Fandex, the free-to-play stock exchange for fantasy sports games, has made a significant step in protecting its intellectual property by announcing that its platform has been granted a US Patent.
Patent No. 11,436,674 was granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to Fantasy Business. The fantasy business was granted US patent No. 11,436,674, which covered certain aspects of its fantasy sports teams and player stock market.
Matt D’Alessandro is the CEO of Fandex. “This is an exciting moment for Fandex, as our team worked tirelessly since 2017 to develop this platform. We look forward to meeting with market leaders to talk about licensing or other partnership opportunities.” The patent adds not only to the intellectual property of our fantasy sports exchange but also enhances our competitive edge.
D’Alessandro explained the future IP strategy of D’Alessandro.
We have more patents in the pipeline as part of IP protection, and will continue to innovate and enhance our position on the market and increase revenue.
Risky business
In other countries, including in the UK (where the Football Index was launched in 2015), a “stock exchange model” based on statistics and sportspeople has been tried. In March 2021 the platform, due to its liquidity problems, changed its structure for dividend payouts, resulting in a run of all the shares and the eventual collapse.
Only hours after the trading platform was suspended, BetIndex, the parent company of the business, went into bankruptcy on 11 March 2021.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport commissioned an inquiry in response to the incident, to determine if there were any regulatory failings during the existence of Football Index. Malcom Sheehan QC, the lead investigator of the investigation, criticized Football Index as a Ponzi scheme – a description that was not endorsed by the Gambling Commission.
