EdjSports, a data intelligence and analytics sports firm, announced Tuesday the close of a $5 million round of funding that began last fall. Investors included Bluegrass Angels, Thornton Capital, Commonwealth Seed Capital and other undisclosed angel investors, all primarily located in EdjSports’s home state of Kentucky.
EdjSports, launched in 2013, is a subsidiary of EdjAnalytics, a site that uses data to predict trends and patterns, and the parent company of Football Outsiders and EdjVarsity, a web-app for high school football teams that determines win probability at any point in the game.
The money will be used to enhance and market the company’s consumer subscription platform. Within this, EdjSports will focus on user registration and acquiring paid users, whether they be fans, fantasy players or bettors.
“As the consumer market is now growing with the repeal of PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act)… what we’ve done is taken the same tools we’ve offered to large betting groups and said let’s go ahead and offer up some of these same insights to the consumer,” EdjSports CEO Sean O’Leary said.
Even though the global pandemic has had major effects on the economy, O’Leary noted that EdjSports raised more money since the middle of March than in months prior and told Sportico the company is well ahead of expectations on its registered user base.
EdjSports’s main focus has been on football, where teams from high school, college and even the NFL have used the site to analyze in-game situations. This year, however, EdjSports has added numerous European soccer leagues, MLB, NBA, NCAA basketball and the NHL. Through the first and second quarters a lot of these new sports were in testing phases as they received market feedback on features and functionality of the site. EdjSports also plans to add tennis, golf and NASCAR to its list of sports by the end of the year.
“The idea is to both look at an organic plan with what we consider to be the best data science team in the industry to build our own stuff and on top of that look for partnerships and acquisition candidates,” said O’Leary.
EdjSports purchased Football Outsiders, a website that concentrates on advanced statistical analytics, in 2018 and struck an exclusive partnership with Massey Ratings in 2019. The deals gave EdjSports the ability to add about 20 to 25 sports. O’Leary also said that the company will continue to identify potential acquisition targets and partnerships that’ll help the brand grow.
