Sports betting innovator launches new start-up
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17 November 2021

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By Douglas Fraser

Business and economy editor, Scotland

One of Scotland's most effective innovation teams is beginning once again with a brand-new company - and has secured the biggest initial 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 brand-new company has seed financing of $21m.

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

The business is recruiting personnel from a base in Scotland.

FanDuel was sold to Flutter - previously called 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 phase financiers over the method which they structured a takeover, which left the Edinburgh team without a share of the increasing 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 brand-new service, to guarantee their values are aligned with ours, that they take their fiduciary duties properly, which they're the ideal partners for us."

The $21m seed financing for BetDEX includes stakes taken by 7 backers of US innovation companies, including two large funds - Paradigm and FTX - which specialise in investing in companies running with crypto-currencies.
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Varun Sudhakar, chief executive of BetDEX, said: "The sports betting wagering industry charges high costs for poor items and limitations trades by its most successful users.

"BetDEX is diametrically opposed to this technique. We will effectively contend versus incumbents with a markedly remarkable product and low costs, which is now possible with the advent of the blockchain technology."
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As chairman of the new firm, 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 sports betting firms will be able to innovate and develop a wider variety of wagering items.

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

The company will establish its own wagering apps to run on the platform.

Mr Eccles said these would take an "smart, thoughtful" approach to the way they are marketed to secure those who fight with problem sports betting.

He said the group of around 500 software application engineers who helped construct FanDuel from Scotland revealed that it stays the place to build a firm. BetDEX has the same head of technology, Stuart Tonner.

"A great deal of that [FanDuel] success was built on a highly competent, very gifted engineering group, that built this item that might process countless bets and countless users.

"There's a real skill swimming pool of experienced engineers who helped us build our item which's what we want to utilize for BetDEX as well."

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Edinburgh

Sports betting
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