The former CEO of peer-to-peer betting marketplace ZenSports has unveiled an AI-first hedge fund, Badass Capital, which will target investments across sports betting and prediction markets.
Thomas co-founded and led ZenSports in 2016 as it embarked on its challenger brand efforts in the Tennessee sports betting market.
The crypto-first operator, which was licensed in Nevada, was eventually acquired by AI-first sports entertainment and fan engegement platform VIP Play in August 2022.
Thomas’ new fund, which will be based out of Miami, Florida, will deploy “proprietary artificial intelligence models and agents” across its investment portfolio.
Thomas will serve as the company’smanaging partner.
Alongside sports betting and prediction markets, Badass Capital will also focus on traditional finance and crypto trading.
The majority of the fund is committed from Thomas’ own capital. It was noted a “limited amount of outside investment is being accepted” under a private placement offering.
Badass Capital did not disclose how much capital it had at its disposal at launch.
The fund will use AI agents and various models “to take advantage of inefficiencies” across all three verticals.
“Our automated tools and operator experience across these markets inform how we identify, price, and act on opportunities,” the fund continued.
As per the Badass Capital website, those opportunities include using “repeatable quantitative models” in sports betting or being the “maker or the taker, depending on the market, liquidity, and cost profile” on prediction markets.
Speaking on the fund’s launch, Thomas said: “The firm targets markets where institutional capital has historically been absent or under deployed.
“The explosion of new platforms, regulatory tailwinds and AI capabilities are creating a unique structural opportunity window that we’re excited to take advantage of.
“We treat every market as a pricing problem: build the model, quantify the edge, execute with discipline. The convergence of platform proliferation and AI is creating an opportunity that most funds simply aren’t built to take.”
Away from the industry, bunch, an AI-powered fund operations platform, closed a $35m Series B round this week.
The platform has raised more than $58m in total and supplies its tech to 150 fund managers and more than 12,000 limited partnerships across Europe.
Other businesses such as Fundwave also offer AI-powered tools for funds to deploy.
The post Ex-ZenSports boss unveils gambling-focused “AI-first hedge fund” first appeared on EGR Intel.
Mark Thomas’ Badass Capital to target sports betting, prediction markets and crypto trading via new fund
The post Ex-ZenSports boss unveils gambling-focused “AI-first hedge fund” first appeared on EGR Intel.