In advance of the upcoming NFL season, a Chicago sports betting startup raised more funding and made an acquisition as it grows its social network for sports betting and fantasy sports players.
Betsperts announced Thursday that it raised a $6 million Series A round led by HBSE Ventures and Verance Capital, two sports-focused venture firms. Other backers include Parlay Capital Holdings, Velo Partners, and David VanEgmond, the founder of Bettor Capital.
Betsperts has raised nearly $9 million to date.
Founded in 2019 as a social media platform for sports bettors, Betsperts allows gamblers to find and follow experts across different sports. The Betsperts app tracks and ranks gamblers based on their betting history, helping users know who to follow if they want advice on their next bet.
The startup has recently expanded beyond gambling and into the fantasy sports industry, making a splash earlier this spring when it acquired the Fantasy Life App, a tool that delivers breaking news push notifications to fantasy players. Fantasy Life App was created by notable fantasy football analyst and ESPN personality Matthew Berry.
Betsperts made another move into the fantasy sports arena this week by acquiring 4for4.com, a content, data and rankings tool for fantasy football.
Betsperts CEO Reid Rooney told Chicago Inno that the company plans to invest heavily in both sports betting and fantasy sports as it works to become one of the largest social networks in the U.S. for both audiences. Rooney said that during last football season, Betsperts and Fantasy Life App saw a combined 10 million monthly app visits, and both apps are expected to surpass one million lifetime downloads during the 2021 NFL season.
The legalization of sports gambling has continued to spur Betsperts' growth. And with active bills set to legalize betting in several additional states, Rooney believes the opportunity for the company is "massive."
"We're continuing to build the full vision of being the largest social platform for sports gambling and fantasy sports," he said.
Sports betting is also gaining steam with organization with ties to Wisconsin. Sportradar Group AG, a global sports data company whose chairman is Jeff Yabuki, former CEO of Brookfield-based Fiserv Inc., has filed for an initial public offering. Founded in 2001, Sportradar closely tracks data for a variety of sports on behalf of teams, media outlets and betting companies. The latter category has become increasingly important as more U.S. states allow gambling on sports and as the bets themselves grow more complicated than simply who wins.
In addition, the Oneida Nation located just outside Green Bay hopes to begin offering sports wagering in time for the upcoming football season under an amended compact agreement the tribe reached with the state of Wisconsin. Pending an approval from the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Oneida Nation could begin expanding operations to allow event wagering at its casinos in the Green Bay area. Oneida Nation operates five casino locations.
