This week: Finalists announced for First Pitch at SBC Summit

Also: Prediction markets dominate in our July funding recap, and how Rally Tabs is turning bar pull tabs into digital sports cards

Author

Betting Startups
August 28, 2026

5 startups revealed as First Pitch finalists, competing for six-figure prize package at SBC Summit

The news: SBC has named the five finalists for the 2026 First Pitch competition, which is run in partnership with BettingStartups. Industry startups Betsy, Gmonitor, InsightPlay.ai, Safefy, and Whizgen AI will each get three minutes to pitch on October 1 at SBC Summit in Lisbon, competing for a six-figure prize package.

Zoom in: The finalists span very different corners of the industry—Betsy turns bets and predictions into shareable content, Gmonitor tracks competitor promotions and market activity, and Safefy uses AI to flag suspicious transactions. "First Pitch gives founders a unique opportunity to demonstrate what they have built in front of people who can help them move forward," said Jesse Learmonth, founder of BettingStartups and host of SBC First Pitch. "The pitch itself may only last a few minutes, but the visibility, feedback and conversations that come from it can have a much longer-term impact."

Why it matters: The judging panel—stacked with VCs like Rob Duboff (Velo Partners) and Tom Waterhouse (Waterhouse VC) alongside AWS's global gaming lead—signals how seriously the industry now treats early-stage tech as a growth lever rather than a sideshow. With SBC Summit drawing more than 40,000 betting and gaming professionals to Lisbon, First Pitch remains one of the clearest early windows into which startups operators and investors think are worth watching next.

July funding recap: prediction market infrastructure dominates $79.9M in deal flow, capped by Underdog's $1.1B exit

The news: July's deal flow saw five disclosed rounds closed across the early-stage betting and gaming companies we track, totaling $79.9M. Four of the five were prediction markets—with the fifth going to payments infrastructure. Above that tier, IG Group agreed to buy Underdog at a $1.1B enterprise value, plus a $200M earnout.

Zoom in: ProphetX's $35M was July’s largest funding event, landing weeks after CFTC approval as both an exchange and a clearinghouse. Onyx Odds followed with a $20M Series A at a $220M valuation on under $8M in prior funding, then BR-DGE (£10M/$13.4M), Pascal ($9M, bringing it to $15M total), and Adjacent ($2.5M pre-seed). The top two rounds alone accounted for 69% of the month's disclosed capital.

Why it matters: Prediction markets took 83% of every dollar raised, and three of those four rounds went to infrastructure or professional-facing products—ProphetX's exchange and clearing stack, Pascal's trader tooling, Adjacent's index layer. Add BR-DGE and the picks-and-shovels share climbs higher still. The Underdog deal is the sharper signal: at roughly 16x the month's entire funding market, it represents what a prediction market asset is worth to a public buyer.

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 operators, investors, and partners walking the world's biggest iGaming show, September 29 to October 1 in Lisbon.

There are a limited number of spaces in the Startup Zone, and BettingStartups has negotiated deep discounts for qualified startups. There is huge ROI for participating startups, making truly making this a can’t miss opportunity. Position yourself for a huge finish to 2026, which starts by taking 1 minute to register your interest. 

Rally Tabs is turning bar pull tabs into digital sports cards you actually own

The news: Rally Tabs, a sweepstakes startup that turns bar pull tabs into digital sports cards, is now live in 39 states and Washington, DC. Andrew Wood, a former gaming-sector investment banker, left banking two months ago to run the company full time after it pivoted from a physical pull-tab route in Wisconsin bars to a digital pack-ripping product.

Zoom in: The product's hook is ownership: a card tied to a live game that doesn't hit isn't dead, it just costs a small fee to reactivate against that team's next matchup. "We've kinda shifted the paradigm from renting...to owning," Wood said, positioning that against the one-and-done nature of typical scratch cards and prediction markets.

Why it matters: Wood, who covered the gaming sector as a banker for nearly seven years, is candid that the real test isn't the product—it's customer acquisition. "Anything with sports betting or predictions or anything around just kind of the sports gaming universe is a marketing company," he said. Rally Tabs is running on a friends-and-family round while it tests channels ahead of football's August 30 launch, with an institutional raise likely six to eight months out if the acquisition math works.

Catch the entire conversation with Wood on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

  • RotoBot AI crossed $1M in ARR this past week, growing from roughly zero over the last 12 months.

  • Splash Sports named Scott Hanson the face of its Survivor contests for the 2026 NFL season.

  • Regen has partnered with Birches Health to give bettors an in-app referral pathway to clinical gambling addiction treatment.

  • Defy The Odds is hosting an "Office Hours" AMA with Alderney eGaming CEO Susan O'Leary on September 1 at 12:00 pm ET to help startups navigate licensing decisions. RSVP here.

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

  • Funteron is hiring a Marketing & Growth Intern to help scale ITV OddsFinder, its betting comparison platform integrated across ITV Racing. London/Dublin/Belfast (flexible/hybrid). (View job)

  • BettingJobs are delighted to partner with a highly successful, privately owned technology business as they look to appoint a Chief Financial Officer to join their leadership team. (View job)

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

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]