This week: AIstats takes home gold at First Pitch in Lisbon

AIstats takes home the crown at SBC First Pitch, Pikkit’s journey from launch to over $10B in tracked bets, Betr signs equity investment with Lonzo and LiAngelo Ball.

Author

Cody Luongo
September 25, 2025

AIstats takes home gold at First Pitch in Lisbon

The news: AIstats, the Polish startup building AI-powered soccer analytics, was crowned the winner of First Pitch at SBC Summit Lisbon 2025 this past week—taking home a prize package valued at over $100,000 in the process. The company beat out four other finalists from around the world, taking the stage just weeks after announcing a $1.1M raise led by Acquinox Capital. AIstats is developing advanced performance metrics for fans, bettors, oddsmakers, and clubs, and is preparing to launch a B2B platform for teams by Q4 2025.

Zoom in: First Pitch has become one of the industry’s most visible launchpads, with this year’s finalists spanning five countries and product categories from affiliates to prediction markets. For AIstats, the win adds momentum to a breakout stretch: the company reports 50% MoM growth and scaled its team tenfold since last year. First Pitch judge Mark Phillip (CEO of MetaBet) told BettingStartups that revenue from AIstats’ consumer business was “a big differentiator” in swaying the panel’s decision over a strong field of finalists. “It's easier than ever to launch something new, and there are lots of cookie-cutter startups out there, but this group was a cut above,” he said.

Why it matters: Soccer is the world’s largest betting market, yet most analysis still relies on traditional data providers and conventional statistics. AIstats believes an “AI-native” approach can unlock deeper, more personalized insights—and make them accessible to both casual fans and professional clubs. By bridging the consumer and professional sides of the game, and now validated on one of the industry’s biggest startup stages, AIstats is building a strong case as a next-gen analytics platform with global potential. Catching up with BettingStartups after the win, co-founder Alexey Vorobey shared a piece of advice for other founders: “constantly learn and be able to upgrade yourself and grow personally.”

How Pikkit went from launch to $10B in tracked bets in four years

The news: When Pikkit launched in 2021, automated bet tracking was a novel idea. Its “BookSync” technology lets users log in to a sportsbook once and sync every wager—no manual entry required. For a while, that was enough to stand out. Today, co-founder Pranav Tadikonda acknowledges that while the feature has become table stakes amid a wave of competing tools, he still maintains that “automated bet tracking is what makes the product go.”

Zoom in: That philosophy came with tradeoffs. Manual tracking remains the platform’s most requested feature, but Pikkit has refused to budge. Tadikonda says the company has “certainly lost users because of that,” but argues that transparency is non-negotiable: “You should not be able to misrepresent your performance as a bettor, especially on a social app.” Betting’s social layer has been central to Pikkit’s journey from day one, with slips and conversations flying across timelines and feeds. The company has also layered in technical bets—deep linking to auto-fill slips in sportsbooks, and QuickPick, an X bot that instantly generated a betslip when tagged—though the latter was cut off earlier this year after X granted exclusive rights to Better Collective.

Why it matters: Despite hurdles, Pikkit has raised $9M across three rounds, attracted millions of users, and reached profitability last year. The north star, according to Tadikonda, is to be the app that sits within “every single point in the betting life cycle” and ultimately become the “homepage for betting.” With data, social, and tech all converging, Pikkit is betting that its insistence on transparency—and its ability to repackage and personalize data at scale—will keep it at the center of how fans experience wagering.

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Betr bolsters media-led strategy with Lonzo and LiAngelo Ball equity investment deal

The news: Betr has added former UCLA basketball players Lonzo and LiAngelo Ball as equity and content partners, marking the latest high-profile tie-up for the sports gaming and media company. The deal will bring the brothers’ podcast under the Betr Media umbrella, rebranded and relaunched ahead of the upcoming NBA season. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Zoom in: The Ball brothers will deliver at least 40 podcast episodes annually, with recordings planned in Cleveland (where Lonzo now plays for the Cavaliers), on the road during away games, and in Los Angeles with LiAngelo. Episodes will feature guests from across sports, culture, and entertainment. Beyond media, the partnership extends to marketing for Betr’s gaming portfolio, including its DFS pick’em product Betr Picks—which has distributed more than $250M in winnings since launch—and Betr Arcade, its peer-to-peer skill games platform now live in 29 states.

Why it matters: Betr continues to lean into a media-driven customer acquisition strategy in hopes that cultural relevance will help it cut through a crowded market. Partnering with the Ball brothers gives Betr two recognizable names with cross-industry reach—spanning NBA, pop culture, and music (LiAngelo signed a $13M deal with Def Jam Records earlier this year)—to help drive visibility across its products. With a $375M valuation as of last year and new celebrity investors joining the cap table, Betr is signaling that media-driven customer acquisition remains central to its strategy.

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