UK-Based Social Gambling Disruptor Awarded £2.6 Million In Funding

With the regulation of online gambling and the market saturation that fosters casino and sports betting providers are always on the lookout for exciting new opportunities to disrupt the market – and grab the attention of interested players.

One such fresh face in the world of social gambling, PickGuru, has caught the attention of several high profile investors including the ever newsworthy Paddy Power and secured a whopping £2.6 million in seed funding.

 The Multi-Million Pound Pitch

While the PickGuru website is live there is currently no product for consumers to get their hands on – which means that the investment they secured was based on prototype architecture and a very good sales pitch.

We weren’t invited to the actual presentation so we can’t speak to the charisma of the founders but the “revolution in live sports gaming” they promise certainly does sound interesting.

Oliver Slipper, chairman and co-founder 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 believes users will love the result.”

The concept for PickGuru was based on the founders’ experience of setting up a tipping competition for their friends during the 2020 Masters tournaments. Friends and colleagues bet for and against each other’s predictions – and as luck would have it the game spread across the UK becoming a viral betting sensation.

This once manual-spreadsheet based betting game will soon launch in its final evolution as a mobile betting app that offers unique pool-based competitions, play by play edge-of-the-seat action and a leaderboard-based ranking system for those all-important bragging rights.

Where To From Here?

The plans are for PickGuru to begin taking action in early 2022 however till then the team is hard at work spending their windfall on securing the talent they need to take the product to the heights they believe it can reach.

This includes filling an additional 10 seats in their development, compliance, and marketing teams, with plans to expand the business by an additional 20 roles within the year.

Only time will tell if the success of the manual betting game can be repeated at scale in the online and mobile gambling space. Which way will you be betting?