Ep. 154 features Travis Geiger, who joins Jesse in this special episode that zooms in on the upcoming Starties awards show on March 12. Hear them discuss: Their reflections on the crazy journey in the last 30 days since The Starties were announced A look into the 250+ nominations that were submitted for the 9 award categories The creation of the Starties Academy , and the inspiration behind creating a voting committee to ensure fairness and transparency The unique venue where The Starties will b...
Feb 26, 2025•29 min•Ep. 176
Ep. 153 features Tyler Amirault and James White from HotTakes, which is the ultimate free-to-play sports betting simulator. Hear them discuss: How their time at Western University led to HotTakes, starting as a passion project before becoming a full-time venture The idea behind HotTakes—letting sports fans try betting for free, win real cash prizes, and learn without risk Their business model, which monetizes user attention and shares value with players through an affiliate-driven rewards system...
Feb 18, 2025•35 min•Ep. 175
Ep. 152 features Tiffany Santisteban Lagos from EmpowerYourPlay, which transforms gaming rewards by integrating micro-giving to charities of players’ choice. Hear her discuss: EmpowerYourPlay winning the recent Pitch ICE competition, and the benefits that has brought How EmpowerYourPlay is using charitable giving as a new player retention mechanism for operators The insights she got from speaking to over 10,000 players before launching, and how that helped validate her hypotheses Why Gen Z and M...
Feb 11, 2025•33 min•Ep. 174
Ep. 151 features Simon Gerszberg from ShotQuality, a sports data extraction company using CV, AI and data science to optimize pricing for Sports-books and syndicates. Hear him discuss: How a chance college roommate pairing sparked the beginning for ShotQuality The strategy shift that saw them move away from selling analytics to colleges - despite having 25 Division 1 teams as clients How their first sportsbook deal came from betting into the market using ShotQuality data His experience successfu...
Feb 04, 2025•28 min•Ep. 173
Ep. 150 features Pierre Lindh from NEXT.io , the world’s iGaming community. Hear him discuss: The life and legacy of Nico Jansen His retrospective on the ICE conference's debut in Barcelona Why he feels like NEXT is only now hitting its stride after 12 years of perseverance The risky shift in strategy that NEXT made last year, and how that's paid off since The challenges of building a premium content business with a subscription model His views and insights on how to build and grow community Why...
Jan 29, 2025•54 min•Ep. 172
Ep. 149 features Michael Testa from Wunderfan, with guest host Thomas Coiner. Wunderfan redefines sports loyalty by rewarding fan engagement through an innovative "It Pays to be a Fan" model. Hear them discuss: Wunderfan’s unique slogan "It pays to be a fan", and how that applies to fan loyalty Michael's entrepreneurial journey in customer loyalty and in a startup acquisition How Michael's co-founders, Blake Patterson and Geran de Klerk, are leveraging their past successes for Wunderfan What the...
Jan 21, 2025•33 min•Ep. 171
Ep. 148 features Mark Flores Martin, Founder and CEO of XGENIA, an AI-first company revolutionizing game creation by enabling developers to create games in minutes. Hear them discuss: His journey from ethical hacking and VR gambling to founding XGENIA How the XGENIA team combines expertise in gaming, AI, and technology to create innovative solutions The groundbreaking features of XGENIA, including AI-powered slot machine generation and advanced animation systems Where XGENIA fits within the casi...
Jan 16, 2025•34 min•Ep. 170
Ep. 147 features Bridge Dudley and Sebastian Fay, Co-Founders of Doink Sports, the ultimate research platform for sports betting, offering props, trends, +EV analysis, odds charts, and more. Hear them discuss: How their backgrounds in sports, robotics, finance, and tech led to founding Doink Sports How a friend’s $40 parlay win inspired the idea for Doink Sports and became the foundation of their business How building a failed furniture marketplace app shaped their thinking and approach bringing...
Jan 07, 2025•29 min•Ep. 169
In this episode, Jesse and Thomas huddle up to reflect on 2024 for BettingStartups, and lookahead to 2025. They discuss: Their biggest reflections and highlights from 2024 News that Optimove is returning as the headline sponsor of The Betting Startups Podcast in 2025 A lookback at 8 of their favorite clips from this year's podcast episodes The success of their media partnerships in 2024, and how those will grow in 2025 Their high-concept pitch for the soon-to-launch Startup Hub and founder commu...
Jan 01, 2025•34 min•Ep. 168
Ep. 145 features Alexey Vorobey from AIstats, an AI-powered live score app that provides football fans with real-time match analysis, performance trends, and smart metrics across over 2,200 leagues worldwide. Hear them discuss: His career pivot away from being a lawyer and into tech entrepreneurship How AIstats creates unique stats and predictions with machine learning Why he's not a believer in the xG metric, and "the crusade to replace it with some more advanced and smart things" The marketing...
