SpeedLabs wants to make every game tell a different story—and bet on it

Nick Meader grew up in a small town outside Toledo, Ohio, and figured out early that sports could be more than something you watched. By high school and college, he was running a book. He had a stats background, went on to price markets for offshore operators, and eventually sold that operation at a young age. He moved west, cut angel checks out of his own pocket—anywhere from $25,000 to $200,000—and got onto the founding team of an emerging fund by 21-years old.

That stint in venture capital led him to pro poker player Phil Hellmuth, who introduced him to David Woodley, a New York-based founder with an idea he hadn't built yet. In November of last year, Woodley handed him a bank account with $1,000 in it and zero employees, which went on to become SpeedLabs.

The product is something Meader calls momentum markets—live, in-game betting propositions that are generated in real time by models tracking what's actually happening on the field. Not money lines repriced at a different number or micro markets necessarily, but something closer to: Stefon Diggs has zero catches in the first half—does he get five yards in the next five minutes?

"Every game is different," Meader said on the BettingStartups Podcast. "Every game tells a different story, but the betting markets on all of them are the same, no matter what the sport is."