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You are here: Home / Bitcoin Industry News / Solana-Based Sports Betting Protocol BetDEX Closes $21M Seed Funding Round

November 17, 2021

Solana-Based Sports Betting Protocol BetDEX Closes $21M Seed Funding Round

BetDEX has raised a $21 million seed round to create a decentralized global sports betting protocol.

In the announcement Wednesday, the Edinburgh-base BetDEX called the raise the “largest-ever seed investment round by a U.K. startup.”

The crypto derivatives exchange giant FTX and San Francisco-based crypto venture firm Paradigm led the round, which also included participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sino Global Capital and Solana Ventures.

Scotland-based BetDEX is building its protocol on the Solana blockchain with hopes of becoming “a global clearinghouse for sports wagering,” according to a blog post.

Third parties will be able to use BetDEX’s back-end infrastructure to run their betting platforms, which takes advantage of Solana’s high transaction speeds and low fees. BetDEX says its protocol will charge a fee of less than 1% on net winnings, undercutting centralized competitors like FanDuel and DraftKings who typically charge 2%-5%.

The company also plans to build its own betting platform on the protocol, which has yet to be named. BetDEX will accept wagers in USDT, SOL and SAMO at launch, according to the announcement.

The company is led by three former executives of FanDuel, which holds 36% of the current online sports betting market share. Nigel Eccles, who serves as BetDEX’s non-executive chair, is a FanDuel co-founder and served as the company’s CEO.

With the U.S. crypto betting market still in its infancy, BetDEX is targeting European and Asian markets, a company spokesperson told CoinDesk. Wyoming is currently the only U.S. state with legalized cryptocurrency sports betting.

“It is mind-boggling that more sports wagering does not occur on exchanges,” FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried said in the BetDEX press release. “We firmly believe in giving consumers the ability and control to set their own price and are excited to partner with BetDEX to bring this vision to fruition.”

Author: Eli Tan

Filed Under: Bitcoin Industry News

Expert Witness

Ty Sagalow head shotTy Sagalow's unique background in legal, underwriting, policy drafting and claims – and his designation as a “qualified insurance expert” by the United States District Court for the Southern District of California – offers attorneys an unparalleled resource in D&O, E&O and Cyber insurance coverage disputes. He was also named "Most Helpful Expert" in a recent $8.7M coverage decision.

Mr. Sagalow served as Chief Underwriting Officer and General Counsel for AIG Executive Liability (formerly National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA), the world’s largest carrier of Directors and Officers Liability and Professional Liability Insurance. As General Counsel, Mr. Sagalow personally wrote or led teams that wrote all the D&O policies and many of the professional liability policies that AIG produced between 1988 and 2000 – policies which continue to serve as the foundational wording for the D&O and professional liability policies in the market today. As AIG Executive Liability’s Chief Underwriting Officer, Mr. Sagalow was charged with all underwriting interpretations and decisions for AIG D&O/E&O policies. In 2009, Mr. Sagalow headed up the team that rewrote all D&O policies for Zurich North America.

Ty is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and holds a LLM from New York University School of Law.

Bitcoin Insurance

Combining his talents as a network security insurance expert and an insurance product development expert, Ty Sagalow is the leading expert on the unique risk and insurance needs of the bitcoin industry.

With the successful sale of BitSecure(tm), the first bitcoin theft insurance policy in February of 2015, he is the first to create a sustainable, robust insurance policy to cover the theft of bitcoins and other virtual currency backed by an A-Rated, global “top 10” Property and Casualty insurance company.

Company Profile

Innovation Insurance Group is an insurance consulting firm and insurance brokerage founded by 30-year insurance executive, Ty R. Sagalow, former Chief Underwriting Officer, General Counsel and Chief Innovation Officer at AIG, and former Chief Innovation Officer at Zurich, NA and Tower Group. IIG focuses on three core practice groups: product development, expert witness services (primarily in the Management and Professional Liability areas), and bitcoin industry brokerage services.

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