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Sports betting innovator launches new start-up

17 November 2021
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By Douglas Fraser

Business and economy editor, Scotland

One of Scotland's most effective technology teams is beginning once again with a new firm - and has actually 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 firm has seed financing of $21m.

It aims to launch a brand-new open source software application platform, on which others can innovate in sports betting wagering, in the first half of next year.

The business is recruiting staff from a base in Scotland.

FanDuel was offered to Flutter - formerly named Paddy - 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 investors 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 gained from the FanDuel experience was to select investors thoroughly.

He told BBC Scotland: "We took a lot of lessons from that, among which was the significance of who we select as financiers in this new company, to guarantee their worths are lined up with ours, that they take their fiduciary duties responsibly, and that they're the right partners for us."

The $21m seed financing for BetDEX includes stakes taken by seven backers of US innovation firms, consisting of 2 big funds - Paradigm and FTX - which specialise in buying business running with crypto-currencies.

Varun Sudhakar, primary executive of BetDEX, said: "The sports betting 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 against incumbents with a significantly remarkable product and low charges, which is now possible with the introduction of the blockchain innovation."

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

'Pool of talent'

However, he states that those who use its platform to run their own wagering companies will have the ability to innovate and produce a wider variety of sports betting items.

He stated the normal share taken by online bookmakers is 7% to 10% of a stake, but BetDEX should enable that to fall below 1%.
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The company will develop its own wagering apps to run on the platform.

Mr Eccles said these would take an "smart, thoughtful" technique to the way they are marketed to safeguard those who have problem with issue sports betting.

He said the team of around 500 software engineers who assisted build FanDuel from Scotland showed that it stays the location to develop a firm. BetDEX has the exact same head of technology, Stuart Tonner.
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"A great deal of that [FanDuel] success was developed on an extremely competent, really gifted engineering group, that constructed this product that might process millions of bets and countless users.

"There's a real talent swimming pool of knowledgeable engineers who helped us construct our product and that's what we wish to utilize for BetDEX too."

Related topics

Edinburgh

sports betting wagering

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