Founder and CMO of Sporttrade

For Class of 2012 alums Alex Kane and David Huffman, what started as a Tatnall friendship evolved into an entrepreneurial partnership in the sports wagering space. This past spring, they launched their new company, Sporttrade, the only regulated sports betting, and trading exchange where one can trade sports bets like stocks.

Alex, Sporttrade’s Founder, first thought of the idea in 2017 while trading stocks for fun on Robinhood.

“As I learned more about stock trading,” Alex says, “I thought, ‘why can’t you trade the Phillies to beat the Mets the way you can trade Apple stock?’ That question was the beginning of Sporttrade.”

When the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act and legalized online sportsbook wagering in approved states, Alex saw the potential and set out to create a trading platform for sports wagers to compete with giants like DraftKings and FanDuel.

David invested early in this venture, which helped Alex secure an investment of $100,000 from the TechStars Program. This investment snowballed several other opportunities from venture capitalists.

“At TechStars, if you do well on Demo Day,” said Alex, “You can raise $3MM to $5MM on a $10MM valuation, which is a huge opportunity for a small company. But we knew we had to buy a casino license in New Jersey to launch the platform. That’s when things got difficult.”

To launch, Sporttrade needed to purchase a license to comply with state regulations. Alex’s original co-founders predicted the end and left the company, suggesting they refund investors’ money. Undeterred, Alex forged ahead without them and returned to David, his biggest supporter, to ask for his advice.

“I told Alex I did this because we’re close, and I support him,” David remembers. “It was an opportunity to do something great.”

Alex began to rebuild from the ground up. Sporttrade raised over $36MM from venture capital investors, and in March of 2021, David officially left his job to join Alex and Sporttrade as the Chief Operating Officer.

Sporttrade secured the market access agreement with Bally’s in New Jersey, which spawned another round of investments. They’ve raised around $50 MM to date. In the Fall of 2022, Sporttrade officially launched — the culmination of vision, hard work, and friendship turned partnership.

“We built a product that we’re proud of,” says David. “We’re the first product in this industry that is completely FOR the customer.”

Price-sensitive bettors avoid the vigorish taken by traditional casinos and online sportsbooks. Sporttrade doesn’t push thinly veiled attempts to lure casual gamblers into low-probability wagers to separate them from their bankroll, such as huge parlays or an online casino.

“We are only interested in progressive and responsible gaming,” says Alex. “It’s not in our ethos to pursue squeeze options. We use NASDAQ’s Market Surveillance technology to analyze customer trading patterns and flag customers who may be flying off the handle. The fundamentals make it a great product.”

The following year will be exciting for Sporttrade as these two Tatnall friends look to gain a more significant foothold in a space dominated by giants. Even as students, the journey toward a bold vision for the future always brought Alex and David together, and why they bet big on one another. Together, they are working hard to make sure those wagers pay off.

JON-MICHAEL REESE ’05