YouTuber and brother of Logan, Jake Paul, has announced that he has completed an original round of $50 million funding to launch his new micro-betting venture, which he has chosen to call Betr. The vlogger, who has recently augmented his fame and his income as a pro-celebrity boxer, has drawn investment from venture capital firms as well as fellow celebrities who include rapper Travis Scott and NFL star Dez Bryant.
Betr is intended to be a platform for betting on sporting contests, with a particular focus on prop bets that arise at specific moments in games. Paul sees his role in the firm as being the head of its media arm, which he is intending to build into a streaming service that hosts shows and promotions. The YouTube star will host his own weekly show on the service, and is working on putting together a roster of influencers with the intention of creating a sportscasting and betting service that appeals to a younger, more digitally-native audience.
One of the funding partners of the new service is Simplebet, whose co-founder Joey Levy is also now the CEO of Betr. At present, Levy is working on finding partners in order to get Betr access to the growing range of gambling markets, and he will head up the betting side of the service, presumably to give Paul the chance to concentrate on leveraging his substantial online profile and influence.
According to Levy, the $50 million is intended to act as a war chest that will take the company to profitability without the need to raise any further funding. It is currently being put to use creating a staffing infrastructure for the business and developing the platform. If Levy and Paul’s initial plans come to fruition, it should then be self-funding.
In launching his new venture, the star said that it occurred to him to launch the business when he was approached by betting companies to promote their services. Rather than permitting himself and other influencers to make more money for those companies, Paul feels that by launching his own platform and getting trusted influencers on board, it will be possible to bring sports betting to the younger audience that established companies were seeking to harness through him. Betr hopes to announce initial partners within the next few weeks, so it will be worth keeping an eye on the developments as they come.