BullRush Competitions: A New Era in Sports Picking & Trading
🎥 Watch the full interview here: Betting Startup Podcast with Trent Hoerr
From the Track to the Trading Desk
Before he was building BullRush, Trent Hoerr was building speed. He grew up in central Illinois, competed in track and field through college, and even ran professionally for a year. The same drive that put him on the track took him to Chicago, where he started trading futures.
By 2009, Trent was day trading at one of the leading prop trading firms. He called himself a “volatility chaser” for years, then jumped to the back office and eventually brokerage: doing institutional sales, operations, and a little bit of everything. That’s where he started seeing the gaps in the technology stack that still hobble the industry today.
The Origin Story: From FPFX Tech to BullRush
In 2021, Trent and the team at FPFX Tech built multi‑participant competition tech. Think scalable tournament rails for trading. They leased it to brokers for lead gen, then to prop firms. They ran month-long competitions that drew ~70,000 participants. That wave of interest sparked a more ambitious idea.
The team pressed pause on paid‑entry competitions until they could solve licensing and tax realities. The initial plan: get a gambling license abroad and exclude the U.S. entirely.
Instead, they spent six months writing a white paper and then fought an 18‑month battle to prove that trading competitions and sports picking are games of skill, not gambling. BullRush is the product of that grind.
What BullRush Is (and Isn’t)
BullRush fuses two skill‑based formats under one roof:
- Trading Competitions: Free or paid entry. You get a virtual bankroll and a demo account. The rules are crystal clear; the leaderboard is real‑time. The highest bankroll when the clock hits zero wins the cash prize pool.
- Sports Picking Competitions: A blend of fantasy sports and sportsbook mechanics (moneylines, player props, spreads, totals, single picks, parlays). You place picks using a virtual bankroll with real odds. The money stays virtual until you win.
What BullRush isn’t: a sportsbook or a place to fire off lonely bets in the dark. It’s a competitive arena where the best process wins.
Bringing the Social Back to Betting & Trading
Sports betting exploded when it moved online, but it also lost its social core. No more casino floors, no more shared moments over a ticket window. Trading suffered the same fate as prop firms scaled: more screens, fewer humans.
BullRush puts the social element back in the center: leaderboards, live pressure, shared rules, and bragging rights. Competition makes the experience sticky and meaningful again. You can feel the stadium energy without leaving your desk.
Who’s Playing: Personas, Overlap & Growth
The overlap between traders and sports pickers is enormous. Before sports launched, BullRush had roughly 30,000 users. With sports now in play, that number has grown to ~150,000 and counting. Most traders dabble in both because the underlying skills rhyme: data work, probability, discipline, and risk.
Demographics have evolved, too. Early on, the platform skewed internationally, especially when BullRush offered lots of free options. As strategy shifted and sports rolled out, engagement surged in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and South Africa. The last six months have seen an intentional tilt toward paid users in developed markets.
Gamification, Without the Gimmicks
The early brainstorming phase was wild, with the initial design incorporating a lot of gamified elements. Once the team landed on the name BullRush, the gimmicks went out the window. Gamification here is functional: it keeps users engaged, not distracted. Features are chosen with the community, via surveys, to serve both grinders and weekend warriors.
Translation: BullRush is designed so everyone has a reason to come back tomorrow. Not just yesterday’s winners.
Where the Market Is Going (Signals from FSGA)
BullRush’s recent involvement with an advocacy group, FSGA (Fantasy Sports & Gaming Association). and snapshots from its recent conference point to a market that’s not just big; it’s still expanding:
- 73M → 84M people in North America participating in sports betting or fantasy within months.
- ~24% of people in NA/Canada place a bet or play fantasy at least once per year.
- Handle grew from $120B (2023) to $150B (2024).
- Roughly 70% of participants do both fantasy and sports betting.
For BullRush, that massive overlap is the signal: if people play both, they’ll likely compete at both.
BullRush Competitions: NFL Survivor (How It Works)
BullRush quietly entered the sports side of this market in May; initially to gauge response, then turned on marketing in August. Given that the NFL is the most‑bet sport, NFL Survivor is the perfect on‑ramp.
How NFL Survivor works:
- 19 weekly rounds (NFL regular season)
- 1 final round (NFL Playoffs & Super Bowl LIX)
- Rounds 1–9: 100% of active players advance
- Rounds 10–20: Top 80% advance, bottom 20% out
- Weekly reset: $100,000 virtual bankroll
- 1st prize: $50,000
Roadmap: The Next 6–12 Months and 5‑Year Plan
As a startup, BullRush plans in tight, high‑signal cycles. Over the next 6–12 months, expect:
- Cleanup and polish driven by community feedback
- Feature updates across trading and sports
- Simplified messaging so newcomers get it fast
The 5‑year picture is bold but focused: 5 million users.
Trent also expects more people to seek BullRush as they face shadow bans, limit cuts, and outright bans at sportsbooks and prop firms. People need a new, fair arena to keep competing.
Why It Matters (for Traders, Bettors, and Affiliates)
For traders: BullRush compresses the feedback loop. You can pressure‑test edges under clock, rules, and leaderboards, without risking live capital.
For sports fans: It’s the sportsbook experience without the account‑draining volatility. You still play the odds, but you battle people, not the house.
For affiliates & communities: BYOC (Build‑Your‑Own Competition) lets creators spin up branded contests, rally their audience, and share in the upside.
Trade. Compete. Win.
Join BullRush!
