The Betting Startups Podcast

Ep. 40 - Nik Bonaddio, BigBrain Games

Ep. 40 is guest hosted by Lloyd Danzig from Sharp Alpha Advisors, who introduces you to Nik Bonaddio, founder and CEO of BigBrain.
Hear Nik discuss:
Appearing as a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, winning $100,000, and quitting his job the next day to pursue his first startup
Launching Numberfire as Moneyball for fantasy sports, and scaling it to $2m in revenue before exiting to Fanduel in 2015
His experience working as Fanduel’s Chief Product Officer, and why after 4+ years he “wanted to kind of get back to the craziness of startups”
Why it was “kind of obvious” to him that the DFS model could be applied to the brain games category, which was the catalyst for BigBrain
His strategy to build a cap table with both betting industry investors and industry-agnostic VC firms including First Round Capital, BoxGroup, Ludlow, and Golden Ventures
His long-term plan to buy the Pittsburgh Pirates, and why his first move as owner will be to reduce ticket and concession prices
 
Learn more 👇
 
Episode Guest:
➡️  BigBrain in the app store
➡️  BigBrain website
➡️  Nik Bonaddio on Linkedin
 
Episode Host:
➡️  Sharp Alpha Advisors website
➡️  Lloyd Danzig on Linkedin

Ep. 39 - Rob Pizzola, The Hammer Betting Network

Ep. 39 introduces you to Rob Pizzola, co-founder of The Hammer Betting Network, which is the industry leader in providing trusted sports betting content.
Hear him discuss:
His journey as a longtime betting content creator, and one of “the OG’s of Gambling Twitter”
The grind of betting professionally at scale over several years, and why he “would give up sports betting in a second” if he could
Why he believes in being price sensitive when betting on sports, and how that belief led him to become co-owner of Bet Stamp
The problem he has with betting content creators that misrepresent themselves, and how he is bringing transparency to all content published on thehammer.bet
How he was able to onboard dozens of top creators to build the network in only a few weeks, and how he plans to scale content creation on the platform
His advice for people who aspire to become sports betting content creators
 
Learn more 👇
 
➡️  Hammer Betting Network website
➡️  Hammer Betting Network on Twitter
➡️  Rob Pizzola on Twitter

Ep. 38 - Michael Zavagno, TopProp Fantasy

Ep. 38 introduces you to Michael Zavagno, co-founder and CEO of TopProp Fantasy, which is the next generation of daily fantasy sports.
Hear him discuss:
Why he believes that TopProp’s head-to-head fantasy contests will “bring that competitiveness” back to fantasy sports
The learnings from launching last NFL season as a web-only product, and how that helped shape the recently-launched TopProp mobile app
The importance of intuitive UX, and how the app’s swipe-based mechanic has helped TopProp attract a younger demographic than the industry average
What he’s hearing from investors as he raises a $1.5m round, which is currently half subscribed
Which NFL player he thinks will win the MVP title this season
 
Learn more:
➡️ Michael Zavagno on Linkedin
➡️ TopProp Fantasy website
➡️ TopProp Fantasy on Twitter
 
(Host note: this episode had some minor audio issues that unfortunately couldn't be improved. It's still 100% worth listening to, but we wanted to acknowledge that it might sound slightly different than usual. We'll do better! 🙌)

Ep. 37 - Kenneth Giles, SimBull

Ep. 37 introduces you to Kenneth Giles, co-founder and CEO of SimBull, which is the stock market for sports.
Hear him discuss:
Leaving his “very stable nine to five job” as an actuary and why he decided to follow in his family’s path of entrepreneurship
How he came up with the concept of a sports stock market, which he believes can grow into a standalone category alongside betting and fantasy
Taking a contrarian approach by focusing on longer-term markets at a time when microbetting is attracting a large amount of attention and investment
His experience going through the Techstars Sports Accelerator, and how “it makes you think about all aspects of your business”
How he views the fundraising environment as SimBull finalizes plans to raise a $1.5m seed round this fall
 
Learn more:
➡️ SimBull website
➡️ SimBull Twitter
➡️ SimBull in Apple app store
➡️ Kenneth Giles on Linkedin

