Awash with cash
Predictions duo raise more than double the betting and gaming sector's total for 2024
Kalshi and Polymarket fundraises pushes sector total in H1 to over $500m.
In +More: LeoVegas extends with Kambi, delays in-house switch.
Super Group to pull the plug on US iCasino but raises FY25 guidance.
WHOW factor: DoubleDown makes German social casino acquisition.
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Flush
Disruptive influence: Kalshi and Polymarket are set to deploy nearly $400m of investor cash after both achieved unicorn status via monster raises that dwarf the amounts of money raised by the rest of the betting and gaming sector.
Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour gave a hint at what his company was planning in sports with a “stay tuned” posting on X late last week after raising $185m for a $2bn valuation in June.
The still offshore Polymarket and its less effusive CEO Shayne Coplan have yet to officially confirm its $200m raise at a $1bn valuation.
Towering figures: The combined $385m is more than double what betting and gaming-related startups and scale-ups raised in the whole of 2024. Notably, the next biggest raise this year was the $70m raised by DFS+ disruptor Underdog in March.
The largest raise in 2024 was Polymarket’s $45m Series B funding round in June meaning at that point it had raised $70m at an unspecified valuation.
Shock of the new: Add in the publicized $24m raised by seven other companies within the sector in Q2 and the total for the quarter stands at $409m. Taking into account the $100m raised by nine companies in Q1, it means the sector brought in over half-a-billion of new money in the first six months of the year.
The $409m far outstrips the total raised across the whole of last year when $191m was raised by 38 companies.
Fight for the right: In the same X posting, Mansour gave an insight into Kalshi’s escalating legal fights, suggesting the company was in a “brutal, bloody war” but claimed the roadmap ahead was “packed, ambitious, and frankly irresistible.”
This includes making its offering available to financial brokers. As it stands, Kalshi’s main partner to date is Robinhood which uses the Kalshi platform to power its own prediction markets offering.
Roll call: Kalshi raised $185m in June via a Series C funding round led by crypto investment VC Paradigm and Sequoia which valued the business at $2bn. Polymarket was reported to have secured $200m from existing investors at a $1bn valuation led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.
The other raises in Q2 include $10m raised by UK-focused challenger brand Midnite, the $6m fundraise achieved by RMG video games provider Zoot raised by CoinFund and Griffin and the $5m in Seed money for ALT Sports Data.
There is also the $3m currently being raised by Waterhouse VC for B2B provider Maincard and the unspecified amounts raised by esports data provider Oddin and B2C aggregator Atlas World Sports.
Another notable but unspecified raise came from Xanada Investment which announced it had helped B2B sweepstakes provider Sweepium raise a Seed round.
Yaspa I can boogie: Not included in the Q2 figure is the $12m raised last week by UK-based gambling sector-focused instant payment and identity services provider Yaspa or the $7m funding round announced this week by Fantasy Life (see Venture Playground below).
Yaspa’s funding round was led by Discerning Capital which has had a busy half year having also led Midnite’s $10m fundraise in Q1.
Separately, last month Discerning Capital also launched in conjunction with underwriting tech firm PvX a new financing initiative tailored for betting and gaming operators seeking to scale without diluting equity.
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+More
Hard to say goodbye
You keep me hanging on: LeoVegas has extended its agreement with sportsbook backend provider Kambi until the end of 2027, indicating that the rollout of its own in-house solution might not be going to plan.
LeoVegas has been one of Kambi’s mainstays since launching sports-betting operations in 2016.
Bait, no swtich: Owner MGM Resorts, which bought LeoVegas in 2022, has been planning a switch to the platform acquired from Tipico US in June last year. On the Q1 earnings call, MGM’s CEO Bill Hornbuckle spoke about the launch in Brazil being the first deployment of that platform.
Kambi said yesterday LeoVegas will "continue its migration” to the in-house platform over the course of the next two and a half years.
In addition, Kambi will also provide its odds feed offering OddsFeed+ to the operator.
HG Vora’s attempt in a Pennsylvania courtroom to expedite its suit alleging Penn Entertainment broke federal securities laws in its recent attempt to head off boardroom changes has been rejected. The suit will continue with an update from a shareholder-appointed special litigation committee investigation scheduled for August 1.
Buzz Bingo has raised $25m in new funding in order to fund refurbishments across its estate of 80 retail bingo outlets across the UK. The program will see eight clubs given a makeover this year including the Sheffield club which has already been completed and where Buzz says footfall increased 200% in the week after reopening.
Entropy M&A: “Deal fatigue” has been blamed for the termination of Sun International's $415m acquisition of Peermont with both sides agreeing to call a halt to the proceedings after South Africa’s Competition Tribunal scheduled a hearing too late for the deal to legally proceed. The deal was originally announced 18 months ago.
Australia-based horseracing betting technology provider BetMakers has raised A$13.7m ($8.9m) from an oversubscribed sale of shares. The company will use the cash to fund its previously announced acquisition of US pari-mutuel technology provider Las Vegas Dissemination Company.
