Angel Investors Back PickGuru
Angel investors have put their money where their mouths are and have provided £2.6m in funds to kickstart a new interactive social betting platform, PickGuru. High-profile investors believe the DAZN’s co-founder’s new idea could revolutionise betting with friends.
PickGuru Attracts Angel Investors Attention © Pixabay.
£2.6m has been raised by Stats Perform and DAZN co-founder Oliver Slipper in seed funding for his new brainchild, a new social gaming platform, PickGuru.
Slipper has attracted a high calibre of angel investors, including one of the most controversial ‘traditional bookmakers’, Paddy Power.
Other names that have committed funds to the PickGuru project include Will Neale, who founded a browser-based live video production suite that links seamlessly with social media networks. Global Cycling Network founder and chairman Simon Wear.
Also involved are the brother combination of Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham, owners of the Marshmallow organisation, which offers ínsurtech and owns all the components of their insurance company from sign-ups to pricing.
The recent round of funding values the PickGuru business at £6m, and the capital raised will be used to launch and scale the business.
According to the press release on the news, the platform will “allow friends and fans to challenge each other in a wide variety of exciting sports prediction games”.
It states that users will be able to test their knowledge to win big cash pots with small stakes and participate in nationwide leagues. They also believe a customer’s social circle will come into play with the ability to compete against friends and family in user-created mini-leagues.
Pickguru’s website also hints at the skills required to push the project to market with Compliance Executive, Social Sports Betting Intern, Junior Front End Developer, Senior React Native Developer, Full Stack Developer, and Performance Marketing Manager jobs still available out of the initial vacancies the start-up was advertising for.
It is expected that a further twenty vacancies will be needed to be filled within the next twelve months.
The executive team is well known to founder Oliver Slipper. He has employed ex-Stats Perform director of financial planning and analysis Paul Watkins in the role of the chief operating officer.
Slipper has in place Matulo Software founder Paul Cobley who is a co-founder and will serve as the group’s first chief technology officer and head of product. Adam Perrin is also part of the team. The former Paddy Power brand director is PickGuru’s first chief marketing officer.
The two remaining members of the PickGuru executive team are Jon Owen and Jon Youell. The pair are the founders of sports marketing agency Pitch International.
The real-time social gaming platform actually started life as a manually altered Excel spreadsheet. It was used during golf’s 2020 Masters tournament, and such was the popularity of the concept that it went viral.
The sharp increase in the use of the spreadsheet encouraged the founders to expand the idea further. PickGuru co-founder and chairman Slipper said:
“Following months of hard graft and huge investment, we’re proud to be building the first UK-focused platform that uniquely combines elements of fantasy sports, gaming and live action, and strongly believe users will love the result,”
“I’m delighted that some of the most successful sports entrepreneurs shared our vision, and I thank them for backing our ambitious plans for the business,” Slipper added.
