers is 7% to 10% of a stake, however BetDEX needs to permit that to fall listed below 1%.

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

Mr Eccles said these would take an "intelligent, thoughtful" method to the way they are marketed to protect those who deal with problem sports betting.

He said the team of around 500 software engineers who helped construct FanDuel from Scotland revealed that it remains the location to build a firm. BetDEX has the very same head of innovation, Stuart Tonner.

"A lot of that [FanDuel] success was constructed on an extremely competent, extremely talented engineering group, that constructed this item that might process millions of bets and millions of users.

"There's a genuine talent swimming pool of experienced engineers who assisted us construct our item which's what we desire to take advantage of for BetDEX as well."

Related subjects
bet9ja.com
Edinburgh

sports betting wagering

More on this story

Paddy Power purchases dream sports betting website

23 May 2018

FanDuel creator leaves business

Published

20 November 2017