Hobnobbing with John Gordon from Premier Punt

So, what does Premier Punt do?

Premier Punt is a fantasy betting website and app, made for the fans, by the fans.

What’s behind the business idea?

I came up with the idea years ago when I was living in Trinidad & Tobago. I used to play everyone at the season long fantasy game for money. But if you have a bad start to the season you lose interest and give up. You have to wait until next season to have another go. I thought “what if there was a weekly format… people could play every week with a new team…”. When you add betting to the mix it becomes even more exciting. Getting the gambling license, creating the website and app was all quite difficult but I knew it would be worthwhile in the end.

Was there a breakthrough moment?

You would think the breakthrough moment would have been when I decided to create our weekly fantasy football betting game, but actually it was when we created our single game format. The single game is what the app is based around. We have a completely different scoring system for the single games. Players get points for every single action they make: passes, tackles, headers, shots on target etc., the points are updated as the action unfolds so we keep the user entertained throughout.

How is the company doing?

The achievements we have made so far has even surprised ourselves!

• We are the official partner of Southampton FC. We have advertising around the pitch, on the big screens and on the backdrop when players are getting interviewed (check us out on Match of the Day).

• We have had over 20,000 downloads

• We have been the No. 1 searched app in the UK App Store!

• We have a full UK Gambling License suitable for fantasy sports with one for sportsbook on the way!

• Over 90% of our app reviews are currently 5 out of 5.

• We won the “Highly Commended” award at the 2016 Sports Betting Community annual awards

Do you have any regrets?

Robbie Williams

What makes you stand out from your competitors?

Us. We are 4 Scottish football fans who created the product that the people wanted. We wanted to create a product for the fans, by the fans. We knew it was going to be tough but we are all engineers and mathematicians and knew that the technical difficulties could be overcome.

What is your definition of a positive customer experience?

For the user to use the app with their friends. We have a private games function on the app where users can play their own group of friends. This has become popular with our audience. We have groups of friends using our app whilst watching the football in the pub to supplement their enjoyment of the game. They write nice things about it on Twitter (sometimes) which makes all the difference to us.

You’re currently reaching out for investors, what do you plan to do when you have raised this funding?

We are constantly improving the app. But the main thing will be integrating sportsbook betting to the current fantasy app and then having our standalone sportsbook app. We will be giving some of the profits back to local football communities, at grass roots level, as part of our GRASS, BOOTS, FOOTBALL scheme. Look out for this next season…

What advice would you give yourself now if you were starting a business?

Bet on Leicester to win the 2015/16 season.

Finally, John what is your favourite biscuit?!

Seabiscuit!

Kareema