The Betting Startups Podcast

Ep. 59 - Matthew Berry

Ep. 59 brings you the face of fantasy football himself, Matthew Berry. 
Hear him discuss:
How he encouraged a fan engagement app to go all in on sports betting in Dallas after a “terrible” pitch contest
His journey from writing jokes in Hollywood to becoming the face of fantasy football
How he monetized a passion and hobby by leveraging his expertise and reach through strategic channels
Beyond being a girl dad, Matthew shares what he most proud of and why he prefers his title of “writer” above his other credentials
How the NFL has acknowledged the impact and important of Matthew’s part in fantasy football
How Matthew used his NYT best selling book to ultimately launch a fan engagement community that was sold in 2021
His tactics to brush off criticism and to persevere
Matthew’s picks for the upcoming Super Bowl on Sunday, his ride or die Fantasy player Jalen Hurts or Patrick Mahomes
This episode was guest hosted by Christiana Yebra, CMO of nVenue, which you can learn more about in Ep. 16 from last year.
 
Learn more: 👇
 
➡️ Matthew Berry on Twitter
➡️ Matthew Berry on Wikipedia
➡️ Betsperts website
 
Episode host: 
➡️ nVenue website
➡️ Christiana Yebra on Linkedin

Ep. 58 - Andy Westmeyer, UBetOhio

Ep. 58 introduces you to Andy Westmeyer, CEO of UBetOhio, which is a licensed Type-C operator in the state of Ohio.  
Learn more 👇
 
➡️ UBetOhio website
➡️ Andy Westmeyer on Linkedin
 

Ep. 57 - Bart Stein, Mojo

Ep. 57 introduces you to Bart Stein, co-founder & COO of Mojo, which is the stock market for sports. 
Hear him discuss:
How the four-person founding team of Mojo came together, which includes Alex Rodriguez and Mark Lore
Mojo’s unique concept of a ‘sports stock market’, which allows people to bet on the career statistics of professional athletes
The story of raising $100m for Mojo, including why they decided to raise so much so early
Why he’s “amped” by the idea of the Mojo price becoming part of the national sports culture conversation.
Early learnings from the four months since launching in NJ in September 2022
His assessment on the state of product innovation within betting
Learn more 👇
➡️ Mojo website
➡️ Bart Stein on Linkedin
➡️ Bart Stein on Twitter

Ep. 56 - Drew Tabor, BetsBooster

Ep. 56 introduces you to Drew Tabor, co-founder & CEO of BetsBooster, which is taking the gambling out of betting. 
Hear him discuss:
Being the former #1 Guitar Hero player in the world on four different titles
Using gamification to build a matched betting product for the US market that is seen as “an entertainment product instead of a financial product”
Early adopter success using BetsBooster, including some power users who are “up at about $20,000”
How books like Antifragile and The Millionaire Fastlane helped shift his mindset to take the leap into entrepreneurship
Drawing inspiration from Tim Ferriss’ “real world MBA” concept and applying it to his situation when he left the comfort and stability of his corporate job to start BetsBooster
How he thinks about the advantages and disadvantages of being a team of technical co-founders
Learn more:
➡️ BetsBooster website
➡️ BetsBooster Discord

Ep. 55 - Cameron Conn, OneComply

Ep. 55 introduces you to Cameron Conn, CEO of OneComply.
Hear him discuss:
Growing up in Las Vegas and being “literally born and raised in this industry” with his family’s deep roots in the gaming and casino industry
How his career in the industry has allowed him to experience the pains and challenges of getting and maintaining gaming licenses
What OneComply is doing to make life easier for both licensees and regulators
How he thinks about product-market fit, and whether OneComply has found it
Why he is looking at bricks-and-mortar casinos to drive OneComply’s growth in the US
His advice to industry entrepreneurs on avoiding the pitfalls of accruing regulatory debt
 
Learn more:
➡️ OneComply website
➡️ Cameron Conn on Linkedin
 

Ep. 54 - Joey Levy, Betr

Ep. 54 introduces you to Joey Levy, founder and CEO of betr.
Hear him discuss:
Launching Draftpot in 2015 to simplify the fantasy sports product experience, which “was an incredible learning experience” for him
How his experience with Draftpot helped him realize that “the traditional sports betting user experience was even worse” than it was for fantasy sports
The story of how he and his cofounders at Simplebet decided to focus on micro markets, and how an unexpected insight influenced an early pivot from B2C operator to B2B supplier
Why he believes that “the product experience is still not simple and intuitive enough for your average mass market sports fan to pick up and intuitively interact with it”
The story of how he came to partner with Jake Paul on betr, allowing him to realize his original vision for Simplebet as an intuitive B2C product
The type of culture he is developing at betr, and how his 20-person team was able to "be a day one operator in one of the nation's most important states before some multi-billion dollar companies that have tens of thousands of employees”
Co-founding 305 Ventures to invest in other startups, and his advice to other industry founders who are currently looking to raise capital
 
