The Betting Startups Podcast

Ep. 44 - Alexander Kane, Sporttrade

Ep. 44 introduces you to Alexander Kane, founder and CEO of Sporttrade, which is America’s most dynamic sports betting platform where sports betting meets stock trading.
Hear him discuss:
Their highly anticipated launch last month in New Jersey, and what the most surprising thing has been so far since going live
Why he decided not to use traditional odds display formats on Sporttrade, and why he believes that the “Sporttrade format” are the most intuitive odds for people to understand
The importance of educating customers on the Sporttrade product, which he thinks will “be one of [their] defining challenges”
The role that partnerships will play in driving customer awareness around the Sporttrade value proposition, such as the current partnership with Unabated
Why he prioritizes engaging on Twitter when so many other things compete for his time and most other industry CEOs eschew this
Drawing inspiration from Airbnb by focusing on “doing things that don’t scale” during Sporttrade’s early days, including personally texting customers that have failed deposits
How he maintains a positive mindset and attitude in the face of skepticism around Sporttrade’s model
 
Learn more 👇
 
➡️ Sporttrade website
➡️ Sporttrade on Twitter
➡️ Alex Kane on Linkedin
➡️ Alex Kane on Twitter

Ep. 43 - Todd Ballard, ALT Sports Data

Ep. 43 introduces you to Todd Ballard, co-founder and CMO of ALT Sports Data, which provides proprietary trading solutions focused on alternative sports.
Hear him discuss:
His experience as an early employee at GoPro, and the journey of going from startup through to IPO
The world of alternative sports, and what makes their billion-plus fans “a highly engaged, passionate audience group”
How he and his co-founder validated the idea for ALT Sports Data, which included some brief consideration to the idea of becoming a sportsbook (which an advisor said was “the worst idea”)
How leagues and data rights holders within alternative sports are looking at the betting opportunity, and why they believe they can bring new audiences to operators
Following your passion and why keeping “the least amount of daylight between your personal life and your professional life is a good key to success”
 
Learn more 👇
 
➡️ ALT Sports Data website
➡️ Todd Ballard on Linkedin

Ep. 42 - Leigh Nissim, Future Anthem

Ep. 42 introduces you to Leigh Nissim, founder and CEO of Future Anthem, which uses data and AI to personalise the player experience for everyone.
Hear him discuss:
How he saw the opportunity for personalization during his time leading the digital businesses of both IGT and Scientific Games
Why most companies struggle with personalization despite it being high on their agendas
Raising a multi-million dollar Series A round for Future Anthem, and why he considers that milestone to be “the end of the beginning”
The challenges of being a B2B supplier to operators, and how early-stage suppliers can shortcut some of the sales process
His 3 top pieces of fundraising advice for other founders
 
Learn more 👇
 
➡️ Future Anthem website
➡️ Leigh Nissim on Linkedin

Ep. 41 - Rob Klages & Kevin Kamto, AthleteX

Ep. 41 introduces you to Rob Klages and Kevin Kamto from AthleteX.
Hear them discuss:
Some of the core ideological concepts behind crypto and blockchain technology 
Their philosophical principles of transparency, openness, and fairness, and why only blockchain technology could enable those within the AthleteX platform
Why "tokenized fantasy sports was always an intuitive idea", and how a hackathon initially gave them the opportunity to explore it
The challenges of UX in web3, and what needs to be done to widen the appeal of crypto to the mass market
"Hunkering down and building" during the bear market, and why they are confident that crypto prices will rebound
 
Learn more:
 
➡️ AthleteX website
➡️ AthleteX Discord server
➡️ AthleteX on Twitter

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