Declan O’Sullivan - Bet-Alert
The Opportunity
The last years have seen a rapid expansion in the premium SMS messaging market and continued growth in the horse-racing and betting industries. Declan O'Sullivan, MD of Bet-Alert, felt that this increased acceptance of SMS as a communications channel offered the ideal medium to enable punters to access the valuable betting information where and when they need it and for betting industry partners to communicate their services effectively to these punters.
About Bet-Alert
Declan founded Bet-Alert Ltd. in October 2006 in order to exploit this considerable opportunity. Bet-Alert is an innovative software provider focused on delivering exceptional mobile information services to horse racing punters and exceptional technology solutions to racing/betting industry partners. These services use proprietary software, developed both in-house and in conjunction with key partners, which is copyright protected in full under EU law.
Declan’s Past Experiences
An engineer by profession with several years of industry experience gained in the fields of Software Development, Process Engineering, Process Design and Project Management.
Over the past years Declan has developed his keen personal interest in horse racing and sports gambling into a full-time profession. Declan has filled various roles that have given him valuable experience of and unique insights into many aspects of the betting industry:
- As co-founder of Bet-P2P Ltd. Declan foresaw the huge potential that exchange betting offered the Internet punter. As Product Manager Declan was responsible for all aspects of the development of the Bet-P2P Exchange Product. Bet-P2P was unsuccessful in raising the capital required to fund the launch of the product and we therefore unable to challenge the other start-up betting exchanges for market share, i.e. betmart, betfair, betdaq, etc. Exchange betting has grown to become a multi-billion euro industry in the space of a few short years.
- Declan was a member of the team responsible for the development of the Sports Trading Workstation. The Sports Trading Workstation is an enhanced alternative interface to the major Betting Exchanges offering live streaming updates, one-click trading, simultaneous displays of multiple markets and much more. The product seeks to equip the professional punter with the tools and levels of analysis that are available to commodities/forex traders.
- Declan’s work with on-course bookmaker’s has given him a keen understanding of the coal face machinations of the horse racing industry.
- Declan has also spent a number of years as a professional punter and on-line sports trader.
This mix of knowledge and experience perfectly position Declan to both spot potential opportunities within the industry and to manage all stages of the development of a successful business – from inception to profitability.
Bet-Alert Services
Information is key when it comes to successful punting. Bet-Alert will make valuable information sources available via SMS in order to enable any punter access these information services at anytime and anyplace. The Bet-Alert SMS services enable a punter to:
- Use Horse-Alert to track a horse that has performed well or to follow up on inside information (see Horse-Alert_Ad.jpg for details on how it works),
- Use Odds-Alert to consistently achieve value odds when placing a bet,
- Validate personal opinion on the outcome of a race with that of the professionals,
- Use Movers-Alert track market movements for a horse
- Use Result-Alert to check the result of any race
- Share your tips with friends and track the tips that they send you
- Access valuable ratings services and expert opinion on the outcome of a race
- Plus much, much more
All services are currently available to customers in Ireland and in the UK. For further details visit our web site www.bet-alert.com.
Bet-Alert also offers advanced mobile solutions to sports betting industry partners:
- We deliver customised solutions to meet the requirements of bookmakers, tipsters, rating analysts, totalisers, etc.
- Bet-Alert services offer a unique communication channel that enable industry partners to communicate with horse racing punters in a manner that is non-intrusive to punters and always relevant to their betting experience.
Bet-Alert Going Forward
Over the past year we carried out an in-depth market analysis and have identified, developed and tested a suite of services to meet the various needs of the many parties in this industry – punters, bookmakers, tipping services, race course managers, rating services, etc. Over the past months our focus switched from service development to readying Bet-Alert to be able to rapidly commercialise each service. During this time we have put the organisational structure in place, developed an innovative and cost-effective market penetration strategy and fine-tuned all aspects of the technological infrastructure that will be necessary to allow rapid role out of these services. We now need to raise the necessary investment to facilitate this launch and to see the business through to profitabiltiy.
Genesis Enterprise Programme
Bet-Alert was selected to participate in the Genesis Enterprise Program. The GEP is a rapid incubation programme designed to provide support management skills development for high potential start-up businesses. The Programme is administered by the Cork Institute of Technology in partnership with five other regional and national organisations - Institute of Technology Tralee, Enterprise Ireland, Cork BIC, University College Cork and Udarás na Gaeltachta.
Bet-Alert Contact Details
Bet-Alert Ltd.
Unit 3
K.T.I. Centre
Killarney
Co Kerry
Website: www.bet-alert.com
Email: info@bet-alert.com