We're back with Ep. 4 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 Pini Yakuel, Founder & CEO of Optimove.   Hear him discuss: Life in Israel right now, and how the Optimove organization is adapting to the realities of being based in Tel Aviv His background in math and data science, and how "it was mostly instincts" that led him to discover the...

Ep. 96 features Kyle Wiltshire from Testa, which is crowdsourced quality testing built for the iGaming industry.   Hear him discuss: His 10+ year background in the industry, and how that experience led him to discover the problem that Testa is now solving The challenges faced by operators to localize the customer experience, and the role that crowdsourced testing plays in that How his experience raising VC money for his last startup informed his decision to self-fund Testa Why he decided to...

Ep. 95 features Jonathan Strause from Invincible GG, which is AI powered virtual sports.   Hear him discuss: How InvincibleGG is combining AI, NFT’s, and horse racing to create a new category of “competitive gaming” The multi-year journey building the Invincible GG technology, and how he feels about the impending beta product launch The process to get AI simulated games approved by regulators in Nevada Why they chose to incorporate NFT’s into the product mix despite the flight away from NFT’s...

Ep. 94 features David Isaacson from Spectrum Gaming Capital Tech Exchange, which is helping connect gaming industry companies and investors.   Hear him discuss: His background as an investment banker in the real-money gaming industry for the last 10+ years How the SGX platform is giving industry founders a new channel to reach investors with zero cost The types of companies and businesses investors on the platform are looking to back His expectation for capital markets and the general funding...

Ep. 93 features Shubs Kausal & Jaiden Sarai from SharpStakes, which turns your passion for sports into profits.   Hear them discuss: Their passion for business and entrepreneurship, which led them to co-founding SharpStakes as full-time university students How they’re taking a different approach to building betting tools specifically targeted towards Gen-Z Their perspective on Gen-Z’s relationship with sports betting, and how SharpStakes is leaning into that The story of traveling from...

We're back with Ep. 3 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 Omer Sattar, co-founder & CEO of Sightline Payments. Hear him discuss: The importance of putting in the work, and why “10,000 hours is not enough” to become an expert in your domain A crash course (and masterclass) on how payment networks function The challenges he had establishing...

Ep. 92 features Ty Masterson and Dan Gentile from Bettle Fantasy Sports, which is the future of social sports gaming.   Hear them discuss: The stickiness of the season-long format, as evidenced by their 20+ years playing in the same fantasy league How Bettle is enhancing the season-long player experience by introducing DFS-style mechanics to it The growth potential of season-long fantasy despite wider trends towards instant gratification and declining sports viewership amongst Gen-Z...

Ep. 91 features Mike Salvaris from Pro League Network, which is betable live sports. Hear him discuss: How thoroughbred racing inspired the idea for Pro League Network by creating betable content during off-peak times What it looks like to launch and operate a “portfolio of leagues” like the World Putting League, Carjitsu, and Slapfight Championship The revenue potential of owing everything “soup to nuts”, including IP rights, production, distribution, and wagering Where PLN’s leagues fit...

Ep. 90 features Malcolm Wilkinson and Steve Steck from We The Bookie, which is Ireland’s only truly socially-responsible bookmaker. Hear them discuss: Integrating social impact into stigmatized industries, including gambling Their unique model that sees We The Bookie share its profits with customers that have a losing month Why they picked Ireland as their go-to-market jurisdiction to prove out the model before expanding internationally  Their experience going through the process of selecting...

Ep. 89 features TJ Ross from Splash Sports, which is the leading sports gaming platform for peer-to-peer contests. Hear him discuss: His background working in tech in the Bay area, including as founder of a startup in the 500 Startups accelerator Seeing opportunity in real-money gaming, and the “tremendously underserved” category of office pools Why advice received from Joe Montana’s son compelled them to enter the space with a buy-versus-build strategy The insane story of how they acquired...

We're back with Ep. 2 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 Jason Trost, founder & CEO of Smarkets. Hear him discuss: His 16+ year journey starting and growing Smarkets, which has grown to become a £20m per year business How his background in financial trading gave him the idea to launch Smarkets in 2007 to compete with Betfair in the...

Ep. 88 features Rourke Struthers from GameBlazers, which is empowering sports fans to create and manage their own experiences. Hear him discuss: The origins of GameBlazers as the ‘NFT League’, and the eventual pivot away from being a web3 product GameBlazers’ unique concept as a hybrid between fantasy sports and non-fantasy game, which brings together “the best of two worlds” Bringing the thrill of pack opening to a digital experience, and the need to ensure that it remained “very engaging...

Ep. 87 features Torey Korsunsky from Units, which is daily fantasy sports for the curious fan. Hear him discuss: His recent experience as a first-time attendee of G2E in Las Vegas Always having the itch to start something of his own, but why he decided to “get a bit of professional experience under [his] belt” before founding a company How Units is combining DFS with “helping fans focus in on the narratives that are most interesting” His take on the current regulatory scrutiny being placed on...

Ep. 86 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 Dave VanEgmond (Bettor Capital), Jon Von Deylen (Drive by DraftKings), and Lloyd Danzig (Sharp Alpha Advisors).   The discussion goes deep on the shifting operator landscape in Q3, the increasing role of AI and what excites them about it, and some actionable advice for founders looking to raise in a...

Ep. 85 features Joe Brennan and Adam Bjorn from Prime Sports, which is bringing an old-school bookmaking approach to the US market. Hear them discuss:  Being at the forefront of the lobbing effort that eventually led to PASPA’s repeal in 2018 Why they see big opportunity in bringing an old-school bookmaking approach to the US “Doing a really crazy thing ahead of launching” and talking directly to customers that felt underserved by incumbent operators The non-obvious reason why cutting into...

Ep. 84 features Ricky Gold from Juice Reel, which is optimizing the sports betting industry and enriching the sports betting experience. Hear him discuss:  His experience bootstrapping Juice Reel for the first two years while working full-time at his day job How Juice Reel is helping people on their path to becoming sharper bettors Reaching the milestone of over $1bn in bets tracked on the platform His ideas for how data generated by the JuiceReel platform can be productized for adjacent use...

BettingStartups.com presents its newest sub-series, 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 debut episode, we speak with David Briggs, co-founder & Director of GeoComply. Hear him discuss: His start in the industry launching Ladbrokes' first digital offering in 1999 Launching GeoComply to support New Jersey's iGaming rollout in 2013, which was "the most stressful...

Ep. 83 features Matt Deutsch from Bettor Sports Network, which is Sports Talk 3.0. Hear him discuss: His 17-year career as a professional sports broadcaster, and starting “the first ever radio channel dedicated to fantasy sports” on Sirius XM in 2010 How Bettor Sports Network is bringing more innovative ways for sports fans to engage Acquiring the Fantasy Alarm app earlier this year, and the role of gamified experiences in content Why he thinks the content space isn’t yet saturated - even...

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 Bootstrapping Kutt “until he couldn’t anymore”, and the challenges associated with fundraising The...

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 models” in an intuitive user experience Competing as a subscription-based B2C product in the...

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 Launching RotoGrinders 2010 after observing the emergence of daily fantasy sports tournaments from...

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 Novig through YCombinator last year (which remains the only betting company to go through...

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 betting industry How personalization helps operators reduce customer acquisition costs, drive...

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 up” The lack of focus on player harm reduction in the US, which “could really, really cause a...

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 subscription-based consumer products How WalterPicks social accounts attracted over 1 million followers...