The competition will feature as part of the ‘Leaders’ conference track on Thursday, 15th May from 12.30- 13.30, at the Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale. 

The five finalists will each have to present their product and business plan through a 3-minute presentation, followed by a Q&A session, in front of a live audience and an esteemed panel of industry and investment experts.  

The five finalists are:

• Sidebetz: Creators of the first dynamic odds engine for live poker, Sidebetz provides viewers of live poker streams with betting odds for each hand. 
• Wager Games: A technology and short-form video content provider, Wager Games’ platform enables viewers to watch videos from content creators and replicate their bets in just one click. 
• PromptBet.ai: An AI-driven SaaS platform provider, which empowers sports betting and iGaming operators by providing users with smart search (voice+text) capabilities. 
• Gamewagrs: A cutting-edge platform provider that empowers gamers to place bets and create parlays based on their own in-game performance, across their favorite video games. 
• Staked AI: An AI-powered B2B audio platform for the sports industry that enables sports marketers to create emotionally intelligent, podcast-style audio content 100x faster and more cost-effectively.

To determine this year’s winner, SBC has assembled a distinguished panel of judges, each bringing extensive expertise in sports betting, gambling, and venture capital investments. 

The panel of esteemed experts includes the likes of Paris Smith (Founder, Life Winning/Defy The Odds), David Fica (CEO/Founder, Land Vegas), Scott Secord (Partner, Cardinal Sports Capital), Kimberley Nixon (Managing Partner, Open venture Capital), and Quinton Singleton (Founder, Zero Labs). Jesse Learmonth, host of The Betting Startups Podcast, will return once again to host this year’s competition.

Ahead of the competition, Sue Schneider, Advisor at SBC, remarked: “SBC has a long-running history of supporting emerging start-up businesses, and we are extremely excited to continue this tradition for the upcoming summit. 

Every year, the number of applications continues to grow, and with the addition of the Start-up sphere on the show floor, SBC Summit Americas has quickly become the go-to event for start-ups to gain incredible exposure, vital industry knowledge, and key networking opportunities to flourish in the region.” 

The winning startup will receive a prize package valued at over $110,000 to support its development and expansion, including:

• MetaBet & Are You Watching This?: One Year of API Access to Sports Data from Are You Watching This? and Gambling Data from MetaBet, valued at $48,000. 
• Eilers & Krejcik Gaming: 6-month Sports & Emerging Verticals subscription by Eilers & Krejcik Gaming. Valued at $25,000.
• SBC Media: SBC Media promotional package including 6 months of advertising on either SBC Americas, SBC Noticias, or SBC Noticias.Br, including newsletter advertising, and 2 featured editorials promoting the business. Valued at $11,000. 
• AWS: $10,000 in promotional credits, usable for a wide range of AWS services and support from infrastructure technologies like compute, storage, and databases, to emerging technologies, such as generative AI, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
• Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld LLC: $5,000 in credit toward gaming-related legal services provided by Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld LLC. 
• Square in the Air: A $5,000 winner’s package including an on-site video, social media promotion, a free audit with competitor analysis, and a strategy guide to profile boosting. 
• Vegas Kings: An exclusive brand or web design package worth $3,100 from Vegas Kings, the leading iGaming Design and Development Agency.
• GameOn: The drafting and distribution of two press releases, an interview with a US-facing trade publication, a short video interview shared on social media, and inclusion in the GameOn newsletters, valued at $2,300.

Last year's competition saw 916 Gaming, a company that builds innovative and interactive online casino games for operators across the globe, crowned the winner. 

All SBC Summit attendees will have the opportunity to follow the SBC First Pitch competition.