Our Starting Line
2021 was a defining year for Wagr.
Almost a year ago today we were beginning the pursuit of a hyper-ambitious goal. With just 3 full-time employees and a seed round, we set out to build and launch the first licensed social sports betting app in US history.
Our goal was clear: we wanted to release an experience that was intuitive, social, and inclusive. No cultural-gatekeeping (goodbye confusing betting jargon), no predatory practices (spoiler alert: there is nothing “risk-free” about “risk-free” bets), and no unnecessarily complex UI (if your betting app has more numbers than your investing app: 🚩🚩🚩) — just a simple experience that in a few taps would allow any sports fan to challenge someone in their community to a sports bet.
A year later, I’m happy to report we’ve accomplished that and much more:
- We became the first operator in the US to receive a license for a real-money social betting product.
- We relocated our HQ to Nashville and grew our team to 14 full-time employees (and we’re planning to double it again this year, in case you want to join us).
- In December, we quietly accepted our first official bet during a private beta and officially became Tennessee’s 9th sports betting operator.
- Two weeks ago, we publicly launched our product to the world (ok fine, we launched it to fans in Tennessee over the age of 21 — don’t kill our vibe).
- We built a sleek app that seamlessly manages a multitude of complex third-party integrations (payments, KYC, geo-location, sports data, etc.) and simultaneously released it on iOS and Android (Flutter ftw!).
I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished, and even prouder of the scrappy and hard-working team that made it happen. However, as a group of builders, we’re keenly aware that all these blog-worthy achievements and milestones that we’ve hit are necessary but not sufficient to build a category-defining company. There’s more work to do! It took a year of very hard work to afford ourselves the privilege of onboarding our first user. To borrow a phrase from our investors at Seven Seven Six that perfectly encapsulates our mindset: this is just our starting line.
The archetypical lean-startup path certainly wasn’t written with startups in highly-regulated industries in mind. But although our journey has been unique, so is the opportunity in front of us: re-defining how people experience and engage with sports in the post-legalization era of sports fandom. Sports betting is already one of the fastest-growing consumer markets in the US, but we’re ambitious: we think we can help grow it further and in a healthier way.
This is our starting line, and we’re ready to sprint.
A couple of weeks ago we shared with the world that we had raised a $12M Series A from a dream list of sports and tech investors, including BITKRAFT Ventures, Greycroft, The Kraft Group, Harris Blitzer Ventures, Pear Ventures, and Seven Seven Six, among others. We’re energized to have the fuel to continue growing our team, launching in more states, but above all, to continue improving the Wagr app with the input of our (growing) community of users, who are the lifeblood of what we’re building.
If you are in Tennessee (or plan to swing by), please download Wagr and let us know what you think. If you aren’t, then follow us on Instagram to stay tuned on our next launches.
