Social Betting Pioneer Crowdpark Gets a $6M Boost from Target Partners and Earlybird Venture Capital

The funds will be used to hire new talent and to further development of this “completely new genre.” Crowdpark, the maker of Bet Tycoon and other, soon-to-be-released social betting games, has received $6 million in additional funding from Target Partners and existing investor Earlybird Venture Capital. This brings Crowdpark's total funding to $8 million USD. Waldemar Jantz, a partner at Target Partners, will join the board of Crowdpark “We are pioneering social betting games,” Ingo Hinterding, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer for Crowdpark, told Benzinga during a Q&A this week. “This means that we bring together the fun and excitement of legal betting with the reach and monetization of social games.” To make these games a reality, Crowdpark developed a new technology called Dynamic Betting. “Basically this means that you can bet on anything you like and it works just like the stock market,” Hinterding explained. “So it's like the stock market with bets. This is truly a game-changer because you can bet on anything you like and the odds are defined by the player, by the crowd, in real-time, so there's no need for a bookie.” Actually, there's no need for a bookie anyway, as real dollars are not wagered. That's how Crowdpark maintains its status as a developer of legal betting games: by providing a just-for-fun experience. “You can bet on any current event that you can imagine, such as sports events (who's winning the next match?), the latest tech gossip (when's the new iPhone coming out?) or the Academy Awards (who will win Best Director?),” said Hinterding. “Whatever you imagine, you can bet on. You can even create your own private bets, invite your friends to it, and challenge them to these bets. It's very social.” Crowdpark is launching its Social Betting Index today, which will allow users to see which bets are gaining the most attention, such as these: In addition to Bet Tycoon, Crowdpark is working on an app specifically designed for sports fans. “We are working on different products that are all cross-platform,” Hinterding revealed. “The next product that we will be launching is a smartphone – iOS and Android – sports betting app, which basically enables you to bet from anywhere you are on any game you like and challenge your friends.” Crowdpark may be a social gaming company, but that doesn't mean it isn't intrigued by the idea of implementing bets with something more substantial, such as Bitcoins. “Personally, I would love to do that, as I find the whole concept around Bitcoin [to be] very, very interesting,” said Hinterding. “Right now we are totally focusing on what we can do best and this is enhancing the social gaming experience. We are not so much financial guys and we do not have the financial background that enables us to have a really big pile of cash helping us do real money stuff. We love gaming, we have a passion for gaming, and this is what we do. It's a very interesting market.” Finally, I asked Hinterding if Crowdpark was a profitable company. “We are not putting the numbers out there yet,” he replied, “so I can't tell you that.” Follow me @LouisBedigian