• Subscribe
  • Magazines
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
Thursday 8 May 2025
  • zh-hant 中文
  • ja 日本語
  • en English
IAG
Advertisement
  • Newsfeed
  • Mag Articles
  • Video
  • Opinion
  • Tags
  • Regional
    • Africa
    • Australia
    • Cambodia
    • China
    • CNMI
    • Europe
    • Hong Kong
    • India
    • Japan
    • Laos
    • Latin America
    • Malaysia
    • Macau
    • Nepal
    • New Zealand
    • North America
    • North Korea
    • Philippines
    • Russia
    • Singapore
    • South Korea
    • Sri Lanka
    • Thailand
    • UAE
    • Vietnam
  • Events
  • Contributors
  • SUBSCRIBE FREE
  • 中文
  • 日本語
No Result
View All Result
IAG
  • Newsfeed
  • Mag Articles
  • Video
  • Opinion
  • Tags
  • Regional
    • Africa
    • Australia
    • Cambodia
    • China
    • CNMI
    • Europe
    • Hong Kong
    • India
    • Japan
    • Laos
    • Latin America
    • Malaysia
    • Macau
    • Nepal
    • New Zealand
    • North America
    • North Korea
    • Philippines
    • Russia
    • Singapore
    • South Korea
    • Sri Lanka
    • Thailand
    • UAE
    • Vietnam
  • Events
  • Contributors
  • SUBSCRIBE FREE
  • 中文
  • 日本語
No Result
View All Result
IAG
No Result
View All Result

The Only Way is Up

Ben Blaschke by Ben Blaschke
Sat 29 Jun 2019 at 11:22
The Only  Way is Up
51
SHARES
1.3k
VIEWS
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Australian company PlayUp is looking to change the face of online gaming via a global ecosystem and its own cryptocurrency.

Little did Daniel Simic know when he embarked on a short trip to the United States in 2015 that he would return with an idea to dominate the global fantasy sports world, transform online betting and pave the way for the future of cryptocurrency in gambling.

Fast forward four years and the Australian entrepreneur’s business, PlayUp, is turning over almost AU$300 million annually, has launched its own cryptocurrency called the PlayChip and is in the midst of global expansion with interests in the US, UK, India and China.

PlayUp CEO Daniel Simic

“PlayUp is essentially an online gaming business that has free-to-play and pay-to-play by both fiat and cryptocurrency,” Simic explains from his office in Sydney.

“We’re trying to build one portal that caters for everyone on a global basis, not only by offering a full suite of products to satisfy whatever they might want to play but also using one-off KYC, one-off AML and one-off sign-up, all into our digital wallet which is attached to all of our different games.

“The actual smarts are in the wallet as to what you can do within your jurisdiction. If you’re in America and you can play fantasy sports but you can’t bet on sports within your state, the wallet simply won’t let you bet on sports.

“It’s about ease of play and allowing the player to decide what he wants to do.”

While the PlayUp model envisions a single, global ecosystem offering “something for everyone”, the original concept was far less ambitious.

PlayUP acquired leading Australian Daily Fantasy Sports site DraftStars in 2018.

After recognizing the potential of Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) during his 2015 trip to the US, Simic returned to Australia and set to work developing his own fantasy sports software. The software showed promise from the outset, but coincided with the launch of a rival DFS operator called DraftStars – owned by James Packer’s CrownBet.

“They came in, pumped a serious amount of money into marketing and drove us out of the market,” Simic recalls, “so we focused our energies on technology rather than marketing and decided to sit back while CrownBet educated the Australian DFS market.”

It was around this time that Simic stumbled upon PlayUp – the trading name of a company called Revo – which had spent around AU$100 million trying to grow its own fantasy sports business in Asia with little success.

Noting that PlayUp, while struggling for revenue, had managed to build a decent following among social media communities, he purchased the assets and implemented his own technology – described by Simic as being “just as good as FanDuel or DraftKings.”

“From that moment it took off, the users started signing up in droves,” he recalls. “We’ve now got over 1 million sign-ups from over 100 countries. Those clients are all free-to-play and now we have to convert them to the paid model which we are slowly doing one step at a time.”

Central to the PlayUp model is the company’s own cryptocurrency, the PlayChip. Launched in 2018, the PlayChip was borne out of a need to standardize prize pools in both its pay-to-play and free-to-play products but also provides a unique level of flexibility across PlayUp’s numerous betting sites. Those sites, which include none other than DraftStars – acquired from CrownBet in April 2018 – now extend well beyond fantasy sports to sports betting, racing, eSports and online casino.

“What we found is that when you buy five companies each turning over $50 million, that’s AU$250 million combined but whereas there were previously five lots of overheads, we now only had one,” explains Simic, whose company also counts Australian-based ClassicBet, Betting.Club, TopBetta and MadBookie among its acquired brands.

“By buying them we turned them into profitable entities overnight with a mass database of gamblers, and our ecosystem is a global ecosystem where we can cater to the jurisdiction and offer them sports betting, racing, fantasy sports and casino depending on where they are and what they are allowed to play.”

PlayUp has listed the PlayChip on numerous cryptocurrency exchanges.

Aside from globalization, Simic says the beauty of the PlayChip concept is the ability to target three distinct player types – the social gamer, the traditional fiat currency player and, perhaps most importantly, the “guys in crypto-land who have a lot of money and are born gamblers at the end of the day.” It is this last category that has led PlayUp to list the PlayChip on more than 20 cryptocurrency exchanges, and counting, over the past 12 months.

