Reddit Co-Founder Funds Startup Sports Betting App, Wagr

Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit, has invested $4 million in a new sportsbook platform called Wagr.
Wagr will allow sports betting to be done among friends through its application.
The sportsbook already has licensing applications pending in Tennessee and Virginia.

SAN FRANCISCO – Sports betting is becoming so mainstream that Reddit Inc, co-founder Alexis Ohanian has decided to invest in a budding sportsbook enterprise.

Ohanian has put in $4 million of his own money to fund the startup sports gaming application known as Wagr. By all indications, Wagr sounds very much like a Facebook outlet with the addition of gambling on sporting events as it plans to offer sports betting among friends.

Wagering On Wagr’s Success

Regulated sports betting is in more states now than not, putting businesses like Wagr in higher demand. The fact that this platform differs from many others only makes it that much more appealing to the sports wagering community as well as investors like Ohanian.

“It’s about productizing what already goes down in everyone’s group chat, which is wagers between friends about sporting outcomes,” said Ohanian. “Right now, the way these get resolved is through a Cash App payment or a Venmo payment on Monday, and surely we can do better.”

Casual wagers will be made easier with this mobile sportsbook application. Friends will be paid out through the app and it streamlines and modernizes the entire process of what has been known up until now as “the friendly wager.”

“Our app really strips down the betting experience to the bare essentials—we’re launching with point-spread bets only,” said Mario Malave, Wagr’s founder and CEO. “From a user’s perspective, all you have to do is pick a team, decide who you want to bet against, and select how much you want to wager.”

What Will Wagr Bring To Sports Betting?

There are plenty of backers for the application, not just Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six Firm, but Brad Martin, former chairman of Saks, and Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen as well.

When the application rolls out, it will require users to pay a fee for the service. The platform will have wagers and odds, easy payments, and a section for talking a lot of smack amongst friends.

Should users have no friends to wager with, the app will match them to someone to bet with, making it more of a socially open platform to meet new people. Applications for licensure in Tennessee and Virginia are pending, as these are the two regulated sports betting states Wagr wishes to rollout in first.

Point spreads will be the first bets listed on the app before they move into money lines and prop bets. There will also be a $500 limit for single wagers. Communities built by members on the platform can choose either side of the point spread to gamble on when Wagr goes live. Ohanian believes this sportsbook is the wave of the future.

“Ultimately, it’s to create a healthier approach to gambling,” said Ohanian. “It’s frankly the perfect time for a business like Wagr to come in and want to build something that really disrupts the way that sports betting has traditionally been done.”

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Christina Monroe

Christina has been writing for as long as she can remember and does dedicated research on the newly regulated sports betting market. She comes from a family of sports lovers that engage in friendly bets from time to time. During the winter months, you can find Christina baking cookies and beating the entire staff at Mario Kart…the N64 version of course.