BetDEX Recieves A Record Setting Investment As They Try To Connect Sports Betting and Blockchain Technology
BetDEX, the brainchild of three former FanDuel executives, took another huge step forward yesterday in becoming the first-ever decentralized global sports betting protocol. In an announcement on Wednesday, BetDEX executives revealed the $21 million investment, which was largely led by FTX and Paradigm. BetDEX hopes to build its protocol on the Solana blockchain and hopes to have it all up and running by early 2022.
BetDEX would offer the infrastructure to third parties interested in the sports betting arena, and due to the fast speeds and low costs of Solana's blockchain they would be able to charge frees of less than 1%. This drastically undercuts many of the mainstream options we have today.
Due to the decentralized nature of the protocol, it would allow third parties to create their own operations using the BetDEX protocol, and they would even be able to make innovations on top of the platform. This would be the first real shake-up we would see in the sports betting market, which is expected wo be worth over $140 billion by 2028.
The three men behind BetDEX are former FanDuel co-founder and CEO Nigel Eccles, and former FanDuel executives Varun Sudhakar and Stuart Tonner. Varun Sudhakar will be assuming the position of CEO, while Tonner takes up the CTO role. This team of three is looking to expand, and is excited to be at the forefront of combining the crypto world with the sports betting world.
With cryptocurrency/blockchain technology being a relatively new commodity in the eye of the average American, it is reported that BetDEX will look to the European and Asian markets first, That being said, seeing how quickly both cryptocurrency and sports betting rose to relevance in the US, I don't see it taking long. BetDEX is also planning on making their own sportsbook using the protocol, but no further updates have been given regarding that plan.
With the announcement of BetDEX's success in the fundraising stage coming on the same day as the announcement of the Staple's Center name being changed to the Crypto.com Arena, it begs the questions of how cryptocurrency and sports will continue to cooperate.
