Betting Startups News for week of November 4, 2024

Hey friends!

It’s a biiiiit of a big week ahead for the world. Election-mania is at its peak, prediction markets are having their moment, and the memes on Twitter are on overdrive. But in our little corner, we’re tuning out the noise to focus on bringing you the latest from real-money gaming’s early-stage ecosystem.

This issue is brought to you by XST Capital Group, the industry’s leading financial strategists.

Let’s get into it ⤵️

📰 Headline news

With October now in the books, several growth-stage companies have swooned about the month that was:

• 4casters, the P2P betting platform, shared that not only was October its best month ever, but it has now eclipsed 2023 trading volume. (Link)

• BetOpenly, another P2P betting platform, shared that October was its best month ever, with over $6.7m wagered. (Link)

• Linemate, “the Expedia for sports betting”, shared its October milestones of 36k app downloads and 70k MAUs using it. (Link)

• AIstats, the AI-powered soccer app, reported a revenue spike to $15k MRR in October. (Link)

Elsewhere, we also saw:

• SGG Media partnered with data platform PlayAIO to launch a social media insights engine. (Link)

• Novig celebrated its first day with over $1m traded on the platform. (Link)

• Free-to-play games startup Plucky won ‘Innovator of the Year’ at the EGR Operator Awards. (Link)

• Hot off the heels of its third cohort, Zerolabs is now accepting applications for Innovation Launchpad Cohort 4 in January. (Link)

• Sportradar launched its Futures Hub, a new program designed to support innovative industry startups. (Link)

• Reminder: applications opened up for Pitch ICE, the startup pitch competition at ICE Barcelona in January. (Link)

Are you an industry startup with news to share? Send us your PR for inclusion here.

💬 Ink & airwaves

The best of what we’ve read, watched, and listened to:

• 🎙️ Ep. 138 of The Betting Startups Podcast featured Rob Rubio from Fluid. Recorded on-site at the SBC Summit in Lisbon, Rob talked about the challenges of optimizing the UX of ‘money in/money out’, why they chose a straightforward SaaS pricing model, adjacent industries he’s considering after real-money gaming, and some breaking news that Fluid has closed its seed funding round led by HappyHour.io. Watch or listen now (25:19): YouTube | Apple Podcasts | Spotify

• 📺 The BettingStartups.com Quick Hits series marches on, featuring ~5 minute interviews with industry startup founders recorded at G2E in Las Vegas. At the time of this newsletter, 23 interviews have now been published (with a few more to go). View ‘Quick Hits’ playlist on YouTube

• 🎙️ The latest episode of Vested Interest by NEXT.io dropped, featuring Lloyd Danzig and Benjie Cherniak as usual. Recorded at G2E in Las Vegas, this episode included good discussion on valuations, fundraising mistakes to avoid, and M&A considerations. Watch or listen now (22:11): YouTube | Spotify

• 🎙️ The Zero Latency Podcast welcomed Sporttrade founder and CEO Alex Kane to discuss UX, prediction market platforms, market making, and more. Listen now (22:11): Apple Podcasts | Spotify

• 📚 Betmate founder Ryan Lawrence talks about the growth of social betting and its disruptive potential. Read it here.

🗓️ Industry event calendar

Upcoming events relevant to early-stage companies in the space:

• NEXT NYC officially returns March 12-13, 2025 - and BettingStartups.com is a media partner for this event! With an emphasis on connecting operators with suppliers, and startups with investors, join 1,200 executives at this premier conference in lower Manhattan. Tickets sell out every year, and this one will be no different, so book now! Use discount code BS1CYN52 for $100 off yours. Event Info | Buy Your Ticket

• ICE makes its debut in Barcelona January 20-22, 2025, and registration is now open. Event Info | Register Free

💼 Great gigs

Big opportunities with awesome growth-stage companies:

• 🆕 BeeBettor, the betting tool that recently went through Y Combinator, is looking for a Founding Engineer. (Link)

• 🆕 Social sportsbook Rebet is looking for a CRM specialist. (Link)

• 🆕 BettingStartups.com (hey, that’s us!) is searching for a Writer & Publisher to help create unique content and publish this newsletter every week. (Link)

🤝 Deal corner

1 new deal for your consideration in this week’s issue ⤵️

The Deal Corner is presented by XST Capital Group, the industry’s leading financial strategists.