Octoplay will debut its games in the US in New Jersey via its partnership with BetMGM, the games provider’s first US collaboration. Octoplay also recently gained a license in Michigan. Octoplay currently partners with BetMGM in Ontario.
Earnings extra
Running with the bulls: Impressed by FanDuel’s long-term prospects, Jefferies has resumed coverage of parent Flutter Entertainment with a Buy rating and a $380 price target which represents 35% upside to the current share price and would imply a market cap of $68bn.
See the Puts+Takes edition later today (E+M PRO subscribers only) including coverage of a Buy note on Genius Sports.
Lights out
Giving up the ghost: Almost a year to the day after quitting the US OSB market, Super Group said it intends to give up on its US ambitions and will shutter its iCasino operations in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
CEO Neal Menashe blamed “regulatory developments, suggesting the company’s own “stringent hurdle” for profitability would “likely not be met in this market any time soon.”
It confirmed that the closure of its US operations would mean a one-off hit of $30m-$40m.
Don’t need you anyway: At the same time, Super Group said it had seen a record performance in Q2 and was upping its guidance for FY25 to revenues ex-US of $2bn vs. the previous estimate of $1.93bn while adj. EBITDA is now expected at $480m vs. the previous $457m.
The company credited strong sports results alongside operational improvements and “robust” customer metrics.
At the time of its Q1 earnings (paywall), Menashe hailed Super Group’s success in Africa where he said its Betway brand had achieved a market dominance in key markets, including South Africa, Ghana, Zambia and Mozambique, that was akin to the OSB duopoly in the US.
Q1 revenue rose 25% to $517m while adj. EBITDA soared 120% to $111m with the company seeing 31% YoY in Africa and a 78% leap in the UK.
WHOW factor
Gesundheit! DoubleDown Interactive has snapped up German-facing social casino provider WHOW Games for €55m ($64.7m) with a two-year €10m earnout to be paid depending on performance. The acquisition will be paid for out of DoubleDown’s cash reserves and is likely to complete in Q3.
WHOW, owned by digital ads business Azerion, generated revenues of €41.8m in 2024 from a portfolio of social casino apps including proprietary brands such as MyJackpot and Lounge777.
Texas Capital said WHOW’s implied EBITDA was ~€15m.
Against the tide: DoubleDown CEO In Keuk Kim said the acquisition would increase his company’s competitiveness in the growing German social casino market.
Analysts at Macquarie concurred, suggesting the deal provides geographic diversification in a growing market that could “help stem the tide of US social casino declines.”
Texas Capital analysts suggested the European social casino space is growing at ~5% versus low single-digit declines in the US.
War chest: Texas Capital also suggested that post Q2, their estimate was that DoubleDown has cash resources of ~$490m.
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Venture playground
Fund raises
The good life: As noted above, the fantasy sports media company Fantasy Life led by CEO and founder Matthew Berry has raised $7m in new funding led by LRMR Ventures, the family office of LeBron James and Maverick Carter.
Also on the ticket are individual investors Roger Ehrenberg, David Blitzer, Jeff Shell, Larry Fitzgerald, Gerry Cardinale, John Legend and Chad Hurley.
Fantasy Life last raised $2m in 2023. The company is set to launch a new product, FantasyHQ, within the coming months.
In focus – FantasySpin
Who are you? FantasySpin is a gamified DFS platform based in Boston, Massachusetts founded by Steve Happas and now led by Sahil Patel, who was appointed CEO in early 2025. The company was initially launched as a F2P product before pivoting via a sweepstakes format and ultimately repositioning itself within the skill-based DFS space.
What’s the big idea? FantasySpin is reimagining real-money sports gaming, starting with DFS, by creating a more approachable and entertaining experience for casual players.
The core innovation is a patented gameplay experience that simplifies the drafting process, making it fun and intuitive while keeping players engaged across multiple sports.
This distinctive mechanic also serves as a launchpad for future verticals, with pick’em contests, iLottery, and iGaming already in the product pipeline.
KPIs: The beta launch in 2024 showed high cross-sport participation, a key signal of user engagement and product appeal. The company has attracted licensing interest from US and international firms, suggesting strong validation for its proprietary gameplay and market differentiation.
Funding backgrounder: Bootstrapped to date, FantasySpin is now preparing for its first external fundraising round, timed to support its full public launch ahead of the 2025 NFL season.
Funds will be used to scale product development, accelerate user acquisition, and build FantasySpin into the next breakout brand in the real-money sports gaming space.
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Upcoming earnings
Jul 17: Evolution
Jul 18: Betsson
Jul 23: Kambi, Las Vegas Sands, Churchill Downs
Jul 29: BetMGM, Red Rock Resorts, Caesars Entertainment
July 30: MGM Resorts, Robinhood
Jul 31: VICI Properties (call)
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