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The Monaco Protocol is set to become the world’s first decentralized sports betting protocol. Built on Solana, the Protocol will function as a global clearinghouse for sports betting and offer bettors fast, low-cost trades across a shared liquidity pool. The Protocol, which will be fully decentralized, open-sourced, and permissionless, allows third parties to build their own applications and innovate on top of the platform. The Protocol is now live on the Solana devnet and available for developers to build complementary products and tools.
The BetDEX Exchange, the world’s first sports betting application built on the Monaco Protocol, has entered into a closed beta with hundreds of early community members placing wagers and over 80,000 people currently on the waiting list. The BetDEX Exchange, which currently supports sports wagers on soccer and plans to introduce additional sports in the near future, is among the first projects to launch on the Monaco Protocol. Additionally, community members from the popular Solana project Samoyedcoin are set to build Samoyedcoin themed prediction markets for crypto-related events and markets on the Monaco Protocol.
Varun Sudhakar, CEO and Co-Founder of BetDEX, commented on the news, “we believe the future of sports betting is decentralized in nature, and the Monaco Protocol and BetDEX Exchange puts us at the forefront of that industry advancement. We have a world-class team with deep industry expertise and we’re squarely focused on securing the necessary gaming licenses this year, while delivering a superior sports betting experience against an outdated status quo.”
The Samoyedcoin Project Lead added: “the Monaco Protocol is a powerful standard for decentralized prediction markets, and we’re thrilled to have community members build on and contribute to the Protocol.”
Founded by former FanDuel executives, including former FanDuel CEO Nigel Eccles who serves as the company’s chairman, BetDEX secured a $21 million seed funding round in November 2021 led by crypto investment firm Paradigm and cryptocurrency exchange FTX. With a remote-first model, the company is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland, where BetDEX is growing its engineering, product, and design team, and has a US office in New York. BetDEX is pursuing multiple licenses worldwide, with the Company initially targeting jurisdictions in international markets at launch.
In addition to Sudhakar and Eccles, BetDEX has recently hired industry experts for multiple executive-level positions, including Aidan Maughan (BoyleSports, Head of Product) as Product Director, Eoin Murphy (FanDuel, Head of Sportsbook Technology) as Principal Software Engineer, and Kevin Kreuser (Twilio, Managing Counsel) as Legal Director. BetDEX continues to attract industry leading talent to its rapidly growing team and plans to expand its headcount in the coming months.
In 2021, the global sports betting market was valued at over $250 billion USD and is forecasted to grow to $350 billion USD by 2024. Yet without a true decentralized option, the industry is bogged down by incumbents charging high fees and delivering minimum product innovation. By building or leveraging products built on Monaco Protocol, consumers will quickly gain access to fast, low-cost trades across a shared liquidity pool while eliminating counterparty risk.
Stuart Tonner, CTO and Co-Founder of BetDEX, concluded: “Sports betting is going to be revolutionized by blockchain technology, and we are firmly ahead of the curve. We already have a great team in place that continues to rapidly grow and have a series of exciting product milestones on the horizon before the end of the year.”
Additional information regarding the beta for the BetDEX Exchange can be found at https://www.betdex.com/.
The developer kit and additional information regarding the Monaco Protocol can be found by visiting: monacoprotocol.xyz.
About BetDEX
BetDEX Labs Inc. (“BetDEX”) is a web3 company building open source technology for global prediction markets. The BetDEX Exchange is a sports betting exchange built on the Monaco Protocol allowing for peer-to-peer wagering. BetDEX is a key contributor to the Monaco Protocol, a permissionless decentralized and open-source protocol built on the Solana blockchain, supporting prediction and betting markets. For more information, visit: https://www.betdex.com/.
