The Betting Startups Podcast

Ep. 82 features Sim Harmon from Kutt, which is the social betting platform. Hear him discuss: The issues he sees with the current state of sports betting, and how he’s addressing it with Kutt’s peer-to-peer model Why he believes that focusing on social and community features will help Kutt to differentiate The opportunity he sees with bets on politics, entertainment, and other non-sports markets B...

Ep. 81 features Megan Lanham from Rithmm, which is a personalized predictive analytics tool for sports betting. Hear her discuss: Her 10-year career as a Division 1 basketball coach, and how that experience prepared her for competing in business How she came up with the original idea for Rithmm while studying at MIT The opportunity she sees in “providing access to incredibly complex analytical mod...

Ep. 80 features Cal Spears, serial industry entrepreneur who joins to take us through his history in the US online gambling industry before PASPA’s repeal in 2018. Hear him discuss: The online poker boom in the early 2000’s, which led him to co-found PocketFives.com in 2005 The passage of UIGEA in 2007, which prompted him to sell PocketFives and relocate to Costa Rica with his co-founders Launchin...

Ep. 79 features Jacob Fortinsky, co-founder & CEO of Novig, a commission-free sports betting exchange. Hear him discuss: Why he thinks “that the fundamental business model of this industry is broken and untenable.” Why he believes that a commission-free exchange is the future of betting Learnings from Novig’s recent beta product rollout, which will launch in CO this fall His experience taking...

Ep. 78 features Chris Reynolds from Epoxy.ai, which is a personalization technology company providing tools to develop new forms of customer acquisition, engagement, and retention. Hear him discuss: His experience building fan engagement technology products at his last startup, which was acquired by Comcast How he believes artificial intelligence and machine learning will be leveraged by the betti...

Ep. 77 features Jack Taylor from ProfitDuel, which is bringing matched betting to the US market.   Hear him discuss: Matched betting as a ‘side hustle’ to generate side income The role and prominence of matched betting within the UK gambling ecosystem His main learnings from the mature UK market as ProfitDuel launches in the US Why he does’t believe that free bet offers from US operators will “dry...

Ep. 76 features Sam Factor, founder & CEO of WalterPicks, which is a next-generation fantasy insights app.  Hear him discuss: Starting his career as a math teacher before pivoting into tech entrepreneurship and content creation How WalterPicks is helping fantasy players make decisions using AI “powered by millions of advanced historical player stats” The importance of top-of-funnel for subscri...

Ep. 75 is our first quarterly Investor Vibe Check, where we chat with 3 industry investors to get their perspective on the landscape from their side of the table.   This debut vibe check for Q2 features Chris Grove ( Acies Investments ), Davis Catlin ( Discerning Capital ), and Wayne Kimmel ( SeventySix Capital ) - and it’s a banger, if we may say so!   The discussion explores where we’re at today...

Ep. 74 features Steve Gray, founder of ZeroFlucs, which provides pricing technology for sportsbook operators. Hear him discuss: His background building sportsbook trading solutions at Entain How ZeroFlucs is helping operators expand the appeal of same game parlays The challenges of being a B2B supplier on an operator’s integration roadmap Why he thinks that consolidation amongst operators creates...

Ep. 73 features Martin Burt from ClearStake, which provides accurate, real-time customer risk profiling. Hear him discuss: ClearStake’s origins as a payments business, which it pivoted after “seeing operators try to figure out what to do with affordability” The impact of the UK government white paper to reform gambling regulations, and the increased emphasis it has placed on affordability checks H...

Ep. 72 features Stefano Vaccarino from FTN Network, a multi-site data and media company focused on sports betting, fantasy, DFS. Hear him discuss: How the origins of FTN can be traced back to a burner Twitter account that Stefano created to share his NBA picks Building the initial version of FTN during the pandemic, and encountering challenges finding affordable data feeds to power their network o...

Ep. 71 features Filip Pacyna and Troy Lenihan from FoodFight, where winners eat, losers pay, and restaurants win. Hear them discuss: Validating their idea in Chicago-area bars with a “least viable product” How FoodFight is enhancing the restaurant patron experience by enabling bets using food and drinks as the currency Their vision for FoodFight to grow from an events business into a productized S...

Ep. 70 features Justin Park from Betty, which is innovating at the intersection of real money online casino and casual mobile gaming. Hear him discuss: The story of his first two startups prior to co-founding Betty, both of which he successfully exited Why he views his first two startups as “singles and doubles” that have now prepared him to “go for a home run” with Betty How being an affiliate in...

