I’ve been bursting to tell you this for weeks! I am incredibly proud to announce that we have officially become HubSpot For Startups accredited! For us, this isn’t just a badge; it’s a commitment to bringing you the best possible resources and strategies to fuel your growth. We’re beyond excited for what this partnership will allow us to do for this community.
And speaking of excitement, the momentum is carrying us straight into SiGMA World Euro-Med next week!
I’d personally like to invite you to my talk on the AIBC stage on Wednesday, September 3rd, at 12:20 PM, where we’ll be diving into Securing Funding and Developing Product .
But here’s the real teaser… We have some absolutely GAME-CHANGING news to announce right after the conference. This has been our biggest project to date, and I can’t wait to finally share it with you all.
Keep your eyes on your inbox next week. It’s a big one!
This week we’re doing things a bit differently, and giving the spotlight and news to all the finalists of SiGMA Pitch and AIBC Pitch, my comments on each one and my rating (without a score)
SiGMA 2025 Startup Pitch Finalists
ChatBet AI – Founder: Joshua Swerdlow
Brief: ChatBet innovates sports betting through WhatsApp integration, offering a convenient revenue stream for operators. It leverages AI for sophisticated predictions, aiming to empower users with informed decisions and enhance their betting experience, positioning itself as a market disruptor.
Ratings:
- Innovation: High. ChatBet innovates by integrating sports betting directly into messaging apps, using AI for predictive analytics. This offers a new, accessible approach beyond traditional interfaces.
- Market Use Case: High. Leveraging the massive user base of messaging apps and the popularity of sports betting, ChatBet simplifies access for a wider audience, including casual users. It provides a low-barrier, high-reach channel for betting operators, boosting engagement and revenue.
- Chance of Success: High. ChatBet’s model addresses accessibility and informed decision-making in sports betting. Its integration with widely used messaging apps and the growing acceptance of AI position it for rapid adoption and significant market share.
CasinoLove – Founder: Milan Maximilian Mihaldinecz
Brief: CasinoLove Kft. stands out as a dedicated video content creation studio specifically tailored to the dynamic needs of the iGaming sector. Their expertise spans the entire production lifecycle, from initial conceptualization and creative ideation to professional filming, post-production editing, and ultimately, the final publication of high-quality video content. They aim to provide iGaming companies with engaging and effective visual narratives that enhance brand presence and player engagement.
Ratings:
- Innovation: Moderate – While video content creation is not entirely novel, CasinoLove Kft.’s specialized focus on the iGaming industry and comprehensive service suite offer a refined approach.
- Market Use Case: High – The iGaming industry’s increasing reliance on digital marketing and engaging content makes CasinoLove Kft.’s services highly relevant and in demand.
- Chance of Success: High – Their niche specialization, combined with the growing market for iGaming content, positions them well for significant success.
Responsible Gambling Solutions – Founder: Mathijs Ummels
Brief: Responsible Gambling Solutions, a Netherlands-based firm, addresses a critical need within the iGaming landscape by offering specialized training, consultancy, and e-learning services to casinos. Their distinctive methodology centers on bridging the often-overlooked gap between stringent regulatory compliance and a positive player experience. They achieve this by seamlessly integrating a “hospitality culture” into harm-prevention training, fostering an environment where player well-being is prioritized alongside operational adherence.
Ratings:
- Innovation: High – Their unique approach of merging hospitality with harm-prevention training is a significant innovation in the responsible gambling space, offering a more holistic solution than traditional compliance-focused programs.
- Market Use Case: High – With increasing regulatory scrutiny and a growing emphasis on player protection, Responsible Gambling Solutions fills a vital market need for casinos worldwide.
- Chance of Success: High – The rising importance of responsible gambling initiatives and their innovative approach give them a strong competitive advantage.
TOROTIPS – Founder: Konstantios Antonopoulos
Brief: TOROTIPS is a Greek startup that seeks to revolutionize the sports betting landscape through its innovative platform for sports betting tipsters. The core mission of TOROTIPS is to cultivate a vibrant and interactive community where users can not only discover and utilize expert betting tips but also actively contribute their own insights and predictions. This communal approach aims to create a more transparent and informed betting environment.
Ratings:
- Innovation: Low to Moderate – While tipster platforms exist, TOROTIPS’ focus on community building and shared knowledge could offer a fresh perspective. However, the concept itself is not entirely new.
- Market Use Case: Moderate – There is a significant market for sports betting tips, but competition in this area is fierce.
- Chance of Success: Low to Moderate – Success will heavily depend on their ability to attract a large, active user base and differentiate themselves from existing platforms.
