| Elevator Pitch: GeoSweep - betting, now with added location! Location is the new black, so what hasn't been geotagged? Two years ago, Henry Oakes had the bright idea to start a betting site based around location, roping in his brother James. After securing funding in 2009, the pair built a prototype - which impressed financier Ben Arbib enough that he invested £2m in the project. They now have a team of 15 is working on GeoSweep from their very purple office on London's Oxford Street. By January, Henry Oakes says the site will have 250,000 players. It's location-based, personalised, and it makes money. And it launches today.What could go wrong?• What's your pitch? "GeoSweep is a new national prize game. Rather than betting on numbers, your 'stake' is a location on the map – your house, your office, the place where you had your first kiss for example. "The game is developed using Google Maps technology allowing users to 'buy' locations with a 10p stake. These plots are then entered into two daily draws – the first pays out a guaranteed minimum prize pot of £5,000 and the second gives players the chance to win £1million. That's got to be better than a load of numbered balls spinning round in a glorified washing machine!" • How do you make money? "At the moment, we want to concentrate on giving as much money away as possible as prizes. Ultimately, revenue will come from a minority share of each stake and advertising as the user base starts to grow." • How are you surviving the downturn? "I guess we are effectively launching in a downturn, though I think in this economic climate, the desire to win extra cash is even greater. 'Buying' a Geo works out at only 10p a day or £3 per month so it's very low cost but with a potentially big return." • What's your background? "At the grand old age of 20, my background is mainly school! I came up with the idea for GeoSweep when I was a struggling student dreaming of making it big. I looked at the National Lottery and thought there must be a more interesting way to play with better odds. I convinced my brother who is an economist to look at the financials with me. We were so convinced, he left his job and here we are today." • What makes your business unique? "The game is built using Google Maps technology so rather than your stake being a number, it is a location which you can personalise should you wish. The odds are much better than say the National Lottery and the draw is every day. The game takes advantage of the interest in geo-location applications and offers something really fresh in a market that was getting a bit stale." • What has been your biggest achievement so far? "Hopefully a successful launch..." • Who in the tech business inspires you? "I think Betfair did a great job of building a successful business on smart technology. They really took advantage of growing demand for online gaming."Mark Zuckerberg is a real inspiration. He saw what millions of people wanted and gave it to them. Being 20 myself, it is inspiring to see really successful business people in my age bracket." • What's your biggest challenge?"Marketing. We need to get as many players on board as possible to sustain the business through the first year. We are working with some great people and have some fun stuff planned for the next few weeks – from painting London purple with the help of art students to floating big blimps around the UK." • What's the most important web tool that you use each day? "From a business point of view, Skype is invaluable. It allows me to talk to colleagues and potential partners globally for free. Personally I'm still a big Facebook fan. I have been so crazy busy over the last year, it has been a really easy way to stay in touch with friends and family." • Name your closest competitors"Although we not a lottery, our natural competitor for audience is the National Lottery so we are being pretty ambitious. We think people are over perma-tans and Saturday evening ball machines." • Where do you want the company to be in five years?"We want GeoSweep to be a household name in both the UK and further afield. It is such a simple concept, we think we can take it to other countries pretty easily. We have already had interest from a major national lottery organisation in Europe."• Sell to Google, or be bigger than Google? "As big as Google would be incredible."geosweep.comInternet startupsGamblingLocation based servicesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Police in 24-hour Twitter project Greater Manchester Police is "tweeting" every incident it deals with in a 24-hour period to give the public an idea of the workload officers face. bbc.co.uk |
British payments to EU set to rise £900m next year The European Parliament voted through a budget rise yesterday that will cost Britain an extra £900 million next year - on the day George Osborne announced deep cuts to public spending. telegraph.co.uk |
Butlins awards first toddler art prize Four-year-old winner William Green's collage reminds judges of GoyaPrize-giving at a new award for contemporary art had to be brought forwardtoday – the overexcitement was visibly rising and the danger of fish/chip/tomato sauce canapes getting dropped all over the place was all too present.The event was the first Butlins toddler art prize where youngsters aged one to four gathered in a fashionable east London gallery for what was, in all likelihood, their first public exhibition. As the artists ran riot, waiting staff offered trays of orange juice and jam tarts.Of course, the overriding reason for today's bash was fun, but Fabienne Nicholas of the Contemporary Art Society, which judged the event, said there was a more serious side to it. "It helps kids to think about their fingerpainting in a different way, and the earlier you can get them being creative, the better."At this age, you can't really pick your next Tracey Emin or Damien Hirst but they're all showing a real excitement about creating something and real originality, which we thought was fantastic. What we have noticed is how many of the kids here come from artistic families – it does make you wonder if it is something genetic."Today was the culmination of a process that began in April when entries were opened. Twelve winners gathered in London, and there were notably no tantrums at an event where they would have been tolerated.The youngest category winner was Milo Milton Lucas, one, from Surrey, whose admittedly fairly randomly structured work had viewers thinking of, perhaps, a very young Willem de Kooning.The overall winner was William Green, left, now five, from Royston, Hertfordshire, who was joined by his grandparents and parents, Jamie and Victoria. His work, a collage made with photographs and sand, began life on a Northumberland beach. "He started making these patterns in the sand," said his mum. "They were really good, and he got quite cross when a boy walked across them. We took photos and that's where the work came from."It certainly impressed the judges. "It is really gorgeous," said Nicholas. "We were astounded by the quality of it.We were sometimes looking at it and thinking of a Goya painting."William seemed pleased by his victory, but clammed up under interrogation from the Guardian. Or perhaps he was taking a Lucian Freud approach to handling the press – treat them with extreme suspicion, say nothing and pray they go away.The exhibition will be open to the public until Friday at Blackall Studios, Shoreditch, east London. PaintingArt and designChildrenMark Brownguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
One in five use birthday as PIN number Nearly one in five card users choose their birthday date as their PIN number, research indicates. telegraph.co.uk |