The Betting Startups Podcast
Meet the people building the most promising startups competing for a piece of the multi-billion dollar real-money gaming industry. Presented by Optimove.
Episodes
Ep. 226 features Cameron MacMillan and Justin Herzig, co-founders of PredictQ, to discuss their vision for building the expert layer of prediction markets. The pair share how their backgrounds in DFS, analytics, community building, and technology came together to create a platform designed to help traders discover, analyze, and trade prediction markets more effectively. Hear them discuss:
- Justin and Cameron's entrepreneurial ...
Ep. 225 features Amar Rao, Co-Founder of SportsStack, to discuss the challenges of sports data infrastructure and how SportsStack is building a unified data layer for the industry. Amar shares insights from his experience at NumberFire, FanDuel, and Fanatics, along with SportsStack's approach to data normalization, settlement, and scaling sports technology. Hear them discuss:
- Amar's journey from Amazon to NumberFire, FanDuel,...
Ep. 224 features Andrew Wood, Co-Founder of RallyTabs, to discuss his transition from investment banking into entrepreneurship, the evolution of RallyTabs from a physical pull-tab concept into a digital product, and how the company is creating a new sports engagement experience that combines predictions, collectibles, and pack-ripping mechanics.
Hear them discuss:
- How Andrew's experience covering the gaming industry as an inv...
Ep. 223 features Andrew Gonzalez, CEO & Co-Founder of ParlayX, for a wide-ranging discussion on entrepreneurship, prediction markets, institutional trading infrastructure, fundraising, product-market fit, and the rapidly evolving relationship between sports betting and prediction markets.
Hear them discuss:
- Andrew's journey from Southern California and UCLA to crypto investing, venture capital, Flowdesk, and ultimately la...
Ep. 222 features Robert McCall, Founder of The Sharps, to discuss his journey from the cannabis industry into sports betting, building a skill-based peer-to-peer sports prediction tournament platform, and using AI to build the product from scratch.
Hear them discuss:
- How Rob went from the cannabis industry and competitive gambling into sports betting, with poker and blackjack tournaments inspiring the creation...
Ep. 221 features Frank Li, Co-founder of ESX, to discuss building a next-generation sports prediction market for technical bettors. Frank shares how his background in quantitative trading led him to prediction markets, why ESX is focused on live sports trading, and how content, community, and customer feedback have fueled the company's early growth.
Hear them discuss:
- Frank's journey from quantitative sports betting and predi...
Ep. 220 features Neil Dillon, Founder of Solas Compliance, to discuss how AI is transforming marketing compliance for regulated industries. Neil shares his journey from Betfair and Flutter to launching Solas, explains why compliance remains one of the biggest bottlenecks for operators, and offers practical insights into building enterprise-grade AI products for the betting industry. Hear them discuss:
- Neil's career jour...
Ep. 219 features Edward Lyttel and Rob Fulforth from Flutter to discuss the company's AlphaHub innovation program and the 2026 Affiliate Draft. They explore how Flutter collaborates with startups, what they're looking for in this year's applicants, and why community, AI-powered fan tools, and betting innovation are shaping the future of sports betting.
Hear them discuss:
- How Flutter's AlphaHub helps startups build p...
Ep. 218 features Devon and Tejas, Co-founders of Blitz, an AI-powered sports intelligence platform transforming how broadcasters, analysts, content creators, and sports organizations access and utilize sports data.
Hear them discuss:
- How two Duke graduates turned sports betting profits into a sports data startup
- The PrizePicks strategy that grew a small bankroll into tens of thousands of dollars
- Why they spent countless...
Ep. 217 features Nick Meader, Co-Founder & CEO of SpeedLabs, joining Jesse Learmonth to discuss the company's $6.5 million seed round, the creation of "Momentum Markets," and why he believes the next generation of sports betting products will be built around live narratives rather than traditional betting markets.