Ep. 36 - Ross Fruin, GridRival

Ep. 36 introduces you to Ross Fruin, co-founder and CEO of GridRival, which is the home screen for race fans.
Hear him discuss:
How GridRival acquired 22,000 users within the first 5 days after launching, and how product virality helped it scale it to over 180,000 users in the first year
GridRival’s progression from season-long fantasy into DFS, and what he’s thinking about as the next step in his long-term plan
The challenges of the quickly changing data landscape within motorsports, and why he thinks it’s possible that data collection “may be a problem we end up solving internally”
Being dismissed by investors as a niche operator before successfully raising $3m from investors who saw the motorsports audience as on that could drive venture-scale returns
How he built an all-star advisory board at GridRival, and his advice for other entrepreneurs on what they should consider when looking for advisors
 
Learn more:
➡️ GridRival website
➡️ Ross Fruin on Linkedin

Ep. 35 - Cooper Lycan, SoBet

Ep. 35 introduces you to Cooper Lycan from SoBet, a sports betting media platform that publishes sports betting content from independent experts.
Hear him discuss:
SoBet’s origins as a peer-to-peer betting product, which he pivoted into a premium content platform after learning about the challenges of “the liquidity issue”
His take on the creator economy and why it’s important to build a platform that allows creators to remain independent
His experience raising money in the current environment, and why it was the “hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life”
How serving in the military helped has helped make him a more resilient entrepreneur and leader
Learn more👇
➡️ SoBet website
➡️ Cooper Lycan on Linkedin

Ep. 34 - Dean Sisun & Jake Benzaquen, Prophet Exchange

Ep. 34 introduces you to Dean Sisun and Jake Benzaquen from Prophet Exchange, which is the US sports betting exchange.
Hear them discuss:
Moving to the UK to build experience in a regulated market where betting exchanges are a mature product category
Their impending product launch in New Jersey, and what it means to each of them to reach this milestone after four years of effort
The need to educate US customers on the benefits of using an exchange, and their focus on “building the most simple product possible”
What they are doing to ensure there is liquidity on the platform on launch day
Their experience raising money from investors against a plan that carried regulatory uncertainty, and why theirs was “not the sexy pitch, but the right one"
 
Learn more 👇
➡️ Prophet Exchange website
➡️ Dean Sisun on Linkedin
➡️ Jake Benzaquen on Linkedin

Ep. 33 - Brent Winston, BetSwap

Ep. 33 introduces you to Brent Winston, co-founder and CEO of BetSwap, which is the most efficient, fully integrated, secondary marketplace technology for sportsbooks and platform providers.
Hear him discuss:
His recent experience winning the First Pitch competition at the SBC Summit North America event
How BetSwap’s secondary marketplace for sports bets complements existing cashout features to the benefit of both bettors and operators
Being met with skepticism by trading teams during the B2B sales process, and how he’s overcome that to sign several partnerships for the upcoming NFL season
The importance of getting validation by “having the right people backing you”
His perspective of the newly regulated Ontario betting market as a resident of Toronto
 
Learn more 👇
➡️ BetSwap website
➡️ Brent Winston on Linkedin
 

Ep. 32 - Will Armitage & Philipp Stritzke, BestOdds.com

Ep. 32 introduces you to Will Armitage and Phillip Stritzke from BestOdds.com, the destination for US bettors.
Hear them discuss:
The advantage it provides to build a new brand with a category-defining domain name that “is part of the vernacular”
Their views on the affiliate landscape in the US market, and why the trend towards consolidation of affiliates “does make sense”
The advice they have for new aspiring affiliates to best navigate the compliance path in the regulated US market
The main cultural differences they see between UK and US bettors, and how those differences are helping influence their strategy for BestOdds.com
What sectors and industries (outside of betting!) Will is currently making angel investments into both personally and through his VC funds
 
Learn more 👇
➡️ BestOdds.com website
➡️ Will Armitage on Linkedin
➡️ Philipp Stritzke on Linkedin

Ep. 31 - Ben Cary, CapWize

Ep. 31 introduces you to Ben Cary, co-founder and CEO of CapWize, which combines expert human opinion with cutting-edge simulation models to help bettors make smarter picks.
Hear him discuss:
His 2 key takeaways from the SBC Summit North America event, and what those might mean for the future of the North American betting and iGaming industry
Being selected as one of five finalists to present at the SBC First Pitch competition, and how that platform helped him make valuable new connections
How he leveraged platforms like Twitch and TikTok to build an audience using educational content first while he developed the CapWize product
The importance of simplifying the complex math behind simulations to deliver insightful and actionable insights to bettors
The opportunity he sees for CapWize to help bettors make smarter same-game parlays with a new analysis tool that will be launched later this year
 
Learn more 👇
➡️ CapWize website
➡️ CapWize Twitter
➡️ CapWize Twitch
➡️ Ben Cary on Linkedin and Twitter