Betty raises $5M for inclusive real-money online gambling

Betty has raised $5 million in funding for its real-money online gambling enterprise aimed toward numerous audiences.

While many online gambling corporations resembling Draftkings and FanDuel goal males, Betty is taking a unique strategy, going after the identical numerous audiences that like informal video games.

Karlani Capital led the spherical. Also taking part within the spherical have been CEAS Investments, Courtside Ventures, Gaingels, OCA Ventures, Subversive Capital, and 305 Ventures. Betty beforehand raised a $1.8 million pre-seed spherical in March 2022.

Betty has recognized a big viewers of informal “Casino” prospects, significantly girls slot gamers, who’re underserved by present manufacturers which, at their core, are sportsbooks, mentioned CEO Justin Park in an interview with GamesBeat.

Park began the corporate in March 2022. The inspiration was associated to his earlier firm within the sports-betting area. The firm interviewed greater than 150 gamers available in the market and located that 80% of them additionally performed free-to-play cell video games like Candy Crush Saga. Yet these sorts of mechanics don’t actually exist in social on line casino video games, Park mentioned.

“We saw that the online casino space is huge, with big market inefficiencies. There is a very large underserved audience among female slot players,” he mentioned.

What stunned me about this enterprise getting funding is that many of the social on line casino video games and online gambling corporations acquired funding greater than a decade in the past. You would assume this market could be too mature for startups. But Park famous online gambling in North America is round $5 billion, whereas the general bodily gambling market is round $75 billion.

Park mentioned the analysis confirmed that girls don’t guess on sports activities as a lot, nor do they gamble on all kinds of table-based gambling video games. Many of them concentrate on slots, he mentioned.

“We also found this audience is very community focused, so you can have features like chat rooms,” he mentioned. “And they aren’t really marketed to.”

Betty’s mission is to maximise the leisure worth of iCasino for these informal gamers by creating an surroundings that’s secure, social, and inclusive, he mentioned.

Gaingels, a LGBTQIA+/Allies non-public funding syndicate, mentioned in a press release, “Sports betting and casinos have historically been marketed to men. In reality, women make up more than half of the market. We love Betty’s mission to make the category more inclusive.”

“It’s more around creating more inclusivity in the real money gaming space,” mentioned Park, referring to traders like Gaingels. “They’re obviously a thought leader within the financing space around that. It’s a great marriage of values.”

The proceeds of the spherical will fund Betty’s operations in Ontario, Canada, the place the corporate will go stay this month.

Betty acquired a gambling license from Canada’s Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario on January 24. The firm anticipates a gentle launch in February adopted by a full-scale launch within the second quarter. The seed funding will even go to continued improvement of Betty’s proprietary iCasino platform that’s tailored for the North American buyer. The firm is making use of for different licenses.

Betty’s founding staff beforehand constructed a U.S. sports activities betting media platform, QL Gaming Group (acquired by Audacy). The firm is predicated in New York and it has an workplace in Bulgaria. Right now, the corporate is concentrated on web-based video games.

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