Hear them discuss:
- Nick’s journey from college bookmaker and betting entrepreneur to venture capital in...
Ep. 216 features Jackson Erminio, Founder of Spina, joining Jesse Learmonth to discuss building a skill-based gaming startup, solving the liquidity challenge, and creating a marketplace where players can compete head-to-head in games they already know and love.
Hear them discuss:
- How Jackson went from selling sneakers and running a marketing agency to founding Spina, a real-money skill gaming platform built around familiar ga...
Ep. 215 features Travis Geiger, Co-Founder & CXO of WagerWire, joining Jesse Learmonth at SBC Fort Lauderdale to discuss the company’s transformation into its vision for building a regulated prediction market ecosystem. Fresh off securing a license-in-principle in Gibraltar, Travis shares how the company is positioning itself at the intersection of gaming, finance, and innovation.
Hear them discuss:
- Why WagerWire ev...
This bonus episode features Andrew Gonzalez, Founder & CEO of ParlayX, joining Jesse Learmonth moments after winning the SBC Summit Americas First Pitch competition in Fort Lauderdale.
Hear them discuss:
- Winning the SBC First Pitch competition, and what it means to him
- Andrew’s entrepreneurial story, including leaving his market-making career, navigating multiple pivots, and betting on himself as a founder
- The...
Ep. 214 features Alec Gehlot, Founder of PlaySignal, a responsible gaming platform helping operators intervene earlier, reduce self-exclusions, and create healthier player experiences.
Hear them discuss:
- The inspiration behind PlaySignal and why rising self-exclusion rates reveal a growing industry challenge
- How PlaySignal’s traffic-light system helps identify at-risk behavior and intervene before players reach a ...
Ep. 213 features Gregory Tolmochow, Founder & CEO of Trendline Labs, a startup building what it calls the “Bloomberg Terminal for prediction markets.”
Hear them discuss:
- Gregory’s journey from sports betting analytics and The Betting Insider to founding Trendline Labs
- Why prediction markets represent a major evolution beyond traditional sports betting
- The pivot from an AI-powered sports analytics t...
Ep. 212 is the official First Pitch preview episode, where we will meet the 5 startups selected to present at SBC Summit Americas on June 11 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
In this episode, you will hear from the five finalists:
- Javier Troncoso, InsightPlay.ai
- Matt Bresler, Odditt
- Matt Paulton, OddsBlaze
- Andrew...
Ep. 211 features Filip Michalsky from Soap Payments, an AI-native orchestration layer designed to simplify the complex payments stack for real-money gaming operators.
Hear them discuss:
- Filip’s path from professional squash in the Czech Republic to Harvard AI data science and Fidelity Investments.
- The "iceberg" of payments: Navigating the hidden layers of issuing banks, acquiring banks, and convoluted funds movement.
- Usi...
Ep. 210 features Matt Kelley from FastDraft, a fantasy sports platform recently merged with FantasySpin that focuses on high-velocity, mobile-first gameplay.
Hear them discuss:
- Matt’s transition from building a million-dollar stats business to launching a platform for the 60M+ fantasy gamer market.
- Why the "attention deficit economy" needs 5-minute drafts instead of the traditional hour-long commitment.
- The origin story ...
Ep. 209 features David and Kavin from Hydrastack, a startup using AI to transform how casino games are developed, converted, and distributed across channels.
Hear them discuss:
- The origin story of Hydrastack and how industry pain points around game distribution sparked the idea
- Why converting casino games from land-based to online can take 6–8 months and how Hydrastack cuts that down to weeks
- How their pr...
Ep. 208 features Nathan Thomas and Brett DeBari, the founding team behind GridGorilla, a digital platform that evolves the classic Super Bowl squares format into a year-round, player-stat-based prediction experience.
Hear them discuss:
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Brett’s journey through tech sales at Dell and AWS to previous gaming startups, and Nathan’s 20-year engineering career ranging from biomedical startups to database architecture
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...
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