Sporttrade Inc., a Philadelphia-based financial tech and sports betting company that wants to offer gamblers stock exchange-style trading of bets, raised $36 million in funding.
According to a news release, the coalition of investors includes backers from both the financial and gaming industries.
Sporttrade will use the capital to “strengthen its position as the only sports betting exchange in the United States,” the company said. Initial plans for the funding include player acquisition, expansion, and internal talent investments.
“Our mission is to elevate the sports betting industry by applying capital markets principles and technology and to place the customer at the forefront,” said Alex Kane, founder and CEO of Sporttrade. “Today marks a significant broadening of our coalition to achieve that mission.”
Pending approvals and licensing by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Sporttrade iOS app will be launched during the second half of 2021.
Sporttrade lets gamblers trade bets, picks
Gamblers will trade sporting events like they trade stocks on Sporttrade. Kane said he believes this will create a “fairer, more efficient, and engaging customer experience.”
“For two decades, retail customers have benefited immensely from unprecedented innovation in equity trading,” he said last month. “Sporttrade was created to bring those same great benefits to sports betting, including increased efficiency, real transparency, and better pricing.”
There’s always a New Jersey connection
The company has a multi-year partnership with Bally’s Corp., owner and operator of Bally’s Atlantic City.
When the deal was announced in 2020, George Papanier, president and CEO of Bally’s Corp., referred to Sporttrade as a “great addition to our list of unique partnerships we are building in the Atlantic City market.”
“They will bring a new, exciting online product offering for our guests, and we look forward to having them join our Atlantic City team,” he said.
Benefit to the bettor
In announcing the millions in funding, Sporttrade also identified a handful of the investors.
The list includes:
- Jump Capital
- Impression Ventures
- Hudson River Trading
- Tower Research Ventures
- Jim Murren, former CEO of MGM Resorts International
- Tom Wittman, former CEO of the Nasdaq Stock Exchange
In addition, Sporttrade issued convertible debt to Nasdaq Ventures in connection with the transaction.
Yelena Shkolnik of Jump Capital said Sporttrade built a “retail trading solution for betting, reflecting pricing based on win probabilities and allowing users to easily trade in and out of any position.”
“The US bettor will finally have a transparent open market of sports betting wagers to trade, and we couldn’t be more excited to be a partner,” said Shkolnik.
