PickGuru Gets $3.5M In Funding to Foray Social Sports Betting in the UK

PickGuru, a new social gaming platform by Oliver Slipper, a co-founder of Stats Perform, managed to secure almost $3.5 million in an investment round. The novel betting platform will use the money from the investment to scale its business before launching in early 2022.

Various influential investors have put their trust into the idea, including Alexander and Oliver Kent-Braham, founders of Marshmallow, Paddy Power, the former communications director of Paddy Power, Simon Wear, the founder and chair of Global Cycling Network and Will Neale, the founder of Grabyo.

PickGuru – Allowing Sports Gurus to Compete

PickGuru will soon be available on the market but before that, there is still work to be done. Currently, the platform needs to fill 10 different compliance, development and marketing roles before launch. Once on the market, the platform plans to scale its business up with 20 more employees within the next year, if the talent supply allows it.

PickGuru’s concept is simple – to provide various socially-oriented gaming content that allows bettors to challenge their friends and other people. The goal is to improve the social aspect of real-money wagering by implementing a system that lets fans unleash their passion for sports. It will reward players’ ability to correctly foresee the outcomes of sports events and will allow fans to compete against one another in both private and national leagues.

The social betting experience will be further spiced up with a leadership board that urges bettors to interact and compete with one another.

The Experienced Team Behind the Idea

The platform is backed by a strong leadership team with years of experience in the gaming field. Other than Slipper, the founders include Adam Perrin, the co-founder of Masomo Games and former brand director of Paddy Power, Jon Owen and Jon Youell, who found Pitch International, Paul Cobley, the founder of Matulo Software and Pau Watkins, the former financial planning director of Stats Perform.

The founders revealed that the idea of PickGuru was born from a friendly competition that they had with their colleagues in the 2020 Masters golf tournament. PickGuru’s prototype was a simple tip-based competition under the form of a simple sheet. The success of that year’s event inspired the founders to take this entertaining idea further and create a whole platform where sports enthusiasts and bettors can compete with their predictions.

Slipper Is Delighted to See the Project Grow so Fast

With a funding of $3.5 million, PickGuru will become a reality faster than its own chairman and co-founder, Slipper, would have ever expected. Yet, according to his own words, the massive popularity of the idea has convinced him that he is “onto something.” He feels honored to have been trusted by some of the most influential sports entrepreneurs and thanked them for their aid with the project.

“Following months of hard graft and huge investment, we’re proud to be building the first UK-focused platform that uniquely combines elements of fantasy sports, gaming and live-action, and strongly believe users will love the result,” Slipper concluded.