Yahoo Acquires Social Sports Betting App Wagr
Yahoo has acquired Wagr, a peer-to-peer sports betting app focused on making gaming social and accessible. The acquisition of Wagr augments and accelerates Yahoo Sports’ vision to create and deliver the most compelling fantasy and gaming products.
“The acquisition of Wagr is an exciting step in the development of the next generation of Yahoo Sports’ gaming portfolio. Wagr stands out for their innovative emphasis on community and social engagement in sports gaming, which aligns perfectly with the Yahoo award-winning fantasy platform that has brought tens of millions of fans together around their love of sports for over 20 years,” said Jim Lanzone, CEO of Yahoo.
Wagr was the first social sports betting operator to receive a license in the US. They bring extensive experience in social mobile app development, user experience and community driven games.
“Yahoo Sports offers us a stage to build products that will reach millions of loyal fans that have connected over fantasy sports for decades. The unique combination of Yahoo’s scale and engagement creates opportunities for virtuous product loops between sports media and gaming. Joining Yahoo allows us to continue delivering on our mission to connect fandom to social gaming while elevating our ability to execute through expanded resources, new partnerships and technological capabilities,” said Mario Malavé, co-founder and CEO of Wagr.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome Wagr to the Yahoo Sports family. While we know our fantasy leagues increase fan engagement and give people something to root for, the real value is in keeping friend groups together through competition and camaraderie around the sports they love. Acquiring Wagr creates an immediate opportunity for us to expand into new group formats that can take engagement and friendly competition to the next level,” said Jon Shaw, SVP of Yahoo Sports.
With the acquisition, Wagr will be fully integrated into Yahoo Sports. The acquisition closed and the terms of the deal were not disclosed.