Learn more 👇
 
➡️ Betr website 
➡️ Joey Levy on Twitter
➡️ Joey Levy on Linkedin 

Ep. 53 - Alex Dubin, BettorOff

Ep. 53 introduces you to Alex Dubin, founder of BettorOff, which is a platform for verified sports wagering tips and information.
Hear Alex discuss: 
His past experience working in the betting space, including as co-founder of an esports data company that was acquired by SportsGrid
His view of the pick-selling landscape, and “the incongruence between sports betting tips on the consumer side and on the producer side”
Why he has decided to position BettorOff against Twitter, and why he thinks that pick tracking is “not something Twitter is gonna be doing”
The importance of building community into the BettorOff product, and what he sees as the hallmarks of a strong user community
How BettorOff was able to acquire its first 12,000 users with a $0 marketing budget
His top prediction for the regulated sports betting industry in 2023
 
Learn more 👇
➡️ BettorOff website
➡️ Alex Dubin on Linkedin

Ep. 52 - WagerWire - Zach Doctor, Guy Dotan, and Travis Geiger

Ep. 52 introduces you to the cofounders of WagerWire, the marketplace for sports bets. 
 
Zach Doctor, Guy Dotan, and Travis Geiger join to discuss:
How the idea of “a marketplace for active sports bets” pulled the 3 friends away from their respective careers to co-found WagerWire
Their vision for how WagerWire will change betting from something that “was once a risk class now becoming an asset class”
Why they decided on a B2B2C go-to-market strategy, and how they’re driving consumer awareness of the marketplace concept
Why being a B2B technology supplier is both “the biggest opportunity and the biggest challenge” of their business
Their journey raising a $3m seed round, and how they got Miami Marlins co-owner Roger Ehrenberg as their lead investor
The dynamic of their co-founder relationship, and the advantages they see as friends who started a company together
 
Learn more 👇
 
➡️ WagerWire website
➡️ WagerWire on Twitter
➡️ Zach Doctor on Linkedin
➡️ Guy Dotan on Linkedin
➡️ Travis Geiger on Linkedin

Ep. 51 - Jason Tauriello, Gambl.io

Ep. 51 introduced you to Jason Tauriello, co-founder and COO of Gambl.io, which is gaming 3.0.
Hear him discuss:
His 20+ year background working in the betting industry, including his first job working for a former runner of Billy Walters
How he sees blockchain technology driving innovation in betting, and the specific problems with the status quo that blockchain solves
His experience building a blockchain betting product during the 2017 crypto bull run, launching an ICO, and the main lessons he took from that project as he builds out Gambl.io
How the UFC’s regulatory strategy is the inspiration for Gambl’s approach to blockchain-based betting in the regulated US market
His outlook on the current state of the crypto and blockchain industry in light of recent high-profile collapses
How he’s thinking about the current bear market, and why he thinks “the next big bull run and peak in the market is going to be about real world use cases”
 
Learn more 👇
 
➡️ Gambl.io website
➡️ Gambl.io on Twitter
➡️ Jason Tauriello on Linkedin
➡️ Jason Tauriello on Twitter 

Ep. 50 - Bo Grey, Wager Score

Ep. 50 introduces you to Bo Grey from Wager Score, which puts responsible gaming in the hands of bettors.
Hear him discuss:
Why as a parent, he didn’t think there were sufficient consumer protections for children in a regulated US betting market, which drove him to found Wager Score
His vision for creating “a uniform risk score for gaming that consumers can understand”, akin to a credit score
Why he believes that the Wager Score concept is perfectly positioned to appeal to the Gen Z demographic
The challenges of being dependent on operators to access the data needed to develop an accurate Wager Score, and what he’s doing to overcome that
Why he thinks that smaller operators fighting for market share “see affordability as a key component to sustainability” and “can actually use responsible gambling as a powerful marketing tool”
The pending launch of Wager Score with BetFred in Ohio next month
 
Learn more 👇
 
Episode guest:
➡️ Wager Score website
➡️ Bo Grey on Linkedin
 
Episode host: 
➡️ Ewa Bakun on Linkedin
➡️ Ewa Bakun on Twitter