London betting exchange start-up raises more cash

Smarkets, the London-based peer-to-peer betting exchange founded in 2008 by Jason Trost (CEO) and Hunter Morris (CTO), has raised a further $2.3 million round of funding led by Deutsche Telekom’s T-Venture, along with existing backer Passion Capital.

The additional capital will be used to “accelerate technical and product development”, specifically through staffing up in engineering and other developer positions to help deliver a roadmap that includes things like new markets for punters to trade on, a dedicated mobile app, and price history and trading charts”, reports the publication TechCrunch.

Randeep Wilkhu, a senior investment manager at T-Venture, and Robert Dighero, an angel Investor and partner at Passion Capital, will join the Smarkets board.

Trost says that Smarkets – which is currently achieving around GBP 30 million in transactions traded each month – has superior technology and offers a better deal for punters through lower commissions on each bet – just 2 percent, which he claims is an industry-low.

Betfair will be its main rival, although Ladbrokes also has big plans for its recently acquired Betdaq.