Mojo: Stock market for sports created by Ranney School graduate
Vinit Bharara is co-founder and chief executive officer of Mojo, a company that allows investors to buy and sell football players like companies on the stock exchange. The company has found a new business model that combines sports betting and the the Stock Exchange. It is starting in New Jersey and is expected to add more states and more sports. New York is attractive for operators entering the U.S. sports gambling market. Bharar lives in Manhattan with his wife, Veenu, daughter, Kareena, 17, and son, Kavi, 15.
Mojo is a stock market for sports created by Ranney School graduate Bharara. It's been approved by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. Investors buy and sell football players' stock. Mojo takes a 1% commission on each trade. It will need to get similar approval in each additional state. Its investors are the NFL Players Inc., the licensing and marketing arm of the players’ union. The company has 90 employees and $100 million in venture funding. They are based in the Flatiron District of Manhattan. Their stock prices are determined by factors like age, speed, draft position and team's offensive system.
Bharara grew up in Eatontown with his parents, a pediatrician and his mother. His brother Preet graduated as valedictorian and went to Harvard College. Vinit graduated three years later as salutatorian at the University of Pennsylvania and joined Marc Lore and Lax Chandra to start their first business. Pret is now a U.S. Attorney.
Bharara left his job as a lawyer to start Pit.com, an online market for collectors to buy and sell baseball trading cards. He sold Pit to Topps for $5.7 million in 2001, joined Lore to create Diapers. com, sold the parent company to Amazon for $545 million, launched two media companies, Some Spider Studios and CAFE. Preet started a podcast called "Stay Tuned With Pearly." He will sell his media and start a new business called Mojo in late 2020. The value of baseball cards is now based on external factors, like how many cards the manufacturer made.
