The Betting Startups Podcast

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...

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 feat...

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 implicat...

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 ma...

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 acce...

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 im...

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 Bet...

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...

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...

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 e...

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 h...

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 pers...

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 ca...

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 a...

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...

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...

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 e...

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 Ind...

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 st...

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 disse...

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 prote...

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 fo...

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 a...

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 “singl...

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...