Grant Lincoln, CEO of Baldini’s Casino and Sports Book in Sparks, Nevada, has predicted that peer-to-peer is going to be the future of sports betting in the US. His remark follows in the wake of a deal inked recently between Baldini’s and San Francisco start-up ZenSports.
Lincoln came across ZenSports’ mobile app and was so impressed by the product and team, that he decided to invest in the start up and to help it get licensed, both in Nevada and the other seven states that have already legalized sports betting.
“We knew we had to be a part of what they were doing because peer-to-peer is definitely the future of sports betting,” said Lincoln. “ZenSports has taken the traditional model of sports betting and turned it into a seamless, peer-to-peer experience for consumers. Signing up and placing bets are so simple using their mobile app. In return, we feel that we can really help them navigate the challenging waters of getting licensed in the United States.”
ZenSports is a peer-to-peer mobile sports betting app where anyone can create and accept sports bets with anyone else in the world (currently geo-restricted to non-US residents). It can be downloaded on the App Store or Play Store and customers can sign up with just a few taps of a button using their Facebook account or email address. From there, bettors can create their own bets with their own odds and terms, or accept bets that others in the ZenSports marketplace have created.
The company even stays out of the results process – bettors are responsible for submitting their own results, and there is an entire voting, penalty, reward, and dispute system in place to ensure that all bettors act in good faith. To date, it claims, there haven’t been any disputes or issues with results that have come up. All of this aims to give bettors a cheap, fast, and trustworthy process for wagering on sports.
Initially, ZenSports launched its mobile app to only a handful of international customers outside the US back in September 2018. According to Co-Founder & CEO Mark Thomas: “The goal was to get deep product feedback, iterate quickly, and get to a point where it was clear that our product was 10 times better than anything else out there. We’re now at that point with our continued improvements and with today’s automated payments integration. By taking the time to get the user experience right, we’re now perfectly positioned to go to market today and scale globally.”
On the Baldini’s partnership, Thomas added: “Gaming and sports betting is a heavily regulated industry in the US. Having a partner like Baldini’s will allow us to move much more quickly through the certification and application process compared to if we tried to do it alone. In addition, sports betting is not a crowded market where any two people in a garage can just get up and running in a weekend. There will be huge challenges that any newcomers will face in getting to the point where we’ll be at. We expect to have significant first-mover advantages because of our partnership with Baldini’s.”