Dec 17, 2024•34 min•Ep. 167
🚨 Emergency episode! In his first interview since news broke of Gambling.com 's acquisition of OddsJam's parent company Odds Holdings, CEO Matt Restivo joins Jesse to share his perspective on the story behind the headlines. Hear him discuss: his reflections on Odds Holdings' growth to $26m in revenue in just 3.5 years why they decided to pursue a deal, and insights into what that process looked like the synergy he sees with Gambling.com , and how the partnership will fuel further growth for the...
Dec 15, 2024•20 min•Ep. 166
Ep. 144 features Adam Small, co-founder of Third Planet Affiliates, a leader in online gaming content. Hear him discuss: How he unintentionally got started in the affiliate space with PocketFives, and later with USBets What motivated him to launch Third Planet Affiliates at this stage of his career, and the vision behind its portfolio of properties that includes Lottery Geeks, Casino Reports, and Props.com The evolving affiliate model and opportunities for innovation in the gaming industry - esp...
Dec 10, 2024•44 min•Ep. 165
Ep. 143 is a roundtable discussion on the Sweepstakes industry, featuring Trevor Pope from The Money Factory , Zach Bruch from MyPrize , and Jeff Laniado from Optimove . Hear them discuss: The massive growth opportunity they see for social sweepstakes gaming The origins and growth trajectories of The Money Factory and MyPrize Challenges of compliance and barriers to entry in the sweepstakes space How MyPrize innovates through content creator partnerships and community engagement Why social inter...
Dec 03, 2024•32 min•Ep. 164
Ep. 142 features Nigel Eccles, CEO and Co-founder of BetHog, a crypto casino and sportsbook from the creators of FanDuel. Hear him discuss: His early career at Flutter where he helped bring the betting exchange concept to market The origin story of Fanduel, and his reflections of its impact on legalized sports betting in the U.S. The role that he sees startups playing in driving innovation within real-money gaming The vision behind BetHog, the gaps it's addressing, and how he thinks about produc...
Nov 25, 2024•49 min•Ep. 163
Recorded on the day of their public launch, Ep. 141 features Cal Spears and Jonathan Bales from Gambly, which is your sports betting copilot. Hear them discuss: How Cal and Jonathan came together to launch Gambly after their non-competes expired following their last exits The inspiration for Gambly, and the founding use cases for the product Why they think Gambly will add value to both casual and sharp bettors alike How they're thinking about the journey towards finding product-market fit Why th...
Nov 19, 2024•34 min•Ep. 162
Ep. 140 features Robert Lenzhofer, CEO of Hölle Games, which produces slot games and gaming platforms, with a focus on regulated markets and localized content. Hear Robert discuss: His journey in gaming, from tech in Austria to founding Hölle Games The origins and growth of Hölle Games, which focuses on the German market with localized content The challenges and nuances of slot game development and creating a unique platform How Hölle Games differentiates in a crowded slot market through complia...
Nov 12, 2024•34 min•Ep. 161
Ep.139 features Jesse live from the SBC Summit in Lisbon, joined by Adam Wilson from Splash Tech, Hear them discuss: How Adam's early journey in the betting industry took shape and evolved The post-mortem on his first startup Bookee, which became known as the "Tinder for Betting" The origin story of Splash Tech, and how his learnings from the Bookee journey influenced his approach to building Splash Tech How Splash Tech’s free-to-play games drive customer acquisition and engagement, and what set...
Nov 06, 2024•36 min•Ep. 160
Ep. 138 features Jesse live from the SBC Summit in Lisbon, joined by Rob Rubio from Fluid, which is a cutting-edge checkout solution powered by machine learning. Hear them discuss: Rob’s journey through the industry, and how his time working for an operator helped him identify the pain point that Fluid is now solving The positive response that Fluid got from the market after launching at ICE earlier this year, and the traction they have experienced since How is improving the "money in, money out...
Oct 29, 2024•25 min•Ep. 159
Ep. 137 features Jack Andrews and Justin Phan from Unabated, which is the tools and resources you need to become a winning sports bettor. Hear them discuss: The recent G2E conference in Las Vegas, and Jack's biggest takeaway from it What has surprised Jack the most since launching Unabated 4 years ago Jack's view of how the American betting population "breaks down in cultural generations" The crazy story of serendipity that led Justin to joining Unabated as their new Managing Director Why Unabat...
Oct 22, 2024•38 min•Ep. 158
Ep. 136 features Matt Bresler, Founder and CEO of Odditt, a suite of world-class sports betting tools and analytics. This episode was recorded in person with Jesse at the G2E conference in Las Vegas. Hear them discuss: Why Matt relocated to Las Vegas to work on Odditt, and the value that move has brought to the company Matt's experience participating in ZeroLabs' inaugural cohort, and more recently as a mentor in the latest cohort How developing his own betting models uncovered the problem that ...
