Bracing For AFCON, Egypt’s Sports Startup Eksab Secures Investment From 500 Startups

Cairo-based sports startup Eksab has raised a “six-figure” investment from 500 Startups, to help the leading Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) in MENA and the GCC capitalize on the prestigious African Cup of Nations being hosted in Egypt for the first time in over ten years.

Twenty Times More Forecasts

Eksab allows users to make predictions about live football games, earn points based on how accurate their predictions are, and then get prize rewards.

The startup has processed more than 5 million forecasts since its launch in November 2017 and plans to multiply the number to 100 million in the coming year – a feat which it hopes to accomplish with the seed funding from 500 Startups.

Founded in 2017 by Aly Mahmoud, the sports firm is looking to tap into the MENA region’s love for football. Its goal is to provide fun with exciting and engaging mobile games for football fans in the region.

There are over 1 billion football fans across the Middle East and Africa, and Eksab wants to make every tournament more exciting. The startup in an official statement said that it had processed more than 5 million predictions within its first year of operations.

“We live in a region that is obsessed with football. I remember going out to hand out flyers on the day that Egypt made it to the World Cup. People were fighting over Eksab flyers with the Egyptian team’s picture on them,” said Co-Founder and CEO Aly Mahmoud, “It was an intense yet pivotal moment. We knew we had tapped into something special.”

500 Startups has been keeping tabs with the sports sector for a while. According to Sharif El-Badawi, Partner at the VC firm, Eksab has impressive achievements. While citing that the startup’s team are heavily focused on the user-experience by talking to users every day, he said: We believe we can add significant support to Eksab with our investment.

California-based VC firm 500 Startups has an investment portfolio of over 2,000 companies in more than 74 countries.

AFCON Focus

“There has never been a more exciting time to be a football fan in the Middle-East and Africa than now. We plan to capitalize on increased attention, engagement, and spending on football content in the region, and are very fortunate to be able to go on this journey with 500 Startups.

It’s going to be quite busy, and this is all ramping up to the 2022 World Cup. The timing couldn’t be better for us to partner with one of the most notable investors worldwide,” highlighted Aly Mahmoud.

The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, also called the Total 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, is scheduled to be the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men’s football championship of Africa held under the auspices of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

The Egypt-hosted tournament will be held from 21 June to 19 July 2019, as per the decision of the CAF Executive Committee on 20 July 2017 to move the Africa Cup of Nations from January/February to June/July for the first time. This is also the first Africa Cup of Nations competition that has seen the expansion from 16 to 24 teams.