Bragster dumps bets and hones in on video bragging

Startups across the globe are knuckling down and concentrating on what works right now, for a lot of very obvious reasons. Included in this is Bragster, the UK-based startup we described as Jackass meets Facebok when they won a $3.5 million Series A in February.

They are now stepping away from betting and focusing on “dares” as, says co-founder Wim Vernaeve says “they were 70% of our new events created.” Out go the old Gottabet features of their earlier incarnation like bets and polls. In come a new focus on “brags”. I guess they threw a lots of features out there before realising that bragging was what their users wanted to do most. That’s reflected in the new “edgier” logo. But it seems rather obvious to point out that the “Jackass” element was (at least I always thought this) their main USP. Plus, Pikum has now entered the market with a somewhat stronger emphasis on the betting angle.

The new Bragster is all about fame. As such it has a new section called BragTV with all the best footage and proper rewards for users in the form of BragTV coverage, Bragging Rights, medals, and levels. Users can also form teams around popular requests and do challenges. “Open Dares”are where multiple people can have a go at the same challenge. They have also created their own branded and hosted video player, which means distributed videos won’t be YouTube ones, but branded as Bragster. More marketing is planned, especially traditional.

Video content goes into the spotlight for the first time, where as videos used to be rather hidden. Bragster is clearly on it’s way to taking advantage of the gradual upswing in online video advertising revenues.