Gambling Startups London
Over the past few years, several major hubs of blockchain activity have cropped up around the world as interest around the tech has bloomed in diverse industries.
London’s pivotal position in European and international financial circles has naturally made the U.K. capital one of these fledgling hubs.
And while large crypto companies like Blockchain and Coinbase have offices in town, London’s rich startup scene is teeming with smaller plays gunning to advance the digital asset scene.
Here are four of those notable London startups that are worth putting on your radar.
The Aptly named WHLab will see 8 of the world's brightest industry startups take part in a twelve week accelerator programme in their offices in London, or Tel Aviv. The idea behind WHLab is the identification and development of innovative technologies that will cater to customer needs within the gambling and gaming industry. World's First Online Gambling Lab! Find investment information and connect with Gamblorium, a London, UK based Gaming startup. Start a Company. Grow Your Startup. Just the thought of it sends shivers down many a spine. Flocks of startups look to get out of the starting gate, few of them piece together a “friends and family (f/f)” round of financing, and only a handful are able to make the next jump to the second round of funding, often called a seed round.
Smarkets, a fast-growing betting startup headquartered in London, has opened a new office in the US as it looks to secure its post-Brexit future. It is currently home to just four staff but Trost said he expects to hire 20 engineers there by the end of the year. 'Our primary reason to open the office was to capture software engineering talent in California, which is in abundance,' Trost told. Sports Startups London #1 BEST LONDON SPORTS STARTUPS Guide 1.1k Views Sports have always been both the opiate of the masses and the great healing unifier which has the ability to transcend geographic and cultural borders, rising above the more trivial important stuff like life itself.
Nivaura
Contents
London-based digital investment banking play Nivaura, which allows companies to issue assets like bonds and equity using blockchain, has a rising profile.
Just last month, the London Stock Exchange Group invested £15 million (GBP) into Nivaura, showing that the upstart tokenizers have a vision that some big financial players are starting to take seriously.
The company’s also notable for being the first in the world to issue a bond via Ethereum and demoninated in ether (ETH) in the fall of 2017.
Accordingly, Nivaura’s well positioned to keep delivering milestones at the juncture of mainstream finance and the cryptoeconomy for the foreseeable future.
BABB
BABB, whose name stands for Bank Account Based Blockchain, is a London startup that’s striving to become the decentralized “world bank for the microeconomy.”
The company envisions a future where users open up blockchain-based bank accounts on their smartphones in minutes to access peer-to-peer banking services.
While BABB hasn’t been granted a banking license in any jurisdictions yet, the startup is actively pursuing license talks on several fronts. Over the past two years, BABB has engaged in talks with the Bank of England, the Bank of Lithuania, and authorities from the Cayman Islands for a regulatory greenlight.
Per the company’s roadmap, the startup has eyed another license application in Lithuania in Q1 2019.
Mattereum
Mattereum is among London’s most noteworthy cryptoeconomy plays, not only because of the company’s ambitious goal — facilitating smart property transfers via blockchain — but also because of its stellar team, which includes major crypto thought leaders like Vinay Gupta and Ian Griggs.
Mattereum’s tech relies on triple-entry accounting, which was pioneered by Griggs. Such a system can be used to peg a digital asset to a legal contract, which in turn can open up all kinds of new digital commerce.
In the future, transferring property on-chain may become the norm. If so, Mattereum could be a key player in making that reality happen.
AZTEC
Want to use Ethereum’s fuel, ether, like a privacy coin? You’re in luck: London’s AZTEC team has already delivered a protocol that can ensure private ETH transactions.
Leveraging zero-knowledge proofs, the Aztec protocol encrypts ETH values during transactions while still allowing these transactions to be validated.
Ethereum itself is still fledgling, and the popular blockchain accordingly has no shortage of areas where it could use further optimization. Privacy is certainly one of these areas, and the AZTEC team is already producing results therein. Decentralized finance continues to mature from such work.
Gambling Startups London International
A Permissive Approach to Tokens Developing in the U.K.?
Earlier this year, the United Kingdom’s main market regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), published a consultation paper in which the body suggested most utility tokens wouldn’t fall under its purview as securities.
The paper and its assertions were tentative, but they suggested the FCA was starting out with a considerably more permissive approach to tokens than what’s been seen from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States.
Indeed, the SEC has previously and alternatively asserted that it views most tokens as securities. London may become a bigger blockchain hub yet if that U.S. regulatory approach pushes crypto companies abroad in the years ahead.
Gambling – unstoppable vice or just a natural human urge to take a risk? Whatever your opinion on it, making bets is certainly big business, with the online sports betting market alone worth roughly £650m. And with such a huge variety of gambling available, from high-end casinos to your local William Hill slot machines, it’s a desirable market for gambling startups to crack. The numbers show that entrepreneurs haven’t held back – equity fundraisings into gambling startups have increased year-on-year since 2012, with a compound annual growth rate of 38%.
Gambling Startups London Uk
Who’s taking a bet?
Importantly, and interestingly, every single Beauhurst-tracked gambling startup is also a technology business. The online side of the industry has been on the up since the first online casino launched in 1996, and remains the fastest growing area. Businesses are broadly split into two categories. There are those offering online betting and gaming themselves, such as Casino VR, who are developing a virtual reality online casino, or BetGame, who have an online platform which allows users to bet on Playstation or Xbox games. Other companies provide services to the online betting platforms, such as FSB Technology, who specialise in engaging customers during live sporting events.
Gambling Startups London England
Betting on disruption
There is one major sticking point for budding gambling startups. Starting up a betting game isn’t quite like starting up a messaging app, as the gambling industry is heavily regulated to protect punters and keep the criminals out. Adding a real-money gambling element to a game requires licensing by the Gambling Commission, which can be a hurdle to entry. One high-growth business is addressing this issue. Betable allows games to offer real-money gambling, which is executed and delivered by the fully licensed startup through their API. Founded in 2009, the company has raised £13m in two rounds of fundraisings, the most of any Beauhurst-tracked betting business.
Odds for the future
So what do we predict for gambling startups? Given the lucrative nature of the business, we think businesses will continue finding applications for technology as long as some market exists. There is one worrying angle: the common thread in all of these betting technology businesses is making gambling easier and more engaging. As the industry is already fairly contentious, with accusations including preying on the weak and encouraging irresponsible behaviour, we can’t help but wonder whether using technology to make gambling more immersive and perhaps more addictive might be a step in the wrong direction. Maybe the next wave will be tech for responsible gambling, although it seems unlikely for now.