Paddy Power sports betting stock market ASX passes funding target
Paddy Power, the face of the Irish bookmaker of the same name, has reached 125 per cent of his crowdfunding target for sports betting virtual stock market ASX.
Ireland.- Paddy Power has broken his funding target for sports betting virtual stock market ASX just days after launching a crowdfunding campaign.
Paddy Power is the son of Paddy Power’s co-founder David Power. He was formerly head of communications at what is Ireland’s biggest bookmaker and remains involved as a brand ambassador on a part-time basis.
His new tech startup, ASX, is a virtual stock market for sports betting, which he hopes will be worth €10m within 18 months.
With a €4.5m valuation, Power set out to raise €500,000 to help accelerate ASX’s growth via a campaign on Dublin-based platform Spark Crowdfunding. By Sunday, the campaign had already raised 125 per cent of its target with €632,435 invested.
The description of the platform on Spark Crowdfunding says: “Based in Dublin, ASX is a sports and entertainment technology company. It operates at the nexus of sports betting, financial market investment and fantasy games.
“ASX offers sports fans a new way to speculate on player performance or team performance. Think of it as a virtual stock market for players and teams where users speculate on the price movements which are based on player/team performance.”
The platform will allow users to buy or sell shares based on how they think a player or team will perform in the short run or long term. Players will be able to use real money, free-to-play or virtual play.
ASX, which has high expectations for the US market, will take a small commission on each trade.
Power told the Irish Independent: “Half a million euro would be great for an early-stage startup and would give us 12 to 18 months’ work. Another couple of people are interested in investing, which would bring funds up to about €1m.
“Our big plan is to get to the stage of another fundraising round as quickly as possible. I’d say the next fundraising round would make the company worth €10m and that would be cautious, which is unlike me.”
See also: Irish senator proposes €100 limit on bets
At Paddy Power, the eponymous Power was behind the company’s introduction of many headline-grabbing novelty bets, offering odds on things such as which supermarket chains would ban customers from shopping in their pyjamas.
Controversial advertising techniques during his tenure as head of communications resulted in criticism of the company for promotions such as “money back if he walks” on the trial of Oscar Pistorius for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The crowdfunding launch comes after the UK football player “stock exchange” Football Index collapsed following a change to its dividend system.