Motileo Co-Founder: Josh O’Cock
Brief: Motileo is a cutting-edge Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform meticulously designed to amplify the performance of sales teams through the strategic application of gamification. The platform’s primary objective is to inject motivation and engagement into sales professionals’ daily routines by transforming their work into a more interactive, competitive, and ultimately, rewarding experience. By leveraging game mechanics, Motileo aims to drive higher sales productivity and foster a more dynamic sales environment.
Ratings:
- Innovation: Moderate – Gamification in sales is a recognized strategy, but Motileo’s specific implementation and user experience will determine its level of innovation.
- Market Use Case: High – The demand for tools that enhance sales team performance is consistently high across various industries.
- Chance of Success: Moderate to High – Given the widespread need for sales optimization, Motileo has a strong potential for success if it can effectively demonstrate ROI and provide a compelling user experience.
igaming Legacy Awards Founder: sarah micallef
Brief: The iGaming Legacy Awards stands as a unique and profoundly purpose-driven awards event within the iGaming industry. Beyond merely recognizing excellence, this initiative is dedicated to celebrating ethical leadership, fostering social value, and championing positive change across the sector. A distinguishing and impactful feature of the event is its commitment to reinvesting participation fees directly into meaningful charitable initiatives, including local shelters and vital mental health programs, thus ensuring that the celebration of success directly contributes to societal well-being.
Ratings:
- Innovation: High – The concept of an awards event that reinvests fees into charitable initiatives, specifically focusing on ethical leadership and social value within iGaming, is highly innovative and addresses a growing demand for corporate social responsibility.
- Market Use Case: High – As the iGaming industry faces increasing scrutiny and calls for greater social responsibility, an awards event that champions these values is highly relevant and will likely resonate with a broad audience.
- Chance of Success: High – The strong alignment with current industry trends and its unique philanthropic model positions The iGaming Legacy Awards for significant recognition and success.
Vivacore.ai – Co-Founders: Robert Dowling & Benedek Kovács
Brief: Vivacore.ai, a dynamic Malta-based startup co-founded by Robert Dawling, is at the forefront of transforming customer relationship management (CRM) through its sophisticated AI-driven engine. This innovative system is engineered to meticulously analyze and predict player behavior, enabling the automation of hyper-personalized marketing campaigns. The core strength of Vivacore.ai lies in its high predictive accuracy, which consistently translates into measurable uplifts in user engagement. Furthermore, the company distinguishes itself with a unique, event-based pricing model, aligning its success directly with the tangible results it delivers to its clients.
Ratings:
- Innovation: High – Vivacore.ai‘s integration of advanced AI for predictive analytics and automated personalized campaigns represents a significant leap forward in CRM technology. Its ability to anticipate player behavior and drive measurable results sets it apart from conventional solutions.
- Market Use Case: Medium to High – While its immediate application is highly relevant to industries with large player bases, the underlying technology has broader applicability across various sectors seeking to enhance customer engagement and optimize marketing spend. Its focus on personalized, automated campaigns addresses a universal business need.
- Chance of Success: High – Given the increasing demand for data-driven insights and personalized customer experiences, Vivacore.ai‘s innovative approach, coupled with its strong predictive accuracy and results-oriented pricing model, positions it for substantial growth and market penetration.
AIBC Startup Pitch Finalists
N.O.E.M. – Founder: Khajieh Manbourian
Brief: N.O.E.M. stands at the cutting edge of technological convergence, operating at the intersection of Web3, artificial intelligence (AI), and the real estate sector. This ambitious project aims to harness the transformative power of decentralized technologies, intelligent algorithms, and data-driven insights to unlock unprecedented opportunities and drive significant innovation within the traditionally conservative real estate market. Their vision likely involves creating more transparent, efficient, and accessible real estate transactions and management systems.
Ratings:
- Innovation: High – The combination of Web3, AI, and real estate represents a highly innovative approach, pushing the boundaries of traditional property tech.
- Market Use Case: High – The real estate market is vast and ripe for disruption, offering numerous high-value use cases for N.O.E.M.’s proposed technologies.
- Chance of Success: Moderate – While highly innovative, the complexity of integrating these advanced technologies and navigating the regulatory landscape of real estate presents significant challenges, leading to a moderate chance of success.
1W Partners ( 1WIN )- Founder: Mariia Didovets
Brief: 1W Partners distinguishes itself through its strong affiliation with the global iGaming operator, 1win. Leveraging 1win’s expansive network of over 30 million players worldwide, 1W Partners specializes in providing performance-led affiliate programs. These programs are designed with flexibility in mind, offering both Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and Revenue Share (RevShare) models to cater to diverse partner needs. Their operations are further bolstered by sophisticated, data-driven advertising tools, enabling optimized campaign performance and effective player acquisition.
