– Blog post written by Jacob List (Australia), IE MIF alumnus 2013.
Jake began his startup project “LevBet” (levbet.net) in the IE Venture Labs program while studying the MIF in 2012/13. He has continued to develop his venture ever since and is currently participating in the Wayra startup accelerator in London. LevBet is a trader’s sports betting platform. The company offers a derivatives market for sports bets, allowing clients to seriously leverage their returns by trading bets on margin.
Seriously, what is the difference between betting on sports and betting on companies? Both usually boil down to looking at a screen and hoping furiously that the relevant price or odds worm starts trending in the direction you chose. The subject matter may be different, but many fundamentals underlying both markets are identical.
What infuriates me is that betting is stuck in the dark ages (as you can see from the charts). If you are familiar with the industry you might recall a relatively recent evolutionary concept known as the “betting exchange” (sorry, it is still temporarily illegal in Spain while the government works out how to tax it). As a formalised concept the exchange is well over a century old in finance. Just imagine the evolution built over that with an extra century of development, and you get an idea for the gap between these markets.
Why is it like this? Essentially, your current bookie can make more money from you more easily if the status quo remains. The idea with LevBet was to change this. We let you bet with derivative financial products (futures, options, swaps…), take positions on margin, and use a platform designed as an investment tool so that we magnify enormously your ability to take advantage of money making opportunities. It looks something like this.
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