It’s no longer all about sport: Smarkets raises $200k
June 21, 2008
Smarkets is a pre-launch betting exchange based in London. We focus on making betting simple with a clean interface that clearly displays what users can win. No knowledge of odds necessary, no history of betting required. Smarkets is revolutionising the speed and ease of betting, offering more entertainment bets on celebrities and current events. It’s no longer all about sports.
We’re going to offer an open API for people to develop their own betting applications, which means, users can create their own software to connect to Smarkets infrastructure.
Smarkets has raised $200k with a convertible note from five private investors. This will be used to finish initial product development, obtain a license from Malta and conduct a private beta launch.
Smarkets is planning a private launch for summer of 2008 and a public launch fall of 2008. Public demo and alpha coming soon.
Main competition: Betfair, worth $3 billion. Other betting exchanges include intrade.com, tradesports.com, and betdaq.com. Other general competitors include hubdub.com (play money), pikum.com (real and play).
Founded by Americans Jason Trost (27) and Hunter Morris (26), computer science graduates of Northwestern University in Chicago. Their professional experience is a fusion of technology and finance. Jason was an equities trader and Hunter developed and designed trading software for an options market making firm. Smarkets headquarters is in London.
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June 21, 2008 at 19:36
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