Elevator Pitch: Wagr

25 Aug 2022

Elevator Pitch: Wagr

Re: Mario Malave (MBA 2020); Eliana Eskinazi (MBA 2020)

Topics: Entrepreneurship-General Entertainment-Games, Gaming, and Gambling Communication-Social Media

Illustration by Drue Wagner

Wagr [Wa-jr]

Mario Malave (MBA 2020), CEO

Eliana Eskinazi (MBA 2020), CPO

Concept: Wagr is a social sports-betting app that allows people to bet with others in their community instead of betting against the house.

The Why: Wagr’s mission is to reinvent sports betting as a fun, social, and inclusive experience for all sports fans, not just gamblers. Frustrated by the lack of intuitive, non-predatory options for betting, Malave and Eskinazi began working on Wagr in the EC course Product Management.

Status Update: Wagr launched in Tennessee in early 2022. To date, the company has raised $16 million in funding from notable tech and sports investors, including Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, Bitkraft Ventures, Greycroft, Pear Ventures, the Kraft Group, and Harris Blitzer Ventures.

CEO Says:
“We want to rewrite the narrative around sports betting to show the world it doesn’t always have to be an ‘icky’ or predatory experience.”