Paddy Power Plans To Launch American Sportz Exchange (ASX.AI)
The son of Paddy Power’s founder, who carries the same name as the bookmaker, announced plans to launch “the world’s first sports trading exchange.”
American Sportz Exchange will allow customers to buy or sell ‘shares’ based on how they predict a particular player or team will perform.
The start-up is currently accepting beta players on its ASX.ai site as it targets the lucrative US sports betting market from its Irish base.
Partnering with US Sports Brands
According to reports, Paddy Power has signed exclusive partnership deals with professional US sports teams and broadcasters.
These include:
- The Philadelphia Phillies baseball team
- The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team
- The Las Vegas Golden Knights ice hockey team
- DAZN online sports subscription video streaming service
- Sinclair Media US broadcasting and telecoms group
- Rogers Media Canadian group
Paddy Power said that the platform is investigating several models.
”There are opportunities for teams and clubs to own their fans’ engagement in this type of activity,” he said. “They’d like to keep the fans on their own site rather than see them going elsewhere to do all that online activity.”
Crowdfunding Campaigns
The principal investor in the start-up is Paddy Power himself, who will be launching a €500,000 ($610,000) crowdfunding campaign to raise money for American SportZ Exchange, for a $5.5 million valuation. The funds will be raised on Spark Crowdfunding.
Reports say that Power doesn’t expect a major funding round for at least 12 months.
The commercial director of The Racing Post, Mike Griffin, has accepted Power’s invitation to take the role of CEO of the new start-up. Employees and executives from Paddy Power and JP Morgan, and Conall Flood, former Banco Santander electronic foreign exchange technology head, will also make up the management team.
Paddy Power has been acting as ‘brand ambassador’ for Paddy Power Betfair, which trades as Flutter on the stock market.
Eyeing the Fast-Growing US Market
According to Paddy Power, the growing US gambling market will be the primary target for American SportZ Exchange.
“The size of the gambling market there is bonkers big and getting even bigger,” he said. “But even though it’s mainly a US sports vision at the moment, there’s no reason why it won’t work in other sports and markets.”
Continuing Father’s Legacy
Paddy Power is the son of David Power, one of three Irish bookmakers whose merged assets formed the creation of the Paddy Power brand in 1988. The brand’s aggressive expansion policy involved opening multiple betting shops in most Irish towns and acquiring a third of the Irish off-course betting market.
In 2000, the brand was listed on the London Stock Exchange and expanded into the UK.
By 2011, Paddy Power was considered the biggest bookmaker in Europe by total share value.
In 2015, Paddy Power and its British rival, Betfair, agreed on a giant merger. The two rebranded as Paddy Power Betfair and later as Flutter.
In 2018, Flutter and the Stars Group announced their plans to join forces, essentially creating the largest online gambling operator globally with a valuation above $12 billion.
Flutter laid claim to six million active users from The Stars Group’s customer base through the deal. The combined group currently has a total base of over 15 million customers.
The Flutter/Stars Group merger resulted in a massive portfolio, which has since been added to with new acquisitions, and now includes:
Tania brings over 10 years of experience as a gambling industry reporter to BettingUSA.com, providing frequent news coverage and coverage of current events.
