We're back with Ep. 126 of The Betting Startups podcast, where guest host Thomas Coiner chats with Jake Gillikin from Ranked, a community-driven college football stats platform. Hear them discuss: Jake's background in tech and the inception of Ranked The inspiration for creating a dedicated college football app Jake teaching himself to code and building Ranked as a one-man-band Overcoming early challenges and organic growth strategies The importance of solving a specific pain point for college f...
Aug 06, 2024•27 min•Ep. 145
Ep. 125 features Jon Robin from Dabble, which takes an innovative approach of combining social elements with sports betting. This episode is guest hosted by Benjie Cherniak. Hear them discuss: Jon's entrepreneurial background led to the founding of Dabble The unique social betting experience that differentiates Dabble in the crowded Australian market Strategies for effective user acquisition through leveraging social features within the app The significant investment and strategic partnership wi...
Jul 31, 2024•36 min•Ep. 144
We're back with Ep. 8 of The Gamble & The Glory, where we meet founders that have built their companies to become stalwarts of the sports betting, fantasy, and iGaming industry. In this one, we speak with Steven Salz from Rivalry. Hear him discuss: How his background laid the foundation for Rivalry The origin story of Rivalry, starting from trading in-game items to becoming a top esports betting brand The importance of understanding the demographic and psychographics of esports bettors How R...
Jul 29, 2024•51 min•Ep. 143
Ep. 124 features Jay Huffman from Propellor on redefining fantasy sports with friends. Hear him discuss: His early career movement inside the startup environment. The importance of securing legal approval to proceed with Propellor. The concept of Propellor where they're reversing traditional parlay dynamics. Propellor's unique approach to leveraging text messages for group play. Creative game features like the shame bell, veto options, and other engaging social interactions. His product design p...
Jul 24, 2024•31 min•Ep. 142
Ep. 123 is our quarterly Investor Vibe Check, where we chat with 3 industry investors to get their perspective on the landscape from their side of the table. The vibe check for Q2 features Chris Grove (Acies Investments), Roger Ehrenberg (Eberg Capital) and Davis Catlin (Discerning Capital). Hear them discuss: Reflections on Q2 and the six-year anniversary of PASPA’s repeal, and its implications on the iGaming industry. The surprising consolidation of operators in the U.S. market and what challe...
Jul 17, 2024•50 min•Ep. 141
Ep. 122 features Björn Nilsson from FTDx, which is transforming blocked traffic. Hear him discuss: His career journey through various payment and operator roles, including consulting for Betfair, Unibet, and others. The origins and evolution of Triggy, a product aimed to convert fans into bettors. The founding of FTDx, focusing on monetizing non-local traffic for gaming operators. Challenges in managing regulatory environments and non-monetized traffic. FTDx's simple integration process and the ...
Jul 10, 2024•24 min•Ep. 140
Ep. 121 features Kelson Quan from Wager Games, which is the social content plugin for sports betting apps. Hear him discuss: Growing up in San Francisco, and his background working in tech at companies like Apple Why he thinks the betting industry hasn’t received more attention from Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors How Wager Games is using video content to make sports betting more accessible for people without betting domain expertise Building product, and his team’s approach to custom...
Jul 03, 2024•30 min•Ep. 139
Ep. 120 features Nic Sulsky from The Curling Group, which is focused on transforming and promoting the sport of curling. Hear him discuss: His journey from co-founding Monkey Knife Fight and working at PointsBet to leading The Curling Group How he put together the deal to acquire the Grand Slam of Curling from Sportsnet The untapped potential of curling as a major sport and betting market The importance of content creation and engagement to attract a younger audience to curling Challenges and st...
Jun 25, 2024•40 min•Ep. 138
We're back with Ep. 7 of The Gamble & The Glory, where we meet founders that have built their companies to become stalwarts of the sports betting, fantasy, and iGaming industry. In this one, we speak with Jai Maw & Jeremy Jakary from Betting Hero. Hear them discuss: How their backgrounds laid the foundation for Betting Hero The origin story of Betting Hero, originally called Sports Betting Street Team How they leveraged the Covid-19 shutdown as a way to get ahead of the competition The i...
Jun 20, 2024•54 min•Ep. 137
Ep. 119 features Zack Panos from 4casters, which is the future of sports betting. Hear him discuss: His backstory and early interest in betting The challenges and learnings in starting an exchange 4casters today and how they operate Taking an organic approach to growth with a focus on being prepared for the U.S. market His thoughts on what will drive the U.S. market towards an exchange What it’s like living in Curaçao Maintaining a positive attitude while navigating a startup Learn more 👇 ➡️ 4c...