Ep. 69 features Geoff Doyle from Bettor Vision, which is the first all-in-one sports betting and fantasy sports aggregator. Hear him discuss: Why being a product owner as an employee lacked the satisfaction that being a founder brings Overcoming adversity when you bomb a pitch on a public and high-profile stage How BettorVision is helping to unify the user experience across fantasy sports and bett...

BettingStartups.com brings you Season 1 of Betting On It, an 8-episode series that follows one betting industry startup as it gets investor-ready ahead of its seed funding round. In the Season 1 finale, Drew and Sahil pitch BetsBooster to 3 industry investors, who share their feedback and perspectives on the opportunity.  The subsequent Q&A leads to some excellent discussion, including: The potent...

BettingStartups.com brings you Season 1 of Betting On It, an 8-episode series that follows one betting industry startup as it gets investor-ready ahead of its seed funding round. In this episode, Drew and Sahil from BetsBooster are joined by James McLoughlin  from Stirling Mac , who shares a ton of practical, actionable marketing advice. They discuss: The basic set of 'marketing musts' for any B2C...

Ep. 68 features Dan Taren from Scrimmage, a retention tool for sports betting operators. Hear him discuss: His experience winning the SBC First Pitch competition, and what he thinks is a recipe for a successful pitch Scrimmage’s origins as a sports betting hedge fund based out of Gibraltar How going through the Techstars accelerator program led to a pivot into the current incarnation of Scrimmage...

BettingStartups.com brings you Season 1 of Betting On It, an 8-episode series that follows one betting industry startup as it gets investor-ready ahead of its seed funding round. In this episode, Drew and Sahil from BetsBooster are joined by Kenneth Giles from Forecastr.co, who drops a ton of knowledge on everything related to financial modeling for early-stage companies. They discuss: Different b...

BettingStartups.com brings you Season 1 of Betting On It, an 8-episode series that follows one betting industry startup as it gets investor-ready ahead of its seed funding round. In this episode, Drew and Sahil from BetsBooster are joined by Aaron Basch from Sparket, who shares his experience running a successful crowdfunding campaign. They discuss: How to prepare to launch a public fundraising ca...

Ep. 67 features Hussain Naqi from Inside The Pocket, a free-to-play content aggregation platform, and WonderWins, a DFS product for cricket and soccer fans in emerging markets. Hear him discuss: His background working for professional sports leagues, including the NFL, MLB, NCAA - plus a long tenure with the Jacksonville Jaguars The current state of the free-to-play landscape Why he thinks that op...

BettingStartups.com brings you Season 1 of Betting On It, an 8-episode series that follows one betting industry startup as it gets investor-ready ahead of its seed funding round. In this episode, Drew from BetsBooster is joined by Colin Davy from Betscope, who discuss their respective entrepreneurial journeys from a number of perspectives.  They discuss: What motivated them to take the leap from c...

BettingStartups.com brings you Season 1 of Betting On It, an 8-episode series that follows one betting industry startup as it gets investor-ready ahead of its seed funding round. In this episode, Drew and Sahil from BetsBooster are joined by the world's top gamification guru, Yu-Kai Chou. This episode was an absolute masterclass in game mechanics, which is especially relevant to B2C products. They...

Ep. 66 features Evan Kirkham from Outlier, where sports fans can browse, analyze, and execute bets with confidence. Hear him discuss: Outlier's origins as a social sports talk app before pivoting the product  Why he and his cofounders decided to execute on the pivot, despite having over 10,000 MAUs How the current Outlier product is creating a one-stop-shop for all stages of the sports bettors' jo...

BettingStartups.com brings you Season 1 of Betting On It, an 8-episode series that follows one betting industry startup as it gets investor-ready ahead of its seed funding round. In this episode, Drew and Sahil from BetsBooster are joined by guest John Gordon, co-founder & CEO of Incentive Games. They discuss: Learnings from the mature UK betting market as the guys look at the US opportunity f...

On Part 2 of Ep. 65, we welcome back Karolina Pelc from BeyondPlay, which is transforming solitary game sessions into engaging multiplayer, entertainment experiences. Hear her discuss: What investors saw in the BeyondPlay opportunity that led to their just-announced $5m+ oversubscribed funding round Her advice for other startups that are fundraising in the current economic environment, and why “yo...