The Betting Startups Newsletter: January 2022

January 27, 2022

Welcome to the debut issue of The Betting Startups Newsletter! 🍾

This is what we read, heard, and saw in the betting industry's early-stage ecosystem in January.

💸 Where the money flowed

Proceeds to support US market expansion for geolocation and compliance technology specialist.

Wagr, a social sports betting app, raised $12 million in a Series A funding round. The app is available in Tennessee, and the company hopes to expand to five more states this year.

Aver is a sports betting exchange built on the Solana blockchain. The company’s peer-to-peer betting platform is expected to launch in the second quarter of this year.

Odds On Compliance has secured new strategic investment from a group led by sports tech venture capital fund SeventySix Capital.

D1 Capital Partners of New York led a $32 million Series A round for Rei do Pitaco, a Brazil-based daily fantasy sports platform known as RDP.

Intelligence and security specialist Synalogik raises Series A funding round led by former Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy.

🚀 New product and market launches

Following a £2.6 million seed funding round in November, PickGuru has launched in the UK, promoting its £1 million ‘UltimateGuru’ game on Apple and Google stores.

Splash Tech has launched a new free-to-play (FTP) daily retention game ‘Sports Lotto‘, for use in sportsbooks, casinos and media sites globally.

AI personalization startup Graphyte has joined forces with Bannerflow to roll-out a real-time personalised retargeting platform.

💡 Innovation Spotlight: Hedge Pay

Every month, we feature one startup that we think is doing something particularly novel and unique. This month, the Innovation Spotlight is on Hedge Pay.

Who: Co-founded by Jackson Fitzgerald & Jon Hansan

What: Hedge Pay is on a mission to "Gamify Spare Change" by bringing spare change round-ups to the sports betting and iGaming industry

Why it's innovative: Their embedded payment solution will be accessible for users right in the depositing window of their favorite sportsbooks, allowing you to deposit (or sometimes place a bet!) with your digital spare change from every swipe of your card. $2.75 coffee? With Hedge Pay, you can automatically put that $0.25 round-up on a roulette spin.

When: Hedge Pay is currently being integrated into multiple betting platforms in the US, with launch announcements expected in April.

Where: Follow Hedge Pay on Twitter for latest progress updates.

🦸 Superheroes of the month

Sports betting startup BettorEdge makes donation to local Minneapolis charity, which includes saved fees from BettorEdge users

💼 Industry field notes

Working on a new startup? Apply to present on the Pitch ICE stage, and get exposure to thousands of betting industry execs and stakeholders at ICE London 2022. Submission deadline – Friday, February 4

🤝 Make your next move

Amazing career opportunities at these awesome betting industry startups:

Product Lead - Rush Sports is looking for a Product Lead to help pursue its mission of “Helping sports fans enjoy watching their favourite sports”

Director of Compliance & Regulatory Operations - Underdog is in need of a Director of Compliance, specifically geared to the 2022 launch of our sports betting products.

Mobile Engineer - Prophet is looking for a Mobile Engineer who will assist us with design, development and installation of software solutions.

🙌 That's it for now!

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