Is running a sportsbook that only focuses on micro-betting not all that it’s cracked up to be? That seems to be the case at YouTube personality Jake Paul’s micro-betting app Betr. Launched just two months ago as a trendy, youth-focused micro-betting platform, the company is pivoting its business model to include pre-game and in-game spread, moneyline, and total wagers.
Betr’s pivot away from an all micro-betting model is being launched alongside the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament and all the wagers made during the promotion will have a zero percent margin.
While giving away the vig and moving away from your initial model may sound like a move that’s made from desperation, Betr’s co-founder Joe Levy said that’s not quite the case. “We deliberately launched with only microbetting to 1) launch as soon as possible, enabling us to learn from and iterate our product experience according to real user data and feedback, and to 2) establish ourselves as the company, product, and brand synonymous not just with instant gratification betting, which we believe will be the future of this industry, but to also be synonymous with doing things differently and being the first direct-to-consumer operator in the category to actually differentiate its product experience in an industry dominated by commoditized product experiences,” he said in a recent press release.
Company officials say that Betr’s new business model will be powered by SimpleBet, which is the same platform the company has been using since it was launched.
Betr is currently live in Ohio, but will be expanding to Massachusetts and Virginia later this year.