YouTuber and Boxer Jake Paul Raises $50 Million for Sports Micro-Betting & Media Startup With Joey Levy
Jake Paul, pugilist and popular digital influencer, is throwing his hat into the wagering world.
Paul, 25, teamed with betting-industry vet Joey Levy to form Betr, billed as the first direct-to-consumer micro-betting focused sports betting company, The Miami-based startup says it has raised $50 million in funding from a long list of investors including Travis Scott, Ezekiel Elliott, Richard Sherman, Dez Bryant and DeSean Jackson.
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Paul and Levy also are launching a media venture “for the next generation of sports fans,” anchored by a talk show hosted by Paul, “BS w/ Jake Paul,” where he’s joined by his celebrity friends across the landscape of sports and sports betting.
Paul has 70 million followers across social media, including more than 20 million subscribers for his YouTube channel. He was ranked as the No. 2 highest-earning YouTuber of 2021, pulling down $45 million in gross revenue, behind MrBeast, per Forbes estimates. Paul’s brother, Logan Paul, is also a pro boxer and digital creator who recently inked a deal to be a WWE SuperStar.
“I wasn’t into sports betting until I was introduced to micro-betting,” Paul, who is identified as the president of Betr, said in a statement. “Micro-betting is the TikTok-ification of sports betting and I am excited to bring it to the masses through Betr.”
Betr’s platform lets users bet on specific events in sporting events, like pitches and at-bats in baseball games and plays and drives during football games. Levy is co-founder of Simplebet, a business-to-business technology that pioneered micro-betting on U.S. sports. Betr will use Simplebet’s technology and is releasing its app “in the coming weeks,” initially as a free-to-play experience available in all 50 states, with a state-by-state rollout of its licensed real money betting experiences to follow later this year. Betr said it has secured market access in multiple U.S. states through “strategic equity-based partnerships that the company will be announcing in the near future.”
Betr’s execs include head of product Alex Ursa, formerly with FanDuel; head of media Mike Denevi, who comes from Bleacher Report.
Miami-based Betr has raised $50 million in funding from institutional and strategic investors. The roster includes: Florida Funders, 8vc, Aliya Capital Partners, Fuel Venture Capital, FinSight Ventures, Travis Scott, Ezekiel Elliott, Richard Sherman, Dez Bryant, DeSean Jackson, Braxton Berrios, Palm Tree Crew, Roger Ehrenberg, Mark Wan, Russell Galbut, David Grutman, Deirdre Bigley, Gary Barber, Simplebet, Stronach Group, Magic City Casino, Anti Fund, 305 Ventures, Elizabeth Street Ventures, Riverside Ventures, Gaingels, Moving Capital, Elysium Venture Capital, FJ Labs, Tampa Bay Ventures and Trog Hawley.
Betr closed a $30 million Series A led by Florida Funders earlier this year. The Series A was oversubscribed and the company raised an additional $20 million Series A1 led by Aliya Capital Partners and Fuel Venture Capital, with its initial closing last quarter and its final closing scheduled for this quarter.
Jake Paul rose to fame on the now-defunct Vine and appeared on Disney Channel series “Bizaardvark” for two seasons. He has generated headlines over his controversial behavior, including being charged with criminal trespass and unlawful assembly in 2020 after he was arrested by police amid a crowd of looters at an Arizona mall.
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