GamCrowd has launched the first startups, Betify and Fenway Games, on its equity crowdfunding platform. Betify is a mobile app that allows users to set or receive challenges from their friends and win rewards, such as tech products and vouchers or trips and experiences, if their challenge becomes popular in the community. Fenway Games is a developer of real-time, mobile and social products that operate during live sporting events and offer a high turnover of wagering opportunities.
Betify states the network can be exploited by businesses wanting to target new locations, engage with users, encourage loyalty and promote their products in the Betify reward centre to boost sales. Analytics help brands learn about customer interaction with their products, key demographics, viral spread, return on investment, and other metrics. Betify, which has also been shortlisted for the forthcoming Startup Launchpad at EiG, has already raised £185,000 via incubation and seed funding rounds. Through GamCrowd, it is looking to add another £300,000 in return for 15% equity from investors, as it prepares to launch.
The company plans to drive revenues through B2B contracts with brands that will subscribe to its premium content and B2C sales to individual users who will spend on in-app purchases. The app soft launched on September 22 and has more than 200 members and five strong B2B prospects.
“Gamification has proven to be a successful tool in rousing engagement and now betification is the natural progression,” said Samuel Huber, founder and CEO of Betify. “It is said that 90% of a brand’s following never interact with the content[i] Betify helps solve the problem of how to stimulate the passive majority of social media followers.”
“The unstoppable success of the #icebucketchallenge highlights the huge potential for a challenge-based platform like Betify. We bridge the gap between businesses and consumer services by providing a strong incentive – actual products that can be won – for users to get involved with brands,” Huber added.
Its flagship title, SwitchPlayed, allows small-stakes bets to be placed in-play, to predict what will happen next in a football match, from a shot, goal, red or yellow card, foul, save, offside or penalty. Players can compete in league tables, achieve bragging rights, chat live over social media and win extra credits based on performance.
“Fenway Games produces unique, easy-to-understand playing experiences. Our games, like SwitchPlayed, tap into the emotions that fans experience while they are watching or listening to live sport,” said Peter Gough, founder and CEO of Fenway Games. “We feel that there is an uncatered-for market between social and sports betting to which our games are perfectly suited.”
The company’s predicted revenue streams are through in-app advertising, virtual goods purchases and customer conversion to mobile sportsbook. Fenway Games is pitching for £50,000 of investment to fund product build, data feed subscriptions, marketing, design and consultancy, ahead of a projected go-live in February 2015.
“Betify and Fenway Games prove that innovation is alive and well in the gambling industry. Launching both companies simultaneously demonstrates the breadth of portfolio opportunities offered by the GamCrowd platform,” said Chris North, CEO of GamCrowd.
“The two companies are two entirely different propositions, Betify is a more developed product requiring a greater level of backing, while Fenway Games might appeal to investors looking to get involved in a project at an earlier stage.”
GamCrowd is an investment crowdfunding platform that targets the gaming industry. Based in the UK, GamCrowd recently ran a self-crowdfunding campaign to raise capital for their platform.
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