Yahoo Strengthens Position in Sports Industry With Purchase of Sports Betting App

Yahoo has acquired the sports betting app Wagr. The acquisition will allow Yahoo, the second largest fantasy sports platform after ESPN, to include betting between friends and acquaintances in its services.

Yahoo already offers real money daily fantasy games on its platform, as well as traditional sports betting in partnership with MGM.

With over 20 years of fantasy sports experience, Yahoo has a wealth of data about users’ individual interests and who they play with online.

Yahoo CEO Jim Lanzone said: «We’ve always been trying to figure out our way into the gaming space, and it just seems like a total logical extension of what people are already doing with Yahoo Sports, to add peer-to-peer betting.»

Wagr differs from regular bookmakers in that it does not compete with players. Instead, customers make predictions and other users bet against those predictions; Wagr’s revenue model is based on charging 5% commission on these bets. The model proved successful and attracted investors such as Seven Seven Six, Greycroft, Pear VC, Kraft Group, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment and BITKRAFT Ventures.

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