Smarkets Tech Talk on Erlang
Hunter spoke June 26th at Erlang Factory to talk about our back-end software stack. He also gives some background information on the online gambling industry. Smarkets was built using many open source Erlang tools, including CouchDB and RabbitMQ. The core transaction engine is written in Erlang and provides a resource-oriented API. This talk shows how the Smarkets platform was built, an overview of the architecture, and why Erlang was the right choice for us.
Smarkets Raises Additional £145k of Angel Funding
Smarkets is proud to announce a second round fund raising of £145k ($210k), exceeding the first round fund raising total of £100k in May 2008. Despite tough economic conditions, six private angel investors participated in this second round and funds will go toward the upcoming Smarkets launch.
Last week, London-based Smarkets was selected to pitch at Geek’n Rolla, a TechCrunch-sponsored daylong event for startups in the UK. CEO and co-founder Jason Trost pitched at the event Tuesday, April 21st.
In addition, Smarkets has completed its open RESTful API, a first for the betting industry. This is the first betting exchange platform built with Erlang, a computer language enabling us to process thousands of bets per second. We’re currently putting the finishing touches on our website and social profiles. We’re looking forward to our upcoming launch and making betting online simple, social and fun.
Imagine being able to be magically whisked away to… Delaware
Sports betting might be legalised in Delaware? That’s what Chad Millman writes in the latest ESPN magazine. The governor is looking for ways to increase revenue and betting is one way to generate a lot of tax money for the state. In the coming months, it will be interesting to see if any states follow suit. There has been a lot of chatter about this happening. With the popularity of online poker and casinos now popping up over the US, attitudes have changed greatly since the Atlantic City and Las Vegas only days.
Smarkets doubles down: New additions to the team
Smarkets is proud to announce the addition of Karsten Wiese and Bradley Wright to our team. Both guys bring an incredible amount of talent and skill to the web.
Prior to joining Smarkets, Karsten [roboteralarm.de / Twitter] has worked as an interactive art director and designer since 1998. His portfolio is diverse, ranging from entertainment to B2B sites. Karsten’s work includes projects for leading global brands such as Siemens, Merck, Adidas, EMI and Virgin.
Bradley [intranation.com / Twitter] has worked as lead web developer on Yahoo! Answers which currently serves over 1 billion page views per month. He has also recently worked as a software developer for Global Radio/GCap Media, the UK’s largest commercial radio group.
FT: “A better hand”
There’s a a great article in yesterday’s FT explaining the current state of the online gambling industry. Many governments (eg France, Spain) are in the process of creating legal frameworks for the $17 billion industry since it has proved extremely popular all over the globe. Also, there are some developments in the US as Congressman Barney Frank moves to regulate and legalise the industry.
Online gambling As broadband enters ever more homes and many governments relax previous restrictions, opportunities increase sharply for an industry that has had a troubled start, writes Roger Blitz
Smarkets Update
Hunter and I have been busy developing Smarkets software and I wanted to give an update on everything we’ve been working on since the last post. It’s taken a little longer than we anticipated, but we’re getting close and launch is well within sight.
- Testing should be available shortly. If you haven’t contacted us already, please send your information if you’d like to be one of the initial testers. We’re going to start with a play-money version to make sure everything is working properly before we switch over to real-money transactions.
- License is in its final stages. We’re expecting to receive Stage 2 approval from the Maltese licensing authority soon, which will make our exchange fully legal and regulated.
- Thanks Karsten and Brad! I would like to extend a big thank you to Karsten Wiese and Bradley Wright for their computer skills. They have been invaluable getting Smarkets ready.
And check out our Smarkets Christmas party pics over on Flickr. Happy New Year!
Smarkets in NYC
I just spent last week in NYC with 20 other great UK-based startups selected to participate in UK Trade and Investment’s Digital Mission. The goal of the Mission was to encourage and support British companies entering the American market. The best part of the trip was meeting other startups and asking them questions on their approach to setting things up.
Here’s a video from Danvers. I may have to get a Flip camera now!
Also a podcast from Alex Bellinger interviewing some of the Digital Mission companies.
Many thanks to Sam, Emily and Aoife from Chinwag, Barry and Danvers from Winston & Strawn and Stewart from Sun for making the trip possible!
Smarkets to pitch at international gaming conference
EiG is one of the leading online gaming conferences. Around 1,300 gaming industry executives and insiders will attend September 23-25, 2008 in Barcelona. A new feature of the conference is a platform for entrepreneurs to pitch their latest innovations in the gaming world in front of a panel of experts. The winner will be named EiG’s Popular Start-Up of 2008/9. Smarkets is pleased to have been invited to present.
I will be pitching Smarkets as the new face of online gaming. I’ll be joined on stage with Alex Czajkowski of eGaming2.0, Adam Burkitt of URBet, Dave McDowell of FSB Tech and my friend Sean Glass of Pikum.
Further links about EiG LaunchPad:
Smarkets to take part in Digital Mission NYC
Along with 20 other UK startups, I’ll be representing Smarkets on Digital Mission September 14-19th, a program put on by UKTI to promote UK based companies to the American market coinciding with Web 2.0 Expo. London is making great progress becoming a startup hub, and I’m confident this trip will show the tech world that it’s not all about Silicon Valley anymore.
I will be introducing Smarkets, the simple way to place bets on your favourite events, to potential investors and partners in New York, my former hometown. I’d like to thank Sam Michel and his team at Chinwag for their hard work organising the trip.
Other coverage on the web:
