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Sports Micro Betting Provider Kero Gaming Announces Oversubscribed $2M Funding Round led by Happyhour.io

Published

1 year ago

November 17, 2022

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Kero Gaming announced today the closing of an oversubscribed $2 Million Seed 2 round, its second this year, with Happyhour.io, an early stage VC fund in the iGaming space, leading the round.

Tomash Devenishek, Founder and CEO, launched the company with a focus on providing the growing sports betting industry with new products to engage users through real-time, contextual micro bets, delivered via algorithms the company builds in-house. The Kero product heavily mirrors mechanics of casino style games with a ‘Tik-tok style’ betting experience whitelabeled for gaming operators that appeals to an audience of consumers looking for entertainment value vs risk trading.

“Modern day consumers don’t want to think too much and endlessly browse/calculate odds inside massive spreadsheets. They want instant gratification and low friction/effort type experiences. We are building a curated version of the sportsbook product that delivers contextual micro bets every 15-45 seconds, allowing users to bet on the most exciting thing that is happening in the game right now”.

He added “We were able to surpass our fundraising ambitions thanks to great strategic partners all of whom add value beyond capital. I am also proud that in this tough market we increased our post-money valuation by 60% doing so in only 10 months.”

HappyHour’s CEO Robin Reed said, “Kero is at the forefront of innovation in sports betting, and has a deep understanding of the customer and how they want to be entertained. As a strategic investor and lead in the current round, Happyhour is looking forward to working with Tomash and his team to bring this technology to casual bettors around the world.”

Other strategic investors from the gaming space echoed the enthusiasm for the 30 person company. Tim Heath, GP at Yolo Investments, another participant in the latest round, said: “Finding genuine innovation in the sports betting space is increasingly difficult, and that’s why we’ve been so impressed by Kero Gaming. Micro Betting has the potential to drive sportsbook growth over the coming years, and Kero’s algorithmic approach sets them apart from the others. We’ll be working closely with Tomash and the team to take this product to new audiences globally.”

Edward King, co-founder of Acies Investments, an early investor in Kero, added “Tomash has consistently exceeded expectations from our first investment in Kero. We are very pleased to further support him in this financing round as he continues to build the platform. Kero has the vision and capability to radically transform how fans engage and participate in sports entertainment.”

Traditional sports book products typically offer customers a lot of choice with complicated arrays of odds on bets for outcomes that may not take place for hours or sometimes days. Kero’s approach borrows heavily from mainstream entertainment platforms such as TikTok by removing complexity and curating highly contextual micro bets on outcomes that may happen in seconds or minutes.

The company initially productized its technology by working with pro sports teams across all American major leagues as a free to play fan engagement solution within their apps. Kero says that it will continue to focus on the free-to-play offering for pro sports while making heavy investments in scaling and growing its real money product for gaming operators.

Devenishek concluded “With this injection of capital and industry experience, we intend to continue focusing on our mission and bring about the next generation of sportsbook products even faster to markets like North America, Europe, LATAM and Asia”.

Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO)

Soft2Bet strengthens integrity monitoring with IBIA membership in Ontario

Published

2 hours ago

May 6, 2024

GamingAmericas.com

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Soft2Bet, a leading casino and sportsbook platform provider, has joined the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA) and activated its membership in Ontario, Canada, following its licensing in the Canadian province.

Soft2bet obtained its Certificate of Registration from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) at the end of March, where the company’s Ontario-focused brand Tooniebet.com will now feed into IBIA’s world-leading sports betting integrity monitoring platform before worldwide implementation in the coming months.

IBIA includes over 50 of the world’s leading sports betting and gaming companies, who operate over 125 sports betting brands. Soft2Bet’s decision to join the association further strengthens its own internal betting integrity protocols and IBIA’s position as the world’s leading sports betting integrity monitoring body.

David Yatom Hay, General Counsel at Soft2Bet, commented: “Soft2Bet is delighted to be joining the IBIA as we strengthen our own betting integrity monitoring processes and play our part in furthering the IBIA’s long-standing work on this key issue. Ontario is a world class iGaming jurisdiction; it will be the first market where we will implement our IBIA membership and we look forward to deploying the monitoring infrastructure worldwide in all the other markets in which we operate.”

Khalid Ali, CEO of IBIA, said: “Soft2Bet is a very welcome addition to IBIA, further strengthening our position in the Ontario market. The operator’s decision to join IBIA demonstrates its desire to utilise the best integrity protection available for its sportsbook product. The association is delighted to be able to integrate Tooniebet within our integrity monitoring system and looks forward to working closely with Soft2Bet to maintain the high integrity of its sportsbook.”

IBIA is a not-for-profit body that has no competing conflicts with the delivery of commercial services to other sectors and is run by operators and for operators to protect regulated sports betting markets from match-fixing. IBIA’s global monitoring network is a highly effective anti-corruption tool, detecting and reporting suspicious activity in regulated betting markets.

Through the IBIA monitoring network it is possible to track transactional activities linked to individual customer accounts. IBIA members generate more than $300bn in annual betting turnover (handle), accounting for approximately 50% of the global commercial regulated land-based and online sports betting sector, and in excess of 50% for online alone.

IBIA recently released a report on the Availability of Sports Betting Products which highlighted Ontario as a leading regulated gambling jurisdiction, with an expected onshore channelisation for sports betting of 92% in 2024 forecast to rise to 97% in2028. IBIA currently represents over 60% of the private sports betting operators licensed in the province. All online sportsbetting operators licensed in Ontario are required to be part of a betting integrity monitoring body.

IBIA’s Q1 2024 report detailed 56 alerts during the quarter. IBIA alerts contributed to the investigations and subsequent successful sanctioning of 21 clubs, players and officials in 2023, an increase on the 15 sanctioned in 2022.

Latest News

South African Online Casino Player Strikes Gold with R189,000 Win at Tusk Casino

Published

5 hours ago

May 6, 2024

GamingAmericas.com

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