Alone in an airport on the way to Poland, Johnny Barnes had a thought: “What if I created a sweepstake where people could buy teams from each other?”
Fast forward three years and after testing the theory with friends and family, Sweepmate launched in the UK in November 2025, having secured a licence from the Gambling Commission earlier in the year.
Co-founded by Barnes, who also founded The Soho Juice Co in 2014, and Lloyd Bidder – an assistant director at Ernst & Young – the pool-based product plans to fill the void left by DraftKings when it exited the UK market back in October 2024.
While currently only offering its Premier League football predictions as a game, darts is soon to be added to the lineup, as well as future plans to allow users to participate in a Eurovision pool.
Speaking to EGR, Barnes believes there is a gap in the market for novelty cash-based games, and that Sweepmate can take advantage of it.
EGR: Can you explain the premise behind Sweepmate?
Johnny Barnes (JB): Absolutely. You pick any three Premier League teams and, if that team finishes first, fourth or last in that particular gameweek, you get a share of the pool. The fewer people who have a particular team, the more valuable that team is. We’ve got a live league on the app that’s provided by Sportradar, so people can see the movement of their teams in the general table with a 90-second lag. What you can also do is buy or sell a team as well.
EGR: And teams score points by goals, shots on targets, corners and… what else?
JB: It would just be like a normal Premier League way of doing it. Three points for a win and extra points for goals scored, shots on and off target, etc. You lose points for yellow and red cards. If there is a tie-break, then the pool is split. But so far, we’ve not had one.
EGR: As a new operator to the UK market, have you faced any obstacles?
JB: The UK is such a competitive space, which is why we’re just trying to carve out a bit of a different niche. We can’t compete with the likes of Paddy Power for example, and we’re not clever enough to set odds to be quite honest with you. We chose to do something slightly different, more pool-based, because years ago you had 14 million people playing The Pools – although I appreciate that was in an analogue format. That’s why we call it ‘sweepstakes with a twist’ – one where people do have a bit of ownership over their positions and who they’ve chosen. We believe this works across multiple different formats. We started with football and want to do it really well.
Then we thought, we don’t see why we couldn’t do it for the last 32 of the darts at Alexandra Palace (London) with first, fourth and last. Doing it from the start with hundreds of players would be a bit nuts, but if you do it for the last 32, then you’ve an interesting game. Or with golf after the cut or events like Eurovision. As long as it follows that format then there’s also scope to try out quite a few different things, which is exciting for the future.
EGR: What is your strategy for the UK market?
JB: We’ve just enlisted the help of marketing services agency Digitonic, which previously provided the data and marketing insights for Betway. We’re looking at sponsorships as well, though it will be dependent on competitions and other factors. People spend quite a lot of time on trains, so if there was something which clearly explained the rules on a train then something like that, too.
Through Digitonic, if someone is looking at the football lineups or transfer rumours, then our brand will appear. It will be hyper-targeted ads directed at who we believe is the right person for that particular sport. Then you’ll have some key figures in certain sports who will be advocates.
EGR: Is Sweepmate’s tech in-house or outsourced?
JB: We work with a company called Indie Ridge and they have equity in the product. We’re not technical founders. I think for something like this, you want people who are really good and have a good track record. There’s a team of them and because they’re really experienced, it helps a lot.
EGR: On launch day, some users experienced issues signing up. Was this a big problem and has it been rectified?
JB: It’s one of those weird things. We found with quite a lot of people it was due to location settings and, because our licence is for the UK, if people have location settings turned off, which a lot of people do, then it blocks the app. That’s something we can definitely improve on.
EGR: DraftKings left the UK market in October 2024. At launch, Sweepmate referenced the gap it could take advantage of. Can you explain this view?
JB: To be honest, it definitely played a role. With DraftKings leaving, there’s a huge opportunity for someone to fill the space because it’s short-term contests with quick turnover. Quite a lot of people we’ve spoken to really miss DraftKings’ golf offering – there’s a hole there. Instead of putting 3/1 on XYZ on the weekend, there’s a gap for more novelty, cash-based games that aren’t slot machines or anything like that, which do have an element of skill to them. I think there is also a gap for higher wager markets because normal bookies just don’t offer that as a service. DraftKings leaving definitely cemented our belief that there was a real gap in the market for what we’re trying to do and what we believe we will be able to do.
The post Sweepmate co-founder: There’s a gap in the UK market for “novelty, cash-based games” first appeared on EGR Intel.
Johnny Barnes delves into the sweepstakes operator’s genesis, how it plans to plug a DraftKings-shaped hole in the UK and why it’s not trying to compete with established bookmakers
The post Sweepmate co-founder: There’s a gap in the UK market for “novelty, cash-based games” first appeared on EGR Intel.