A Manchester-based social betting app is seeking to raise up to £2m over the next 12 months after launching having secured a £375,000 investment.
Circl has closed a pre-seed funding round which was led by Dutch Sport Tech Fund, combined with various angel syndicates.
The Circl game currently allows up to 10 users to play against each other to win a pool of money deposited by the group.
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The gaming mechanism is based on real-time events during the match, which are given their own scoring system. This allows for the pot of money to move around the Circl, rather than be awarded solely based on the final outcome.
Chief executive Will Hawkins said: "Circl has the ability to turn any match into a thriller. It was created by accident when I was watching a boring game of live football with a bunch of friends who didn’t like football.
"So, we decided to make a sociable sports betting game for friends that would create and maintain interest throughout the match.
"Rather than have your bet depend on the final result, Circl uses in-match events such as goals, cards, corners, VAR or offsides to create tension about which of your friends will win the money.
"This unique type of sports betting experience can be followed by everyone, no matter their understanding of the sport and is a game of chance rather than skill.
"Circl is for everyone, from savvy sports betters to first-timers. We want to make the spectacle of a live game even better and increase the feeling of inclusion for those with no allegiance to, or interest in, the teams playing.
"Whilst we are starting with the world’s most popular sport football, we cannot wait to bring Circl to other sports, and even e-sports.
"We want to distance ourselves from the stigma of betting. Circl aims to boost social inclusion through ‘low buy-in’, group-based participation, rather than the exclusion and addiction that traditional forms of betting often generate.
"Circl’s innately social concept will power growth in a competitive market at a fraction of the typical acquisition cost seen in this space."
The Circl leadership team consists of founder and CEO Will Hawkins, CTO Mark Quinn and CFO Eddie Ross.
Mr Hawkins was formerly a product manager at Push Doctor and AccessPay while Mr Quinn was director of engineering at Mojo Mortgages. Mr Ross was head of mobile at SkyBet.
Circl is aiming to raise up to £2m in seed funding in the next 12 months to allow the business to scale, support an increase in headcount across developer, product and customer-facing disciplines, and enable them to grow into US and other European countries.
