Betr deviates from microbetting strategy with core markets launch in time for March Madness

Jake Paul-backed Betr has introduced core markets to its sports betting offering in Ohio to coincide with the NCAA basketball March Madness tournament.

The operator, which went live with real-money betting in Ohio on the market’s launch day, 1 January, previously focused exclusively on microbetting markets in order to provide a simplified, “instant gratification” betting experience to fans.

Now, the operator has confirmed that it has added core pre-match and in-play betting markets to the Betr platform, including on which team will win and over/under bets on total points.

Commenting on the decision to add core markets to Betr’s offering, founder and CEO Joey Levy said: “We deliberately launched with only microbetting to 1) launch as soon as possible, enabling us to learn from and iterate our product experience according to real user data and feedback.

“And 2) to establish ourselves as the company, product, and brand synonymous not just with instant gratification betting, which we believe will be the future of this industry, but to also be synonymous with doing things differently and being the first direct-to-consumer operator in the category to actually differentiate its product experience in an industry dominated by commoditised product experiences.

Betr founder & CEO Joey Levy: “We are putting Betr on a path to establishing betting market coverage product parity with incumbent operators, which will include the gradual and methodical integrations and launches of core markets, parlays, props, and many of the other betting experiences consumers can find elsewhere.”

“Now that we have done this successfully, we are putting Betr on a path to establishing betting market coverage product parity with incumbent operators, which will include the gradual and methodical integrations and launches of core markets, parlays, props, and many of the other betting experiences consumers can find elsewhere,” Levy concluded.

Betr’s core market offerings will be the first set of such bets to be powered by sports betting provider SimpleBet (of which Levy is also a co-founder) on any platform, marking a turning point for both companies as they attempt to take on more established operators in the US market.

In order to provide the best value possible to bettors, Betr said it will offer pre-market bets on core markets with 0% margin during March Madness.

It will also celebrate the tournament with a “Beat Derek’s Bracket” challenge, where users can go head-to-head with “Fade God” Derek Sullivan, “who has gained notoriety in the betting community for his abysmal betting record,” according to Betr.

The winner of the free-to-enter bracket challenge will win a $1,000 jackpot.

Betr has announced the challenge with a series of expletive-laden short videos published on its YouTube channel. 

Following its launch in Ohio, Betr is expected to enter the Massachusetts and Virginia markets with its real money offering in due course.

It remains to be seen whether Betr’s expansion into core market bets will impact its licensing agreements in those states, as the firm had told regulators it would focus exclusively on microbetting markets when applying for its licences.

The operator previously suggested that it would avoid traditional betting markets as they were not familiar or easily accessible to a majority of non-bettors.