Brady Sharp is the CEO of BroThrow, a subscription-based social sports betting app he co-founded in 2019. Sharp, 36, left an executive job in finance with Walmart Inc. of Bentonville to concentrate full time on BroThrow in 2022.
Sharp earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
How did BroThrow come about?
The idea for what would become BroThrow dates back to my undergraduate days at the University of Central Arkansas with co-founders Chad Dickinson and Andy Winkelman (and many other friends). After learning sports betting existed (at the time, mostly through offshore sites or a local bookie), the math of losing over the long run quickly became apparent. To overcome that, we started a group text with the premise of “even money” betting. We’d “throw” out bets in the group and other friends would accept them, on fair terms. It saved everyone a fortune. Fast-forward to 2019, a year after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a key blocker to the expansion of sports betting by the states, and the group text is still going. It occurred to me that we probably weren’t the only ones betting “socially,” so BroThrow was born.
Was it a hard decision to give up a career in finance to concentrate on this company?
Very. Especially with two young children. But I had [wife] Brittney’s support and, with her being a working mom, we’ve been making ends meet. Funny story, the year before I left Walmart, I hit a hole-in-one in a golf tournament and won $50,000. That was a big enabler (and sign).
What do you mean by calling BroThrow the Facebook Marketplace of sports betting?
If you’d like to place a bet through an online sportsbook in Arkansas like Oaklawn Sports, Betly or BetSaracen, you’ll need to deposit funds in order to make a bet, and you’d be betting “against the house.” On BroThrow, our users bet with and pay each other directly through established payment apps in the same way that buyers pay sellers on Facebook Marketplace. We’ve gone a step further, though, and integrated with payment apps like Venmo to simplify payments.
Why did you and your co-founders decide to operate BroThrow without taking a cut of the bets?
This is another key differentiator for us. We’re the only company in sports betting that I’m aware of with a subscription business model. There are two big reasons we decided on a subscription-based business. In view of the Wire Act and Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, we can’t take a “vig” (read: “cut”) and maintain our designation as a social sports betting company. Second, the subscription model squares with our two core philosophies of simplicity and fairness. Every other sports betting company on earth is taking a cut of some kind, putting the bettor at a huge disadvantage. Our business is fundamentally different.
Sign up for Daily E-news
