Ohio’s own Jake Paul is bringing a new sports betting brand to the Buckeye State. The YouTuber-turned-boxer will be an instrumental part of launching Betr Sportsbook, which went live in Ohio as part of the state’s universal sports betting launch.
The app focuses on “micro-betting,” a feature that the company hopes will be a new-and-improved version of live betting on sports as they’re happening.
Betr is just one of the Ohio online sportsbooks that launched on Jan. 1. The founder also recently announced a few innovations with hopes the app is a leader for responsible gambling in Ohio.
Jake Paul’s Betr sportsbook coming to Ohio
Instabet, Betr’s original name, applied for an online betting license through a partnership with the Hall of Fame Village.
Hall of Fame Resort & Entertainment later officially announced its new partnership to bring Betr Sportsbook to Ohio. The two sides will be working together for the foreseeable future thanks to their new 10-year partnership.
In other words, the Betr app could be ready to go in time for the universal start date for Ohio sports betting on Jan. 1, 2023. Betr launched a free-to-play option throughout the entire U.S. on Sept. 1. Betr has not yet publicly disclosed plans to enter into Ohio for real-money betting, though that’s typical for brands during the licensing process.
Paul, a Cleveland native, is essentially the face of the Betr brand, which includes a content wing with Paul deputing a video series “BS With Jake Paul” on Monday. Paul and Joey Levy, the company’s founder, are teaming up to launch Betr Sportsbook in markets around the country.
According to multiple reports, the company has already managed to stitch together over $50 million in funding, which includes notable investors such as:
- Travis Scott
- Dez Bryant
- Richard Sherman
- Ezekiel Elliot
The Pro Football Hall of Fame Village applied for a Type-A sports gaming proprietor license. In addition, the Canton complex has applied for a Type-B retail sportsbook, partnering with BetRivers there.
Live betting is tricky for sportsbooks
In a nutshell, Betr was born out of Levy’s frustrations with the current legal sportsbooks in the US. He’s hoping that Betr will be able to solve what he sees as overcomplicated interfaces in the industry.
His solution? Cut the fat from the sports betting business.
Where other online sportsbooks opt for an all-around experience, Betr is focusing its product around live betting, or micro-betting, as the company prefers to call it.
If you’re not familiar with micro-betting, then don’t sweat it. Micro-betting is just wagering on a sports game as it’s happening. That offers a different experience compared to placing your bets before a game starts.
It’s a service that virtually every sportsbook already offers, but no company has really been able to perfect it yet. In fact, Levy has been involved with the company Simplebet, which operates some live betting services for other operators such as DraftKings.
In general, the current live betting experience is mediocre at best. It’s plagued by slow update times that have gamblers racing to place their bets before they become out of date and invalid. Plus, there’s the issue of lagging sports streams for cord-cutters, an ongoing hurdle for the micro-betting world, which is geared toward younger bettors.
Betr announces initiatives to push responsible gambling efforts
Another issue: There are also responsible gambling concerns for the ability to fire off quick bets in succession.
Betr is hoping to overcome these problems, putting its entire spotlight on the company’s micro-betting product. Micro-betting has dominated other global markets, and Levy said U.S. sports are ripe for this kind of betting experience.
That could end up being easier said than done. Betr Sportsbook tried to get in front of the issues before Ohio’s launch, even becoming a leader in some ways. Levy announced at the industry event G2E in October that Betr will be the first sportsbook to not accept credit card deposits to fund user accounts.
In addition, Betr is enforcing deposit limits for users in the 21-25 age demographic.
We’ll see how Betr falls into the overall market. But Ohio gamblers have an ambitious new sportsbook to try out during the early days of sports betting in the state.
