Esports start-up Midnite raises $2.5 million for its betting platform
The London-based organisation is also responsible for the popular fantasy football app Dribble, though their recently completed fundraising campaign is for a different platform: Midnite. It isn’t the first investment – in fact, not at all. Previous investors include companies like Betfair, GVC and Venrex Investment Management.
This current investment round was completed by a gaming-focused venture firm named Makers Fund. Previous rounds were completed to the tune of $4.5 million, and that’s just a fraction of the overall value of the esports betting market.
© Midnite
A $12 billion market
By the end of the year, esports betting is supposed to be worth over $12 billion dollars – that’s not exactly chump change. In fact, it means that the betting side of esports is actually one of the fastest-growing aspects of the esports industry as a whole.
Midnite co-founder Nick Wright says that their platform is meant to offer a dedicated esports experience. For many bookmakers, esports are an afterthought – they are just one of many services that a site may offer. For Midnite that’s not the case – the entire betting experience is tailored to esports.
“What makes esports differ from other sports is the constant action and its highly dynamic nature,” says Wright. “This is conducive to a variety of live betting opportunities that you can seldom find in real sports. Users can bet on your standard match winners and losers, but they can also bet on unique selections such as next kill or next objective achieved while matches are in-play.”
Midnite is currently invite-only and is still in Beta mode. Despite this, the start-up has already taken the biggest hurdle – they got a gambling license in the biggest gambling market in the world – the UK. National licenses only apply to individual countries, which means that an organisation needs to acquire multiple ones to operate across borders – and that is the goal of Midnite.
“We are creating a safe and responsible environment for these fans. Customer safety is our top priority and we are taking it very seriously. We are doing everything by the book to ensure our community is safeguarded and are compliant with all the regulations in markets where we are operational.” Says co-founder Wright.
The platform will offer unique tools to watch, analyse and bet on users’ favourite teams and players as they face off in live matches. Esports offers betting opportunities that traditional sports don’t. In football, for example, it’s possible to bet on winners, losers and goals scored – in an esports match, there are things like rounds, in-game objectives, next kill or even broken records or personal bests.
The exact opportunities depend on the esport at hand – there are different opportunities for different types of games, of course. A lot of current esports betting odds providers fail to account for these options, thus leaving a lot of potential untapped. With services like Midnite moving into that area, it’s likely that we’ll soon see some changes in the betting world.
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