Upside

They say “the house” always wins. So why not buy the house?

That’s the concept behind a new sports-betting platform called Upside. Upside is the first platform that enables its betting community to become shareholders. The more users place bets, the more Upside’s value will grow — and the more profits its shareholders can potentially earn.

Sports-betting is widely popular. Americans bet close to $120 billion on sports last year, many through popular platforms like DraftKings and FanDuel.

DraftKings went public in 2020, and has a current market cap of more than eighteen billion dollars. FanDuel, meanwhile, recently achieved a valuation of thirty-five billion dollars.

But these platforms struggle to keep bettors happy. There’s little to no brand loyalty in this market. Furthermore, these companies often exploit vulnerable bettors who may be battling gambling addictions. And remember, any and all profits made by these platforms are kept by the companies.

That’s what makes Upside so appealing. Like DraftKings and FanDuel, Upside is a full-service betting platform, offering fantasy and traditional sports-betting options through its mobile app. But it’s the only one to operate under a player-ownership model, which enables players to become shareholders in the company.

Upside has set aside thirty percent of its equity for its player-owners. Users earn equity through gameplay, referrals, and for helping build out the company’s platform.

The company has also set aside ten percent of its revenue and equity to benefit its non-profit foundation, which promotes safe, responsible gambling. Upside even operates with a play-safe budget, which forces bettors to declare a betting budget that caps monthly deposits. This limits their potential losses and keeps them from wiping out entire savings accounts.

Upside offers two unique, patented games that have been successfully operated through major partners. The first, Real-Time Brackets, is a game centered around the annual men’s college basketball tournament. It’s the only bracket game that lets bettors change their picks in real-time, even during live games.

The other game is called Daily Number, which focuses more on fantasy sports. Here, users pick a lineup of athletes across multiple sports, and hope that their individual performances create an overall score that’s higher than their projections. If they beat the target score, they win.

Upside generates revenue from transactions fees on its platform. Because players earn equity through referrals, Upside is in position to dramatically reduce its customer-acquisition costs (CAC) as its scales.

Upside’s platform is in private beta, being tested by some of its founding player-owners. The company has secured three patents protecting its gameplay.

Upside has also raised $1.4 million, and plans to launch its platform in the next few weeks. Revenue for this year is projected at around $50,000. But next year, projected revenue is ten million dollars, followed by $104 million in 2026.

Team Background

Tom McAuley - Co-Founder & CEO

Tom has spent more than fifteen years in the sports-betting industry. Notably, he’s the co-creator of the Real-Time Brackets and Daily Number betting games.

He created Daily Number alongside former NFL star Richard Sherman in 2017. And it became the first single-player skill-based daily fantasy-sports game that enabled users to create teams to compete against a target score.

Three years earlier, he created Real-Time Brackets. To build this product, Tom raised more than three million dollars in venture funding and secured notable media and brand partnerships.

Earlier in his career, Tom founded Hubstar, a betting platform that combined traditional fantasy sports games with real-time gameplay. Customers included the New York Daily News, Hearst Media, and Tribune Media. Before that, he worked in sales for RBS Global Banking.

Mark Brenner - Co-Founder & Advisor

Mark is a successful entrepreneur who’s taken two companies to billion-dollar valuations.

He began his career in finance, working as a mergers & acquisitions (M&A) analyst with Salomon Brothers, a former investment bank. He then became Director of Business Development with United Videl Satellite Group, a telecommunications company.

In the early 1990s, he founded Prevue Interactive, which later became TV Guide Interactive and the leading interactive television programming guide in the U.S. Mark led the company through a merger and eventual Initial Public Offering (IPO).

He then founded TVG Horse Racing Network, a horserace-betting business that enabled fans to place bets online. Today, TVG is viewed in more than fifty million homes, and the company was acquired by Paddy Power Betfair (now Flutter). Its technology is used to handle billions in annual wagering under FanDuel’s platform.

More recently, Mark was Managing Director of M&A for Compass Advisers, a VC firm. He then co-founded Vignette, a company providing media customers with a turn-key system for managing online and mobile video advertising.

From there, he was interim CEO at Legacy Connect, a philanthropic-focused business. He then was CEO of Wiss & Company, an accounting firm.

In addition to his role with Upside, Mark is an executive at NarrowCast, a consulting firm. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Haverford College and an MBA from Northwestern.

Jody Bechtold - Responsible-Gaming Advisor

Jody is a gambling-addiction expert with decades of experience in the field of gambling addiction treatment and recovery. She is a co-author of the book “The Gambling Disorder Treatment Handbook.”

In addition to her role with Upside, she is CEO of The Better Institute, an organization aimed at boosting mental wellbeing through therapy and addiction awareness. She has held this role since 2018, but has spent the past thirty years providing training and counseling for those both struggling with gambling addictions and entities considering offering gambling-related services to customers.

Prior to Upside, she was Director of Behavioral Health Strategy with Quartet Health, an early-stage startup focused on mental health. Before that, she was Vice President of Clinical Affairs with Wellbridge Health, a similar health and wellness startup.

Earlier in her career, Jody worked in software development. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Sociology from the University of Pittsburgh, where she also earned a Master’s degree in Social Work.

Co-Investors