Jun 17, 2024•36 min•Ep. 136
Ep. 118 features Thomas Coiner from BettingStartups.com, the authoritative source for everything related to the early-stage ecosystem within the real-money gaming industry. Hear Thomas and Jesse discuss: Thomas’ background in sports media and how he entered the startup scene. The motivation behind Jesse opening up the GM role and how he filled it. BettingStartups.com ’s SBC Summit North America activation. How Thomas plans to take the Betting Startups podcast to the next level. An update on the ...
Jun 12, 2024•26 min•Ep. 135
Ep. 117 features John Maylam from 7Qz, which is a free-to-play and pay-to-play sports prediction game. Hear him discuss: Why he sees a gamified, P2P experience as the answer to many of the existing issues with sports betting His product design philosophy of making 7qz “easy enough for your grandmother to play” The story of overcoming his own sports gambling addiction 20 years ago, and how that experience is shaping his approach to 7qz The loneliness of being a founder, and how he’s addressed tha...
Jun 05, 2024•27 min•Ep. 134
Ep. 116 features Desiree Dickerson from THNDR, which is payments tech reducing risk for greater reward. Hear her discuss: Her recent experience pitching THNDR at the SBC Summit North America conference in New Jersey The origin story of how her team built THNDR to solve their own problems as developers of mobile games How the immediacy and low-cost nature of using Bitcoin for micropayments will help drive growth for real-money gaming products Why she and her team are committed to building on Bitc...
May 30, 2024•29 min•Ep. 133
Ep. 115 features Matthew Gilbery & Rob Davis from Optimove, which is the #1 CRM marketing solution for the iGaming industry. Hear them discuss: Rob’s background as co-founder of Graphyte, a personalization startup that exited to Optimove in 2022 The synergies between Graphyte and Optimove, and why the acquisition made sense for both sides How Optimove drives CRM marketing through player personalization When startups should consider building personalization into their marketing mix The role o...
May 23, 2024•22 min•Ep. 132
Ep. 114 features Steven Astrachan and John Goehrke from 916 Gaming, which bring skill, interactivity, and engagement to iCasino content. Hear them discuss: Winning the $40k prize package at the 2024 First Pitch competition at the SBC Summit North America on May 9 The high-risk, high-reward approach they took to delivering their winning pitch Why they pivoted from working in the sports betting category to the iCasino category How the casino games they are building resonate with a younger demograp...
May 16, 2024•30 min•Ep. 131
Ep. 113 features Lloyd Danzig from Sharp Alpha Advisors, which is a venture capital firm specializing in sports, gaming, and entertainment. Hear him discuss: Reaching the milestone of oversubscribing Fund II, and how he is feeling now that the fund has closed The similarities and differences in the process between startups raising money from VCs, and VCs raising money from LPs What factors LPs are looking for when determining which VC funds to invest capital into How his learnings from deploying...
May 14, 2024•26 min•Ep. 130
Ep. 112 is the official First Pitch preview episode, where we will meet the 5 startups selected to present at SBC Summit North America on May 9. In this episode, you will hear from: John Goehrke and Steven Astrachan from 916 Gaming John Pereira and Ben Howard from EdgeSports Calvin Konya from Linemate Shawn Tucker from StatX Sports Desiree Dickerson from THNDR These startups will be competing for a prize package valued at over $40,000 on May 9 at SBC Summit North America. If you don't have a tic...
Apr 24, 2024•26 min•Ep. 129
Ep. 111 features Andrew Pace from inplayLIVE, which is the #1 in-play sports investing platform. Hear him discuss: His background earning a living betting on sports, and how that journey has evolved over the years The “aha” moment he had during Covid to build a community of people dedicated to in-play betting How inplayLIVE has applied an e-learning framework to sports betting to educate people through a masterclass-style curriculum The success that their teachings have created, including 20+ pe...
Apr 18, 2024•38 min•Ep. 128
Ep. 110 is our quarterly Investor Vibe Check, where we chat with 3 industry investors to get their perspective on the landscape from their side of the table. The vibe check for Q1 features Connor Williams ( Velo Partners ), Andrew Ehrenberg ( Eberg Capital ) and Robin Reed ( HappyHour.io ). Hear them discuss: What they make of the uptick in 2024 Q1 funding announcements, and whether they expect to see that pace persist Why Q1 saw several notable strategic investments into B2B startups by industr...
Apr 12, 2024•43 min•Ep. 127
Ep. 109 features John Leekley & Paul Dorian from Home Run Forecast, which is an index rating that measures the favorability of conditions for ball fight. Hear them discuss: How Paul fused his background as a meteorologist with his passion for baseball to develop the Home Run Index What goes into developing a model like the Home Run Index, which is “about 60-65% accurate” How the Home Run Index helps bettors with over/under markets, and fantasy players with start/sit decisions Their go-to-mar...
