The Betting Startups Newsletter: January 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!

Thanks again for subscribing. We'll do our best to keep it relevant and not waste your time (or space in your inbox).

If you have any feedback, ideas, or newsletter content suggestions, just hit 'Reply' to this email. We read 'em all.