Oct 15, 2024•31 min•Ep. 157
Ep. 135 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 Q3 features Evan Meyer (Astralis Capital), Paris Smith (Life Winning), and Joel Simkins (XST Capital). Hear them discuss: Their investing background, and current focus areas within real-money gaming Recent consolidation amongst micro-betting technology providers, and how they see that shifting the dynamics within the cate...
Oct 05, 2024•57 min•Ep. 156
Ep. 134 features Evan Kirkham from Outlier, which is a cutting-edge sports betting app that helps users make smarter bets, no matter the sportsbook. Hear him discuss: How life has changed for Evan and the Outlier team after finding product-market fit since his last appearance on the podcast Insight into Outlier's internal product development process, and how they maintain a strong shipping cadence with a lean team The flywheel that has led to Outlier pushing over 500,000 bets per week to sportsb...
Oct 01, 2024•37 min•Ep. 154
Ep. 133 features the winner of SBC's First Pitch, Radek Psurny from Match Hype. Hear them discuss: Radek's reflections on winning the SBC First Pitch competition and pitching on the big stage The journey of building Match Hype, a platform for dynamic sportsbook video content How Match Hype automates videos with real-time stats, predictions, and content in 30+ languages The tech behind Match Hype being built by an experienced team Match Hype's future plans with live content The opening of their s...
Sep 24, 2024•22 min•Ep. 153
Ep. 132 features Keith Stewart from Read the Line, which delivers actionable golf betting insights & analysis from the perspective of a PGA Professional. Hear him discuss: His life's journey in golf and how becoming a PGA Professional has elevated his career Four reasons why golf is one of the best sports for betting The origins of Read the Line and how it's filling a gap in the golf content space. The importance of why Read the Line covers the LPGA How proactive content is a key differentia...
Sep 17, 2024•30 min•Ep. 152
Ep. 131 features Kelly Kehn, Paris Smith, and Sue Schneider from Defy the Odds, which leverages community, mentorship, and capital to drive innovation for the future of gaming. Hear them discuss: Kelly’s broad industry experience that includes time Bodog, to launching the All-in Diversity Project as a not-for-profit, to venture capital with HappyHour.io Paris’ 17-year experience as CEO of Pinnacle, and transition to angel investing and advising in her post-Pinnacle career Sue’s unique career pat...
Sep 10, 2024•31 min•Ep. 151
Ep. 130 features Chase Richardson from Full Pull, which is growing the sport of truck and tractor pulling through innovative real money gaming and digital streaming platforms. Hear him discuss: An introduction to the sport of truck and tractor pulling, and why it's perfectly suited for betting The launch of Full Pull's real-money gaming product, and how the early response has been How content and streaming will attract new fans, including through its partnership with Betr The role of sponsorship...
Sep 03, 2024•31 min•Ep. 150
Ep. 129 is the official First Pitch preview episode, where we will meet the 5 startups selected to present at SBC Summit on September 24 in Lisbon, Portugal. Sue Schneider, VP of Growth and Strategy for the Americas at SBC, shares her perspective of the upcoming event, discussing the diversity of submissions, the evolution of First Pitch, and opportunities for all startups at the Summit. In this episode, you will hear from the five finalists: Adam Fonsica from Random State Tom Lemke from SavageT...
Aug 27, 2024•33 min•Ep. 149
Ep. 128 features Rob Urwin and Sabin Brooks from Bettormetrics, which offers next-generation sports trading analytics. Hear them discuss: Rob’s background co-founding BetNOW, a VC-backed startup that enabled mobile betting via SMS (before iPhones were invented!) Sabin’s journey through working at Sky Sports, SkyBet, and PartyPoker.com How Bettormetrics is helping trading teams reduce market downtime, and how that's positively impacting sportsbook KPIs A look behind the curtain at trading operati...
Aug 20, 2024•33 min•Ep. 148
Ep. 127 features Dan Zimmerman from Verse Fantasy which fuses fantasy sports and real-money gaming. Hear him discuss: His original idea of launching a betting exchange, which he realized would be "a very difficult endeavor" - thus triggering an early pivot to DFS How the LeagueSync product allows season-long fantasy players to win real-money on weekly matchups Using product-led growth tactics to drive user adoption of the Verse Fantasy app The recent launch of Verse Media, which was "built to se...
Aug 13, 2024•31 min•Ep. 147
We're back with Ep. 9 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 Jay Deuskar & Dylan Cooper from PrizePicks. Hear them discuss: The origin story of PrizePicks with its goal to simplify the DFS experience for casual fans How the PASPA repeal created an opportunity for PrizePicks to attack DFS while the incumbents shifted focus to sports betting The ke...
Aug 12, 2024•47 min•Ep. 146
