Verse Gaming, an innovative new platform enabling users to compete in peer-2-peer fantasy contests on sports and entertainment, announced it has raised a pre-seed funding round of $585k funded by private investors with participation from Rally Cry Ventures. This round of funding has enabled the startup to further develop its platform after a strong year of beta testing in addition to securing regulated access to U.S. markets.
Along with announcing its pre-seed funding, Verse also announced the launch of its long-awaited mobile application. Downloadable in all 50 states, users across the country will be able to compete in free-2-play contests, making predictions over player performances, fantasy points, and season-long statistics. Further, paid-entry contests will be rolled out in 22 markets.
As a pioneer in the social gaming space, Verse offers players a customizable toolkit to build, play, and manage real-money contests with profiles reminiscent of their favorite social media apps. Users compete in contests with two or more picks on player performance projections. The games can be public for all users to join, or they can be restricted to invite-only private contests.
Verse Fantasy contests offer users an unprecedented amount of customization – giving users control of their contest’s title, player pool, scoring system, number of picks, and more. Verse Fantasy also offers unrivalled customization in selections, allowing users to build lineups mixed with player statistic projections and fantasy points on nearly every player suiting up for any game.
This round of funding helped Verse leverage the success of its beta testing – which saw just under a thousand testers play in over 11,000 contests, generating an in-app credit transaction volume of $120,000 – to bring users a vibrant, social fantasy sports experience.
“Verse was created to fill a major oversight in the market – what if we could connect sports bettors, content creators, and everyday fans by giving them a toolkit that lets them instantly create, share, and compete in fantasy contests?” shares CEO Dan Zimmermann, “How many of us watch big games with a group chat opened up, almost live tweeting amongst our group of friends. Verse makes playing daily fantasy contests with anyone as easy as making a group chat.”