Australian bookie raises a$ 3.5 million in funding round for social betting

Former Australian bookmaker and Betstar owner Alan Eskander (he sold Betstar to Ladbrokes in 2014 for A$25 million) has a new venture, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review.

Eskander has just raised A$3.5 million from local investors for the expansion, technology upgrading and marketing of his new social betting operation SportChamps, a company that organises online betting tournaments in which players use digital currencies bought for fiat cash at various staking levels to bet on sports or events.

By doing so they win points based on the success of their bets, which are measured on a leader board…the higher a finish on the board, the more prize money the punter wins.

The facilities include typical social gaming elements such as chat and instant messaging, along with the ability for a group of friends to create their own private tournaments, in which SportCamps accrues revenue through a percentage of the deposits made.

Eskander has completed a two-year non-compete clause in his agreement with Ladbrokes on the Betstar sale, and launched SportsChamp earlier this year, rewarding the business’s technology developers with A$800,000 worth of equity in the company.

Eskander appears to have noted the rise of eSports tournaments, telling the AFR that the SportsChamps concept occurred to him whilst watching family members competing in online video games.

“It used to be you played these video games against the computer, and that was it. Now I see people playing the games, hooked up online and they’re chatting to the person in the next block, or someone across the country or around the world.

“It got me thinking about bookmaking. The offerings in that have essentially been the same for a long time. You place a bet, you get an outcome. It is very transactional, and there is no social interaction. I think this solves that, as people want to talk about what they are wagering on and like to compete,” he said.

SportChamps currently offers tournaments across sports that include horse and greyhound racing, AFL, soccer, American basketball football, golf and ice hockey, and include prop bets.

Eskander claims that the player base at SportsChamp is growing rapidly, rising by 50 percent a month since launch earlier this year.