Fantasy sports app scores $2.4m, plans to go public in August

Photo credit: Pixabay.

SportsHero, a real-time fantasy sports app, scored US$2.4 million in funding from Australia-based mining company Nevada Iron.

The funding will be used for global expansion, the company said in a statement today. Its priority markets are China, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as Europe, South America, and the US.

SportHero is the reincarnation of FootballHero and inherited the old app’s 250,000 users. The revamped app, claims the company, already has an average daily engagement time of approximately 10 minutes per user.

It allows sports fans to make better predictions on the outcomes of games with the help of an online community. Sports included in the app are football (soccer) and baseball. American football, basketball, and hockey are in development, while golf, table tennis, and badminton will be added 12 to 18 months down the line.

From the maker of TradeHero

Dinesh Bhatia.

SportsHero co-founder and CEO Dinesh Bhatia is no stranger to the Asian tech industry. He’s also a co-founder of TradeHero, a stock market simulation app that lets users trade virtual money based on real-world data.

Dinesh wants to leverage the link he sees between finance and sports. “We have seen very promising success and engagement with TradeHero in gamifying financial learning and stock trading, driven by community engagement. There’s a very strong correlation between finance and sports. We saw the opportunity to replicate this success with SportsHero,” he said.

SportsHero has plans to go public soon. The investor Nevada Iron is already listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and SportsHero plans to gain that spot via a reverse takeover scheduled for August 2016.