We recently sat down with FansUnite founders, Darius Eghdami and Duncan McIntyre, and asked them about the FansUnite platform special, the FansUnite token, and their plans moving forward.

Why did you guys decide to start FansUnite originally?

Darius: I’m a lifelong sports fan, I grew up playing sports, watching sports and in my later years, betting on sports. About a decade ago, my co-founder Duncan and I started a sports handicapping website. For those who don’t know — a handicapper is someone who sells their predictions for money, and we realized you could make a lot of money selling predictions. It was quite soon after that we also realized you didn’t have to be particularly good to make money either, as you were in control of what results you posted. And so the idea for FansUnite was born, we knew we had to bring transparency and credibility to the handicapping business.

Tell me about the existing FansUnite platform and why you’re now creating the FansUnite token?

Duncan: Our existing platform recreates the experience of betting on sports by giving our members a free virtual currency to place their wagers. Our members can then track and analyze their own betting history, as well as analyze and follow other bettors in the community who are profitable. This community of sports bettors continues to make picks and help each other win, all with fully verified and transparent betting histories.

Darius: And so it was sort of a natural next step for us to want to apply these same ideals of verifiability, transparency and community to real money sports betting, through the use of blockchain technology. We feel that with our own digital currency we can solve a lot of common pain points experienced by sports bettors today, all while charging them much less.

Can you tell us about the new FansUnite (https://fansunite.io/) platform?

Duncan: FansUnite wants to provide sports bettors with a more affordable, transparent and social sports betting experience. We feel that this industry is ripe for disruption with just a few large entities dominating market share in the online sports betting space. Without alternatives to turn to, bettors currently tolerate high fees, reneged or voided bets in regions with poor regulation, and often have to entrust their financial information to centralized third parties. Through the application of both smart contracts and blockchain technology, we believe we have the blueprint to fix all these common issues faced by sports bettors today, all while providing a better, cheaper, more secure and transparent system for bettors.

What are some of the advantages of FansUnite over a traditional sportsbook?

Darius: As Duncan and I alluded to already, we feel that there are significant improvements that can be made to enhance conditions for sports bettors. FansUnite will be the catalyst for significant positive change in the sports betting world by being the first to offer full transparency, security and by providing a bettor with their best chance at being profitable in the long-term.

Duncan: Through the application of smart contracts on the Ethereum platform, bettors can confidently wager while having full transparency as to how these smart contracts will be executed, and their wagers resolved. Bettors will be able to keep their funds safely in their wallets until entering a bet, at which point tokens wagered will be sent and held in escrow by the smart contract executing the bet. When event results are agreed upon by an aggregate of independent data sources, preordained at the time of event creation, the event is automatically resolved and funds are sent to the winning party. Bettors can be confident that their wagers will resolve exactly as the terms in the smart contract intend, removing the risk of wagers being reneged or voided due to “incorrect” lines.

Further, our platform insists on providing bettors with a greater chance at being profitable in the long-term. Existing sportsbooks have margins up to 4.7% per wager, meaning bettors have to win 53% of their bets to be profitable. This doesn’t sound like an improbable target, but it is one that is unattainable by the majority of bettors in the world. It is the reason sportsbooks are synonymous with printing money, and in our minds, that’s not an equitable distribution. We believe that there is a happy medium that can be found. Through the application of our business model and FansUnite Tokens, we can eliminate of much of the spending bloat associated with large sportsbooks, and comfortably only charge a 1% margin. This represents the lowest margin in the history of sports betting, and easily a bettor’s best chance at being profitable.

What are the most popular sports for a FansUnite bettor on your existing platform and does this shape your approach to the new FansUnite platform?

Duncan: Soccer, as the most followed sport in the world, is logically the most popular sport for a FansUnite bettor. Football, and the NFL specifically, is a close second. The other major North American leagues of MLB, NBA, NHL, college football and college basketball are very popular as well. Excitingly, we are getting a lot of traction on eSports (which are very profitable for members), MMA, Rugby League and Aussie Rules. We will be featuring major events in our most popular sports, and hopefully will further our partnerships with key organizations surrounding these events.

What does the importance of the community on FansUnite mean to you? How will that play a role in the newly launched version of the site?

Darius: Cultivating a unique sports betting community means everything to us at FansUnite. Our existing platform was based on the premise that sports bettors perform better as a group. This crowdsourced approach to betting has yielded favourable results for a lot of members of the platform, shown by the over half a million predictions placed on FansUnite. The FansUnite community continues to grow on a daily basis, with the top members being tailed by thousands of followers from around the world. Both the platform and its top bettors have successfully cultivated loyal followings on social channels like Reddit, Telegram, and Slack.

Members can follow other bettors in the community and see their upcoming picks. By doing this, they then become profitable by following the top bettors. Tens of thousands of handicappers have seen the value in being able to analytically review performance through a verifiable and trustworthy platform.

What’s next for you and your team?

Darius: Currently we are slated to attend a couple of exciting blockchain conferences in Europe and meeting with investors for our presale. For any interested parties reading this, you can reach me via email at darius@fansunite.io.

Duncan: After that we’ll be heading back to Vancouver to continue working on the platform and marketing, leading up to our public token sale launch in October or November of 2017. It’s going to be a fantastic couple of months for FansUnite and sports betting in general. We are looking forward to bringing about positive changes for bettors globally.

Where can people go to find out more about the FansUnite platform and the upcoming token sale?

Duncan: All relevant information and documents like our Whitepaper and Token Information can be found on our website. We’re looking forward to hearing from the community, so please get in touch with us via our Slack or Telegram.