Apr 04, 2024•31 min•Ep. 126
Ep. 108 features Chris Shreeve from Locker Room Labs, which are sports app development specialists. Hear him discuss: His background owning a marketing services agency, and the lessons he learned running a services-based business How Locker Room Labs is taking a different approach as a services business by “providing value first before aggressively selling” The value of building in public for startups, and developing your personal brand as an entrepreneur Why focusing on a niche and “a specific ...
Mar 28, 2024•35 min•Ep. 125
We're back with Ep. 6 of The Gamble & The Glory, where we meet founders that have built their companies to become stalwarts of the sports betting, fantasy, and iGaming industry. In this one, we speak with Rasmus Sojmark, CEO & Founder of SBC. Hear him discuss: How his interest in the psychology of sports betting led him to study it in university, which included writing a 175 page dissertation on the topic His early days working in the industry, which led him to move from Copenhagen to Lo...
Mar 25, 2024•54 min•Ep. 124
Ep. 107 features Johnny Coetzer from BetLabs, which is reinvigorating the sports betting experience for bettors while helping operators elevate their game. Hear him discuss: The lessons he learned playing chess and tennis growing up, and how they prepared him for life as an entrepreneur How his idea for Boost Bets was derived from the spread betting concept (except it provides the downside protection for players that spread betting doesn’t) Why he’s prioritizing working with platform providers a...
Mar 21, 2024•34 min•Ep. 123
Ep. 106 features Noah Bernstein from Locker, which is getting fans off the bench and in the game. Hear him discuss: The million dollar offer he received to drop out of college to start his first company - which he didn’t take on the advice of his Mom How Locker is blending mechanics from HQ Trivia and traditional fantasy sports to create a live second screen experience The ideation process he followed to develop the Locker concept and ensure it was sufficiently differentiated in a crowded DFS ma...
Mar 14, 2024•26 min•Ep. 122
Ep. 105 features Trevis Waters from PlayerProps.ai , which is a new app fully powered by AI for all things player props research. Hear him discuss: How his passion for fantasy sports led him to write an ebook in 2011, which was the catalyst for him focusing his career on producing educational content within the space His journey as co-founder and COO of DFS Karma and Bet Karma, which were both acquired just last week Why he has focused on building an audience through Facebook groups, which now r...
Mar 06, 2024•44 min•Ep. 121
Ep. 104 features Matt Rum from LoopGolf, which is golf’s premium betting app. Hear him discuss: How Matt and his co-founder conceived the LoopGolf concept while working together at Square How LoopGolf is streamlining the competitive nature of golf by facilitating popular game formats with integrated payments The regulatory complexity of the payments domain, and why payments are LoopGolf’s “single biggest moat” How Matt thinks about team structure as he builds out the LoopGolf organization Featur...
Feb 28, 2024•35 min•Ep. 120
Ep. 103 features Calvin Konya from Linemate, which is sports analytics for everyone. Hear him discuss: His vision for how Linemate will become “the Expedia of sports betting” Iterating the Linemate product from its origins as a “research and analysis” tool to now helping users with “the discovery aspect” of betting How they generated 100,000+ organic app downloads in the last year, half of which has come in the last 60 days Using customer feedback loops to continually iterate and improve the pro...
Feb 20, 2024•29 min•Ep. 118
We're back with Ep. 5 of The Gamble & The Glory, where we meet founders that have built their companies to become stalwarts of the sports betting, fantasy, and iGaming industry. In this one, we speak with Charles Gillespie & Kevin McCrystle, CEO & COO of Gambling.com Group. Hear them discuss: The go-to-market plan for launching the business in 2006, which involved moving to Shanghai to launch a sports betting information site focusing on the Chinese market Abandoning the China strate...
Feb 16, 2024•53 min•Ep. 119
Ep. 102 features Andrew & Ethan Ehrenberg from Eberg Capital, which help creators and their fans develop closer, more authentic relationships across sports, gaming and the arts. Hear them discuss: The origins of Eberg Capital, which they started alongside their father after graduating from university Their thesis on the betting industry, and why they decided to align their investing activity to opportunities within the space The inner workings of how their firm evaluates deals and makes inve...
Feb 13, 2024•41 min•Ep. 117
Ep. 101 features Chris Spagnuolo from Probly, which helps bettors win more and lose less. Hear him discuss: His background in content and helping to grow Barstool “from a regionalized sports blog to a national powerhouse” Learning to use data to become a successful DFS player while working at Stokastic How Probly is using data to help people make educated bets in a simplified mobile UX The importance of user feedback during the journey towards finding product-market fit The role that he sees con...
Feb 06, 2024•32 min•Ep. 116
