In an effort to improve its sports betting products, software company Simplebet raised $15 million in its latest round of financing. Simplebet’s software permits players to wager on quick odds, such as which player will make the next catch in football or what the next play will be.
Company CEO Chris Bevilacqua told CNBC that investors pumped money into the coffers after the successful free games on FanDuel and for-pay bets on Intralot.
“We have the future operating system of all in-play betting,” Bevilacqua said. “And we think in-play betting is going to be the way the vast majority of sports fans are going to bet.”
Simplebet has raised a total of $50 million with investors such as former MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren and former NFL executive Joe Banner.
“It goes beyond drives and plays but expands into correlated bets,” Bevilacqua said. “So you can bet not only on the next play but if the next play will result in a touchdown from a pass on the third play of the drive.”
The product debuted during the 2020 NFL season with FanDuel. Simplebet relied on its free-to-play model, “PlayAction,” to teach bettors about the concept. More than 100,000 unique users placed over 8 million free-to-play bets.
In January, Intralot used Simplebet for bets during the NFL’s postseason and Super Bowl. Almost 25 percent of Intralot’s play in January relied on micro-bet offerings.
“Once the investment community saw those results, we started to get a lot of interest,” Bevilacqua said. “We wanted to capitalize the company in the long term and use that investment into our engineering and product. You had users that were engaging throughout each quarter and that bet velocity. It takes live sports and turns into a slot machine experience where you know whether you’ve won or lost in a matter of minutes of seconds.”
Simplebet also has partnerships with PointsBet and provides real-time
“You’re going to start to see the product rolling out in a lot more markets and a lot more jurisdictions and not just on the real money betting side,” he said. “We’re in conversations with a bunch of media companies who are looking at the fan engagement aspect.”
The National Basketball Association tapped Simplebet to provide odds for its “NBA InPlay” product. FanDuel relaunched InPlay and integrated Simplebet’s software.
