Created by Carson Coffman and Jim Bob Morris, two former professional American football players who saw in Brazil “the best stage for the launch of the app because Brazilian users are passionate about sports and social networks,” as said the company’s CEO, Wanna can be downloaded for iPhone and Android.
With the highest level of security in transactions, the application aims to transform the world of betting by combining the best of the sites of its kind with the most attractive tools of the main social networks. At Wanna, users bet against each other and not against a bookmaker, as usual.
With the main payment methods already consolidated by the application, “users make their deposits and place bets against other users and not against Wanna, who only receives a commission for intermediating the bets,” explains Nicole Brandão, Head of Marketing at Wanna. According to her, “all deposits are converted into the application's currency, Wanna Buck, with parity with the Euro. The app has all encrypted security and payments for winning bets are credited to the application's account and can be redeemed overnight by the user,” she says.
The application has as main objective to create space for sports lovers to connect, interact and, of course, bet on their favorite teams, rescuing the true social spirit of betting.
"The sport is, in its essence, a social activity. The bets appeared as a consequence of this, stimulated by the preference for certain teams and competitiveness. What we observe, however, is that a long time ago the bets lost their essence and passion for the game, the social aspect disappeared", says Carson Coffman.
"Instead of friends, family, or sports lovers, we started to bet against websites and bookmakers in an unfair competition, because they were the only ones creating bets", adds Coffman.
Committed to changing this reality, Coffman and Morris decided to create Wanna and turn the game around. The first step was to create a system that rescues the essence of the sports bet. "We want to bring back the experience of betting, to take it out of a mechanical dynamic, focused only on gains - which is the market we know today - and bring back the fun and healthy competitiveness among friends," says Carson.
For this reason, at Wanna, users have their own profile, as in a social network, with photo, bio, place for comments, username and full name. "This way, we encourage people to show who they are, giving opportunity to whoever is on the other side of the bet to know exactly who they are competing against, whether they are friends, family or a new contact," he adds. The bets also have chats, which allow users to interact before, during and after the match.
"It is as if our users are socializing with each other as they do on Instagram, Facebook or even in the real world, that is, people do not play in isolation and can share experiences", defines Carson.
Then, they brought a great innovation to the market: the freedom to create and customize bets. "Instead of providing restricted and limited betting options, we put the power in the hands of users, who can create their own bets," adds Carson.
With this system, the user chooses the sport, match and event, such as the Brasileirão or the Copa Libertadores. They then define the modality of the bet and its specifications, such as number of goals, for example. They can leave the bet public, or direct it to a specific account, challenging their friends. With the innovative system, a bet can be made in a matter of seconds.
Finally, in order to become the safest place in the world to bet, Wanna has invested heavily in the security of its operations. "Whenever two people place bets inside the platform, they can trust that we carry out all the appropriate security checks so that the bet is guaranteed and the money is paid to the winner," says Carson.
Alisson Santos, Specialist in Customer Experience at Wanna, explains that the company “has already have a team hired in Brazil, to support users directly through the application, in Portuguese, from 8 am to midnight, which gives the peace of mind that customers will be served by a local team that knows our culture. In the interval when the service is not online, the user will receive guidance the next day in the morning.”
Alisson himself comments that he was the first player to join the platform, at the beginning of the beta test and fell in love with the application. “I started to suggest improvements to the app and ended up being hired to deal with customers. This is important, as they will have the experience of those who use the application,” he says.
Luciana Hendrich, Brazilian Market and Contract consultant for Wanna, says that the company was concerned, from the first moment, to understand and meet the legal aspects. "Since the beginning of the development of the application, we are giving the necessary support that everything is within the dictates of the law."
According to her, the application was not launched in the American market because some states have regulated sports betting and others have not. “This demonstrates Wanna's concern with operating only in regulated markets. In Brazil, there is little left for that, but we already have the sports betting law that gives them the direction they need,” she says.
In addition to the legal aspects, compliance is a concern for Wanna and, according to Nicole, there was special attention to data. “We have partnered with an important company to manage data from the main existing championships and this is available to our users. They track their bets by comparing with all the data that is available on our app,” she explains.
Focus on Brazil and expansion
Although Americans, Coffman and Morris had no doubt when choosing the country to launch their platform. "At Wanna, we are very passionate about sports, community and competition. Brazil is a country of people who share these same passions. The Brazilian cheers with fervor, celebrates and competes with friends, family and fans of other teams. The culture of Brazil, the people and this love for sports are all that Wanna represents. We want to bring this passion to the application, connecting sports lovers in a unique way and revolutionizing the market we know today," says Coffman.
However, ambitious, they do not put barriers in Wanna's expansion, neither in the entrance in new countries, nor in the insertion of new ways of betting. "We created Wanna so that it becomes the largest betting platform in the world. This means that we will launch the application in new countries, and that we will also include new betting modalities," Coffman adds.
Soon, users will be able to bet on the most common modalities in the world of betting, such as horse racing and e-sports, but they will also innovate with new modalities, such as political debates or results in reality shows. The possibilities are endless and so is Wanna's ambition.
Source: GMB
