Plenty of startups want to improve the sports betting experience. PickUp wants to give users a say in what’s being bet on.
Co-founders Dan Healy and Chris Meisner created PickUp in 2018 at the intersection of media, betting and fan engagement. PickUp tracks conversations across social media sites to create unique free-to-play prop bets, like whether the Knicks will finish above .500 or how many sacks Clelin Ferrell will finish with this year.
PickUp has partnered with dozens of bloggers to help grow the tool. Healy said the company plans to offer PickUp equity to the partners in the form of shares, matched by founder shares.
“They should be compensated for the potential upside of adding value to the PickUp platform,” Healy said in an interview last week. “We see this very clear correlation between the conversations our tech sniffs out… and what these guys are writing about. They quite literally have a pulse on their city or their fandom.”
Eventually, Healy said, the plan is for anybody to be able to generate props of their own, to be shared across forum chats, text messages and wherever else fans talk. There would be an element of social capital for anyone who could provide proof that they predicted ahead of time their favorite team’s draft pick, or which running back would have a better career. And there would also be glory in having been the person to ask the right question to fuel that conversation.
“There’s an art to creating those bigger props,” Healy said. “Those are the things we talk about when we are talking to our friends who are knowledgeable about the same things we are.”
PickUp plans to generate revenue through both affiliate fees (PickUp points can be turned into real betting promos) and licensing its prop-generating tech, as well as its growing database of existing props, to larger publishers. Healy said PickUp currently has deals with three “very large” publishers. The company has received funding from KB Partners, Drive by DraftKings, and Connetic Ventures.
“We do live in a creator economy,” Healy said. “Right now the creators are at scale. Ultimately though, fans will be able to create, too.”
