Decentralized P2P betting exchange Aver raises $7.5M in seed funding ahead of mid-2022 launch

Aver, a decentralized peer-to-peer betting exchange built on the Solana blockchain, has raised $7.5 million in seed funding, the betting and crypto platform announced on Monday. Aver bills itself as “the world’s first fully-decentralized Web3 betting platform.”

The round was led by Jump Crypto which, along with its affiliate Jump Capital, is “a key player in both the crypto and sports betting venture capital domain,” according to a press statement announcing the seed funding.

“At Jump, we are excited about the future of Web3, sports betting, and the confluence of these two areas,” said Peter Johnson, Partner at Jump Crypto. “We believe Aver’s approach to decentralized sports betting can increase transparency, reduce costs, and enable operations at a global scale.”

The future of betting is being built on Aver! We’re transforming prediction markets with the help of @ProjectSerum and @Solana. Q1 is going be BIG! 🚀

(And yes, we have a dark mode 🌚🤫)#WEB3 #serum #solana pic.twitter.com/kKuy8Nbwpe

— Aver ◎ (@AverBet) January 12, 2022

The project also drew backing from other venture capital heavyweights, including Mirana Ventures, Susquehanna International Group, Genesis Block Ventures, Serum Ventures, Blue Pool Capital, MEXC, Gate.io, Petrock Capital and Solar Eco Fund, lists Aver.

The seed round will be used to help bring the betting platform to market, as well as to fund development legal regulatory operating costs, explains Aver. The platform expects to launch “in mid-2022,” after a closed beta in the first quarter 2022.

According to a press release, the innovation underlying Aver is a blockchain protocol which enables peer-to-peer matching of bets in a way that does not require a “trusted middleman,” as is the case in a traditional bookmaker or exchange. This enables betting at a fraction of the cost as compared, and eliminates counterparty risk.

📌 Aver Bulletin Board:

⚫️ Aver Dex UI designs complete
⚫️Oracle framework up and running
⚫️ Implementation of the first multi-dimensional @ProjectSerum AOB up and running
⚫️ Automated listing of Aver markets
⚫️Python & Javascript SDKs in the works (for traders and LPs) pic.twitter.com/M65ScaXO8G

— Aver ◎ (@AverBet) January 20, 2022

Aver further announced it has ambitions to move to an open-source structure “over time,” allowing for third parties to build applications on top of the technology. These would include new features, interfaces and markets, thus supporting the continued development of the Aver ecosystem.

The exchange describes the investor line-up as representing “some highly strategic investment partners” for the ambitious early-stage project. The group includes heavyweights in both the sports betting and crypto trading domains, and connections to “some of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.”

“Aver brings real innovation to the betting industry. Its open and decentralized mechanism of exchange has the potential to really disrupt the traditional betting markets - facilitating more fluid trading, greater price transparency and returning a significant chunk of the profit margins back to users,” said Dean Carlson, Head of Digital Asset Investments at Susquehanna.

1/ Aver is built on top of @solana that enables eligible users from around the world to bet, close markets using trustless solutions, and open source the creation of markets. pic.twitter.com/MISZc3X1o6

— Aver ◎ (@AverBet) January 15, 2022

Founded in 2021, the Aver platform is built on Solana, a blockchain network which has gathered much attention in recent months due to boasting transaction costs and processing times approximately 1/1,000th of that on Ethereum.

Aver is formed by a team that has already worked on bringing this concept technology to fruition as part of the Solana Ignition Hackathon, claiming a top spot and recognition among hundreds of promising applications of the blockchain technology in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space.

“In many respects, blockchain and Web3 technology are still in its infancy, and we are still in the early stages of wider adoption. Part of the challenge ahead is designing a product that offers users all of the many benefits of decentralization - but without any compromise to user experience and ease-of-use versus traditional platforms,” said Davis Toh, Partner at Mirana Ventures. “From what we’ve seen to date, we are confident that the Aver team can deliver on that.”

Betting exchanges are a new industry trend gaining momentum in the gaming ecosystem. In November, BetDex, a blockchain sports betting exchange also built in the Solana network and led by former FanDuel co-founder and CEO Nigel Eccles, announced a $21 million seed investment round.

BetDEX describes itself as “the world’s first decentralized sports betting protocol.” It is set for launch in the first half of 2022, and it combines blockchain technology with sports betting to offer consumers extremely fast and low-cost trades, while eliminating counterparty risk.