FairPlay Invests in WagerWire and Adds Wire Markets to Media Network
FairPlay Sports Media has invested in WagerWire and signed a distribution deal for its Wire Markets prediction-market platform. FairPlay can promote the product through its betting-media network and integrate it into selected brands.
The companies announced the agreement on September 23. Neither the size of FairPlay’s investment nor the commercial terms were disclosed.
FairPlay owns betting and sports-media brands including Oddschecker, WhoScored and SuperScommesse. Its network reaches more than 100 million users a month and has relationships with more than 200 betting operators, according to the company.
FairPlay Adds a Product Inside Its Media Network
Wire Markets is not being added as another sportsbook advertiser. The agreement allows FairPlay to place the prediction-market product inside parts of its existing media network. That gives WagerWire access to users who are already checking odds, teams and possible outcomes before placing a bet.
FairPlay already makes money from sending traffic to gambling operators. Its publisher business includes odds tools and affiliate monetisation across multiple markets.
Wire Markets adds another route. Instead of a user reading content and then leaving for an operator, FairPlay can put the marketplace closer to that research process. The companies have not said which FairPlay sites will use it first.
Wire Markets combines liquidity from available order books and routes trades according to the prices available through the platform. WagerWire developed its earlier business around a secondary marketplace for sports wagers in the US before moving into prediction markets.
FairPlay Is Also an Investor
There are two parts to the agreement. FairPlay becomes a distribution partner for Wire Markets, but it also takes an equity interest in WagerWire. That gives the media group exposure to the company behind a product it will help distribute.
It is different from a standard affiliate arrangement where a publisher receives payment for traffic or customers but has no ownership interest in the supplier. No valuation was announced, so the size of that exposure cannot be calculated from the deal.
WagerWire is also no longer relying only on a planned licensing process. Gibraltar’s Gambling Division lists Wire Action Markets Limited, the company behind WagerWire, as a B2C Betting Intermediary.
Gibraltar introduced a regulatory framework for prediction markets earlier this year.
No Launch Schedule Yet
For FairPlay, the deal puts prediction markets alongside an existing betting-media and affiliate operation rather than creating a separate consumer brand from scratch.
The companies have not given a launch timetable. They also did not name the first FairPlay brands, markets or operators that will take part in the rollout.