A new social gaming platform, PickGuru, has secured £2.6m ($3.47m) in seed funding in its quest to revolutionise the interaction between real-money wagering and live sport.

The new platform allows fans to challenge one another in a wide variety of sports prediction games. The concept, which was built and refined by several sports entrepreneurs in the UK, allows users to test their knowledge to win cash pots in nationwide leagues or compete with their friends in mini-leagues.

The platform is powered by real-time data feeds which PickGuru’s leaderboards update as the game progresses. PickGuru began as a manual spreadsheet-based tipping competition that was shared with friends and colleagues during the 2020 Masters tournament. The game spread across the UK becoming a “viral sensation” that brought sports fanatics together.

The funding round is set to launch and scale PickGuru in early 2022. After a £6m pre-money valuation, the platform brought together a list of investors including Simon Wear, Founder and Chairman of Global Cycling Network, Oliver and Alexander Kent-Braham, Founder of Marshmallow, Will Neale Founder of Grabyo, and ex-Communications Director, Paddy Power.

Oliver Slipper, Chairman and Co-Founder of PickGuru, said: “I certainly didn’t expect things to take off less than a year after sending out a simple game to friends but the massive popularity of it convinced me that I was onto something.

“Following months of hard graft and huge investment, we’re proud to be building the first UK-focused platform that uniquely combines elements of fantasy sports, gaming and live-action, and we strongly believe users will love the result.”