Arbitrum-based DuelNow receives $11M funding as Web3 betting heats up

According to an Aug. 1 announcement, DuelNow, a decentralized sports betting market, closed an $11 million funding round led by GEM Digital Limited. Venture capitalists are placing big bets on Web3 gambling.

Built on Arbitrum, an Ethereum layer-2, DuelNow is the latest in a string of venture investments in Web3 gambling amid surging activity on Polymarket, a crypto-betting platform on the Polygon blockchain network. 

Polymarket surpassed $1 billion in trading volume in July, largely driven by users wagering on United States election outcomes. The platform has seen over $430 million wagered on which presidential candidate will clinch an election victory on Nov. 4.

DuelNow touts itself as a decentralized peer-to-peer betting platform designed to achieve lower fees and higher payouts by “taking the house of out the equation.” The platform currently serves “NFL, MLB, NBA, and MMA fans” and plans to add additional betting products in the future, the company said.

DuelNow’s investors include Litcoin founder Charlie Lee and Billy Markus, the creator of Dogecoin, among others, according to the announcement.

The global online sports betting market is worth almost $60 billion and is expected to grow at a rate of more than 10% annually, according to Zion Market Research. Blockchain is becoming an integral part of sports betting platforms, which rely on the technology to cut transaction costs and improve transparency, according to The Business Research Company.

In July, Maincard.io, a Web3 fantasy sports game, launched on the TON blockchain network after securing roughly $2 million from the Ton Foundation’s accelerator program in 2023. Ixia Capital raised $20 million in June to invest in online and Web3 gambling, with plans to launch some 25 betting startups—largely in Web3—over the next five years.

In February, Web3 betting platform Shuffle closed on a $2.5 million seed round with investors including Mechanism Capital’s Andrew Kang.