Editor’s Note: The BettingStartups team will be taking some much-needed time off next week to enjoy the holidays and ring in the new year. We won’t be sending a newsletter next week, but we’ll be back in your inbox and resuming our usual Thursday-morning cadence on January 1.

Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year 🎉

EasyWin valued at $15M after closing seed round

The news: EasyWin, a Poland-based startup building real-money, skill-based games for global audiences, has raised its first seed round at a $15M valuation. The investment was led by Velo Partners through its Angel Fund, with backing from Vladimir Nikolsky and several angel investors. Founded by former Mamboo executive Ivan Leshkevich, EasyWin is focused on tournament-style gameplay built around casual puzzle formats, positioning itself at the intersection of mobile gaming and regulated real-money competition.

Zoom in: Despite a team of just eight people, EasyWin has developed a platform designed to operate across multiple Tier-1 markets. Players in regions including the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and Germany can compete for cash prizes through a single platform. Since launching earlier this year, the company says it has crossed a $30M annualized GMV run rate, reached more than 35,000 daily active users, and posted a 55% Day-30 payer retention rate. The team credits its early momentum to rapid iteration and heavy use of AI-driven development tools.

Why it matters: EasyWin’s early traction points to potential product-market fit in a skill-based gaming category where retention and operational efficiency are hard to sustain. With a lean team, added working capital from a factoring deal, and a clear focus on product velocity, the startup is betting that speed and consistent content updates will be a competitive advantage as it expands across regulated Tier-1 markets.

ChatBet AI’s plans to build sportsbooks inside WhatsApp and Telegram

The news: ChatBet AI is moving from promising demo to live product. Founder Josh Swerdlow joined the BettingStartups Podcast this week to mark what he called a major milestone for the company, which lets operators take bets directly inside messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. The upstart already has integrations with Digitain and Kambi in place, and is beginning to prove that ‘messaging-first’ betting can work at scale.

Zoom in: ChatBet positions itself as an “agent AI bookie” that lives entirely inside chat, turning natural-language conversations into sportsbook wagers. Rather than a single bot, the product runs on a network of specialized models—tracking user history, markets and odds, tone and brand voice, and even cultural cues. In one demo with an Australian operator, the system leaned into colloquial phrasing to help the experience feel intuitive instead of mechanical. For operators, the pitch is frictionless conversion: typed or voice messages become compliant bet slips without sending users back through traditional front-end funnels.

Why it matters: Because everything happens in chat, ChatBet gives operators a new level of visibility into user behavior—watching bettors evolve from menu-driven commands into fluent, conversational users over time. That insight underpins a broader thesis Swerdlow has been vocal about: that the era of web-first sportsbooks is fading. As front ends become increasingly commoditized, messaging may emerge as the next primary interface, and ultimately a new surface area for how sportsbooks engage bettors.

Listen to the full podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

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Startups reflect on the year, and what’s ahead in 2026

If 2025 proved anything for early-stage iGaming startups, it’s that there’s no single formula for momentum—just different ways to earn it. As the year winds down, companies and their executives are sharing their reflections publicly, and for Routy, Match Hype, and hinterzimmer.io RGS, those takeaways offer a broader snapshot of what building in this market actually required.

Routy closed out 2025 by quietly compounding across product, presence, and performance. The affiliate intelligence platform expanded its industry footprint with conference appearances, award nominations, and podcast features, while also growing its team from two to five and launching faster dashboards with new state-level breakdowns. At scale, Routy tracked 160M clicks, 2.7M, and more than $100M in commissions generated across its client base, the company shared. Heading into 2026, the company says its focus remains on usability, deeper data intelligence, and building a product clients return to regularly without added friction.

Match Hype entered 2025 in a fragile position after a failed investment deal left the company overextended, cash-negative, and forced to reassess its future. The team responded by slimming down operations, refocusing on sales, and leaning more heavily into AI and automation across the product. By the end of the year, Match Hype had reached profitability, eliminated debt, and posted 125% year-over-year growth—all without raising external capital, CEO Filip Koubek said on LinkedIn. The company now counts clients across Europe and says additional major partnerships will be announced soon.

hinterzimmer.io RGS used 2025 to scale on nearly every front at once. The platform supported the delivery of 60 games during the year (double the prior annual output) while significantly expanding its global footprint across regulated markets. On the infrastructure side, hinterzimmer.io onboarded a growing roster of studio and operator partners, reached 63 live integrations with more in the queue, added 312 operator brands, and drove transaction volume up more than 3.4x year over year. All of that was achieved with a 17-person team, as the company heads into 2026 with additional partner and market announcements planned for January, CEO Robert Lenzhofer notes.

News, money, and alpha

• Waterhouse VC explores the convergence of gaming, digital collectibles, and wagering.

• FSB Technology co-founder David McDowell joined the iGaming Leader Podcast to share lessons from a 30-year entrepreneurial journey in B2B gaming platforms.

• iGaming Ontario reported a long list of all-time high online wagering records in the province, including sports betting and casino GGR, active accounts, and more.

From the studio

Catch up on the latest episodes of The BettingStartups Podcast.

• Why web betting is dead w/ Joshua Swerdlow from ChatBet AI

• Inside the Retention Shift w/ Irakli “Marcus” Davarashvili from Promofy

• Bringing the fun back to sports betting w/ Artie, Ben & Ryan from Golden Camel

You’ve made it to the end of the newsletter—seems like you should probably subscribe if you haven’t already.

Are you a startup in real-money gaming looking to announce a new product launch, partnership, or funding round? Get it on our radar! Email: [email protected]