Minneapolis-based social sports-betting startup BettorEdge is seeing a surge of interest for its business, which lets user set up their own wagers against each other.
BettorEdge is anticipating to reach $50 million in orders, or proposed bets, in 2022 alone this month, continuing to gain traction since it first launched nearly two years ago.
The 2-year-old business is working to carve out its own niche in the rapidly growing market for gambling on sporting events by putting a personal spin on the concept. Instead of operating a traditional sportsbook — putting up its own odds on games and taking a cut of wagers — BettorEdge’s no-fee platform allows bettors to go up against each other by choosing how much they're willing to bet.
In mid-2021, the company surpassed $3.5 million in orders — the total amount of proposed bets. For 2022, it's anticipating more than $50 million in orders, according to co-founder Greg Kajewski.
User activity is dependent on the time of year, like around major sporting events, such as March Madness, Kajewski said. Although the company is affected by the seasons, it still bets high on the industry's outlook; anticipating even more growth as the global sports betting market is expected to reach about $182 billion by 2030.
The industry is growing rapidly, Kajewski said. “As sports betting continues to grow and expand, I would expect a social platform around sports betting like ours to be a big part of that."
Founded in 2019 by Kajewski and James Seils, BettorEdge looks to “democratize sports betting by giving the edge back to the bettor,” the company says. The platform, which operates legally in 45 states, doesn’t charge a fee for returns on a bet.
“That's a big difference, because then, users are able to win a lot more and continue to come back,” Kajewski said.
There are currently about 12,000 users who have signed up for the platform, compared to just about 3,500 users who were signed up last year at this time, Kajewski said.
BettorEdge relies on premium features and advertising, such as by local companies like Minneapolis’ 7th Avenue Pizza and Bloomington-based sports memorabilia store Elite Ink, to fund its operations. Currently a pre-revenue company, BettorEdge is in the process of raising seed capital. So far, the company has raised $1.1 million to date, Kajewski said.
The platform intends to create business partnerships in the future to act as an additional revenue driver, he added.
As the sports-betting industry has turned increasingly online, the social aspect – where people can bet against a friend rather than a casino – has also seen more popularity, said John Wolohan, a professor of sports law at Syracuse University.
Though he’s unsure if such social betting platforms are the new wave of the future, Wolohan said they are having a larger presence in the industry. "If we're losing money, we'd rather give it to our friends. What these sites are trying to do, is trying to build off of that kind of camaraderie."
BettorEdge currently has three full-time employees and about a dozen who support the company through contract work, Kajewski said. It also has a team of advisers, including Andrew Abbott, global agency lead at Reddit, who joined the company last year.