Ratings:
- Innovation: Unknown – The brief doesn’t specify unique technological innovations beyond standard affiliate program structures, hence the “Unknown” rating.
- Market Use Case: High – The iGaming affiliate market is well-established and highly active, providing a strong and immediate market use case for 1W Partners.
- Chance of Success: High – Their direct affiliation with a large, established operator like 1win significantly de-risks their venture, contributing to a high chance of success.
Gamecheck – Founder: Jack Crabtree
Brief: Gamecheck Limited addresses a critical need within the online gambling industry: trust and transparency. They have developed a user-friendly mobile application that empowers players to independently verify the authenticity and fairness of games offered by online casinos. By providing this crucial tool, Gamecheck aims to significantly increase player confidence and foster a more trustworthy online gambling environment, directly combating concerns about rigged games and promoting fair play.
Ratings:
- Innovation: High – Offering an independent, verifiable tool for game authenticity is a highly innovative solution to a pervasive industry problem.
- Market Use Case: High – The demand for transparency and fairness in online gambling is significant, making the market use case for Gamecheck’s solution very high.
- Chance of Success: High – Solving a clear and pressing industry problem with a direct solution suggests a high chance of success, assuming effective marketing and adoption.
WhizgenAI ( whizdom.ai )
Brief: WhizgenAI is at the forefront of leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance the iGaming experience through hyper-personalized recommendation systems. Their advanced platform utilizes sophisticated machine learning technologies to deliver highly intuitive and tailored suggestions to players, improving engagement and user satisfaction. Crucially, WhizgenAI also embeds robust regulatory safeguards within its system, actively promoting responsible gaming practices and ensuring compliance with industry regulations.
Ratings:
- Innovation: High – The application of advanced machine learning for hyper-personalization combined with integrated regulatory safeguards demonstrates high innovation.
- Market Use Case: High – Personalized experiences are a key driver of engagement in iGaming, and responsible gambling is a regulatory imperative, making the market use case very strong.
- Chance of Success: High – Addressing both player engagement and regulatory compliance with an AI-driven solution positions WhizgenAI for a high chance of success.
BABUSHKA game – Co-Founder: Daria Pakina
Brief: Babushka introduces a novel concept in the Web3 gaming space with its “Care-to-Earn” model. This game ingeniously blends the nostalgic appeal of classic Tamagotchi-style pet care games with the modern incentive of cryptocurrency rewards. By leveraging humor and meme culture, Babushka aims to create an engaging and accessible entry point for a new generation of players into the crypto ecosystem, making Web3 gaming more entertaining and rewarding.
Ratings:
- Innovation: High – The “Care-to-Earn” model within a nostalgic, meme-infused Web3 game is a highly innovative approach to player engagement and monetization.
- Market Use Case: Moderate to High – While the Web3 gaming market is growing, the niche nature of “Care-to-Earn” and reliance on meme culture could result in a moderate to high market use case.
- Chance of Success: Moderate – The success of meme-driven Web3 projects can be volatile, leading to a moderate chance of sustained success, despite high initial innovation.
All-in-One (AIO) – Founder: Christian Gottolab
Brief: All-in-One (AIO) offers a specialized and highly adaptable cryptocurrency payout stack designed exclusively for the iGaming industry. Their solution is built with scalability at its core, ensuring it can meet the evolving and expanding needs of iGaming operators. As the iGaming sector increasingly adopts crypto payments for efficiency and global reach, AIO provides a crucial infrastructure component, simplifying and streamlining the payout process for operators and players alike.
Ratings:
- Innovation: Moderate – While addressing a growing market need, the innovation lies more in the specialized application and modularity rather than groundbreaking new technology.
- Market Use Case: High – The rapid adoption of crypto payments in iGaming creates a very strong and immediate market use case for AIO’s solution.
- Chance of Success: Moderate to High – Given the clear market demand and the focus on a specific industry, AIO has a moderate to high chance of success, contingent on effective integration and market penetration.
Offer of the Week – Hubspot for Startups
Building a startup is tough, and having the right tools shouldn’t break the bank. That’s why we’re so excited about our new partnership with HubSpot for Startups. Any company that joins an Elevate AI program gets access to a powerhouse CRM, marketing, and sales platform at a fraction of the cost.
- Offer Description: Get up to 90% off HubSpot in your first year, 50% off in your second, and 25% off ongoing. This is a potential value of over €50,000!!
- Access Instructions: Apply to an Elevate AI program to become eligible for this and many other perks.
- Apply for the program: APPLY NOW
- Request information on offer: [email protected]
That’s all folks for this week.
If you’re at SiGMA and want to meet up, DM me here on LinkedIn.
Keith Zammit