Footballer aims to raise £200,000 to help improve betting site

​Mr​ McGurk​, who made 395 appearances for Darlington and York City​,​ announced his retirement from football ​last month after 13 years as a professional.

Betsofmates.com operates pooled betting on football, darts and rugby.

​​“It’s an idea I came up with 18 months ago and with a couple of friends we went about seeking out a developer to put our idea into action,” said Mr McGurk. “We funded the original costs ourselves and kept everything down to a minimum.”

The betting site has taken over £70,000 in bets and has over 1,110 users.

“We have achieved this through hard work, but we all have full-time jobs and sometimes we have not always had the time to work on the site as much as we would like.”

Mr McGurk, who plans to sign part-time for Harrogate Town, added: “Now I am moving into part-time football I will have the time to focus my efforts towards the business. We feel ready to go the next level now.

“To do that we need funding to develop an app, make improvements to the site and to start marketing the brand.

“It’s a unique idea and users keep coming back each week.”