This week: Meet the five startups pitching at SBC Summit 2026 in Lisbon

Meet the five startups pitching at SBC Summit 2026 in Lisbon

The news: First Pitch returns at SBC Summit in Lisbon on October 1, with five early-stage founders getting three minutes each to make their case to a panel of industry judges. The competition, co-organized with BettingStartups, sends its winner home with a prize package valued at more than €100,000. This year's finalists (Betsy, GMonitor, InsightPlay.ai, Safefy, and Whizdom AI) span social prediction, market intelligence, monitoring, player personalization, and AI.

Zoom in: The pitches range from consumer-facing to deeply operational. Betsy founder Teemu Huuhtanen is betting that an outsider's view is the edge: "None of us have been in the sportsbook business before, and we believe that's the secret sauce." Others bring traction to the table—Whizdom AI booked about €470K in 2025 and is tracking toward €800K this year.

Why it matters: First Pitch has become one of gaming's most visible launchpads for early-stage companies, and this year's finalists offer a snapshot of where the next wave is forming. BettingStartups also returns as host of the Startup Zone, putting these founders in front of the 40,000+ operators, investors, and partners on the show floor. Whoever takes the stage October 1, the competition keeps a spotlight on the industry's startup ecosystem.

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

HotTakes leans into Alberta's launch with the same grassroots playbook that built Ontario

The news: HotTakes marked Alberta's iGaming launch by staking its ground at the Calgary Stampede, handing out 500 orange cowboy hats and running booths at three venues—the same grassroots playbook that built its Ontario base. Unlike Ontario, where HotTakes arrived over a year late, it showed up on day one in Alberta with an existing free-to-play user base already primed.

Zoom in: Co-founder Tyler Amirault frames the strategy around a specific slice of newly regulated bettors: people ready to play but who'd been waiting for a trusted, regulated option. "People haven't built a relationship with any operator yet, so they represent real short-term payback on ad spend," he said. Behind the activations, HotTakes is also leaning on an AI-assisted tool called Articles that helps its editorial team publish faster and deep-link stories into its betting features.

Why it matters: Every operator in Alberta is running the same launch-promo playbook, which Amirault says makes it harder for bettors to tell experiences apart—that's the gap HotTakes wants its content ecosystem to fill once the initial rush fades. The bigger bet is that grassroots acquisition and always-on content compound into what the company calls a "mindshare moat," turning affiliate traffic into habitual usage.

Sponsored content

BettingStartups returns as the official host of the Startup Zone at SBC Summit 2026, a dedicated section of the show floor built to put early-stage betting and gaming companies in front of the 40,000+ operators, investors, and partners in attendance.

We’ll also be hosting a series of startup and investment-focused panel discussions on the Innovation Stage, and the always popular First Pitch competition will round out the packed schedule—all to shine a light on the industry’s vibrant startup ecosystem! 

Secure your ticket to SBC Summit now using code BETTINGSTARTUPSVIP for a 30% discount. 

Deal Tracker: August 2026

The news: August's deal flow stayed a prediction-markets story, but the shape shifted—venture activity went quieter and further down the stack, with three early-stage rounds totaling $8.5M in disclosed funding (two undisclosed), all of them infrastructure plays rather than consumer apps. The bigger dollars moved through M&A instead, led by Tabcorp's A$283M move to buy BetMakers and Polymarket's acquihire of the six-person Turf team.

Zoom in: The month's only hard venture number came from River Markets, which raised an $8.5M seed for unified execution and risk infrastructure for prediction-market trading firms—led by Haun Ventures with Y Combinator, Coinbase Ventures, and angels from Citadel, Google, HRT, and JP Morgan. Just four months old, it already claims several of the top 10 traders by volume on both Kalshi and Polymarket.

Why it matters: Prediction markets kept institutionalizing on the rails, not the front end, as a wave of federally regulated infrastructure came online ahead of NFL season—Novig launched nationwide as a regulated exchange past $6B in cumulative volume, Alpaca registered as an FCM with the CFTC and NFA, and Fliff and Onyx Odds filed applications of their own. The money is flowing to plumbing over apps, a signal that the next phase of this market is being built one regulated layer at a time.

• 4casters has launched a free odds screen with sub-second updates across sportsbooks and prediction markets.

• ParlayX partnered with ProphetX to bring the CFTC-regulated sports event contract exchange's markets to institutional trading desks through ParlayX's single interface.

• Defy The Odds is hosting an Office Hours session on category building with THNDR co-founders Desiree Dickerson and Jack Everitt on September 23 at 12PM ET. Register here.

• ProphetX is hiring a Director of Solutions Engineering to own all B2B partner integrations—from technical discovery through go-live at the CFTC-regulated sports prediction market. Remote (USA). (View job)

• PredictQ is hiring for its content team this NFL season (View job)

• Griddy is hiring a Head of Content Partnerships to build out and run its creator network ahead of NFL season. (View job)

• 🆕 BettingJobs is working with a fast-growing slot games studio to appoint a Head of Slot Art in Valletta, Malta. (View job)

Looking for your next key hire or role? Connect with Betting Jobs at G2E Las Vegas. Contact Carla Souter or Jennifer Innes to get in touch.

• ​​Meet the First Pitch finalists for SBC Summit in Lisbon

• Empowering prediction market traders w/ Justin & Cam from PredictQ

• Unifying the messy sports data ecosystem w/ Amar Rao from SportsStack

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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]