Global Betting Exchange Technologies (GBE Technologies or GBET) was founded in 1999 by Dermot Desmond, a leading Irish entrepreneur with significant interests in technology and finance. GBET was established as a wagering technology company focused on the development of a wholesale exchange where high volume, elite players and wagering businesses could hedge and trade betting risk electronically.
Over the years we have widened our business focus to include a multitude of racing and sports wagering solutions. Examples of these solutions include development of significant new Advanced Deposit Wagering (ADW) platforms, the number one B2B betting exchange worldwide, and numerous risk management and trading products for licensed fixed-odds race and sports betting operators.
To establish our technology within the marketplace, we launched and operated a betting exchange - "Betdaq" - which grew to be the number two retail betting exchange globally, and the principal rival to Betfair. However, operation of a retail betting business exchange was never our chief or primary business objective. Rather, our primary and core strategy remained the development and implementation of wagering technology solutions.
In a huge vote of confidence for our technology, in January 2013 Ladbrokes plc acquired 100% of Betdaq (our retail operation) and a 10% interest in our core technology operations. Ladbrokes plc is a publicly-traded company, and a leader in the global wagering and gaming market, with annual Group revenues of over $1.6 billion.
In October 2013, successfully prevailing against numerous leading global ADW providers, GBET was chosen by the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) to develop their new ADW platform. Launched in September, 2014, NYRA’s platform has grown to nearly $300MM in handle per annum, making it the 4th largest ADW in the United States (despite accepting members from New York State only).