“I believe there is no other reason at this point to be in crypto unless you are a high speculator, which is a gambler,” Simic adds. “There is around US$180 billion worth of crypto out there held by people who don’t really have a real use case yet.

“We’re trying to adapt to that market and to get people to know about the PlayChip, the best place to go is the exchanges where the crypto world hangs out. Our crypto model is to get the people who are in crypto world to come and gamble on our sites. We get listed, we turn the products on, we advertise via the exchanges to that audience who already know what the PlayChip is and that gives us a mechanism to train people about what we are.”

Having already established a base in Australia and India, PlayUp is rapidly expanding its interests globally, with a license to operate in the UK and eyes also firmly fixed on the burgeoning US sports betting market.

RelatedPosts

Ben Attwood: Land of Wonder

Regulating the Game announces CherryHub and Ebet as joint RegTech sponsors of 2026 Sydney conference

Tue 6 May 2025 at 13:03
Unhitching Online Poker

Regulating the Game conference to include inaugural RTG Global Awards in 2026

Thu 1 May 2025 at 08:18
Crown down but Star not ruling out junkets

Star falls further as 1Q25 EBITDA loss hits AU$21 million

Thu 1 May 2025 at 07:49
Editorial – Knife’s edge

Editorial – Knife’s edge

Tue 29 Apr 2025 at 15:14
Load More

Likewise, PlayUp’s fantasy sports and eSports products are opening doors across Asia while China itself is a key target in the social gaming space – all brought together via the PlayUp ecosystem.

As Simic explains, “We’re trying to funnel everyone into our ecosystem and then let them do what they need to do from there.”

Share20Share4
Ben Blaschke

Ben Blaschke

A former sports journalist in Sydney, Australia, Ben has been Managing Editor of Inside Asian Gaming since early 2016. He played a leading role in developing and launching IAG Breakfast Briefing in April 2017 and oversees as well as being a key contributor to all of IAG’s editorial pursuits.

Current Issue

Editorial – Knife’s edge

Editorial – Knife’s edge

by Andrew W Scott and Ben Blaschke
Tue 29 Apr 2025 at 15:14

Thailand’s Entertainment Complex journey is at a critical point, with the success or failure of the initiative to be determined...

The changing face of Macau

The changing face of Macau

by Ben Blaschke
Tue 29 Apr 2025 at 15:09

Inside Asian Gaming takes a deep dive into the new, post-COVID Macau where a revenue environment that seems to be...

Born again

Born again

by Pierce Chan
Tue 29 Apr 2025 at 14:47

Premiering in September 2010 at City of Dreams, The House of Dancing Water was a visionary creation by artistic maestro...

Richard Howarth – Testing the limits

Richard Howarth – Testing the limits

by Ben Blaschke
Tue 29 Apr 2025 at 13:17

Richard Howarth, Chief Business Officer APAC for global testing laboratory GLI, discusses his career journey and his passion for fast-paced...

Evolution Asia
Aristocrat
GLI
Mindslot
Solaire
Hann
Tecnet
Nustar
Jumbo

Related Posts

10 years ago – Putting Cambodia on the map

10 years ago – Putting Cambodia on the map

by Ben Blaschke
Tue 29 Apr 2025 at 10:10

In this regular feature in IAG to celebrate 20 years covering the Asian gaming and leisure industry, we look back at our cover story from exactly 10 years ago, “Putting Cambodia on the map”, to rediscover what was making the...

Manny Pacquiao: the journey from king of the boxing ring to building the MPBL basketball empire

Manny Pacquiao: the journey from king of the boxing ring to building the MPBL basketball empire

by Newsdesk
Thu 24 Apr 2025 at 14:06

CLIENT PROMOTION Manny Pacquiao has had a phenomenal career in boxing, becoming a world champion in eight different weight classes and earning an induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Even though the man known as PacMan no longer...

1xBet becomes Global Betting Partner of the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge

1xBet becomes Global Betting Partner of the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge

by Newsdesk
Wed 16 Apr 2025 at 10:18

CLIENT PROMOTION Global bookmaker 1xBet has entered into an exclusive partnership agreement with the Billie Jean King Cup by Gainbridge – the premier year-long international team competition in women’s tennis. Described as the women’s World Cup of Tennis, the Billie...

Comtrade Gaming enters new partnership with REEVO

Comtrade Gaming enters new partnership with REEVO

by Newsdesk
Wed 9 Apr 2025 at 04:59

Platform provider Comtrade Gaming has announced a strategic partnership with REEVO, a fast-growing iGaming aggregation platform. According to information from the company, the collaboration integrates Comtrade Gaming’s CG Games portfolio into REEVO’s offering, providing operators with more high-quality gaming options....



IAG

© 2005-2024
Inside Asian Gaming.
All rights reserved.

  • SUBSCRIBE FREE
  • NEWSFEED
  • MAG ARTICLES
  • VIDEO
  • OPINION
  • TAGS
  • REGIONAL
  • EVENTS
  • CONSULTING
  • CONTRIBUTORS
  • MAGAZINES
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • ADVERTISE
  • 中文
  • 日本語

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

No Result
View All Result
  • 中文
  • 日本語
  • Subscribe
  • Newsfeed
  • Mag Articles
  • Video
  • Opinion
  • Tags
  • Regional
  • Events
  • Contributors
  • Magazines
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • About
  • Home for G2E Asia

© 2005-2024
Inside Asian Gaming.
All rights reserved.

  • 中文
  • English
  • 日本語