Bettor Capital announces initial closing of real-money online gaming investment fund

By Edlyn Cardoza

Bettor Capital, an investment platform focused on the real money online gaming market opportunity, announced the initial closing of its Fund I. The Fund will be focused on early-stage investment opportunities in software and technology facilitating real money online gaming operations, with a primary focus on the North American market. The fund will be one of the first of its kind dedicated to enabling technologies supporting the real money gaming sector’s rapid expansion and digital transition.

Bettor Capital was founded by industry veteran David VanEgmond, who previously held executive roles at FanDuel and Barstool Sports and is joined by Jake Kleiner, seasoned software and FinTech investor who most recently started and led the early-stage investing practice at U.S. Bank and previously was an investment professional at Vista Equity Partners.

“The real money online gaming industry is expanding rapidly across North America as new jurisdictions regulate and open to meet the significant consumer demand we see across sports betting, iGaming, iLottery and other verticals. We are excited to announce the initial closing of our Fund dedicated to investing in this space,” said VanEgmond. “Our industry network and domain knowledge combined with software investing experience allows us to support entrepreneurs in a compelling and differentiated manner as they grow in this sector. We look forward to building on and continuing our practice of partnering with leading technology businesses that offer unique, sustainable, mission-critical software solutions to this high growth market.”

To support the ongoing activities of the fund, Bettor Capital announced that it has formally established a group of Fund Advisors. This group contains leading figures from the worlds of real money gaming, sports, technology, media, telecom, and private equity who have senior executive and board experience across a diverse set of domains. The Fund Advisors will provide strategic support and operational expertise for the fund, its limited partners and portfolio companies across critical leadership domains, including legal and regulatory compliance, brand and marketing, strategy executive development, and more. Bettor Capital’s Fund Advisors will include:

Melissa Blau, founder of iGaming Capital, a consulting firm focused on the online casino industry; former General Partner and Co-Founder of a $450 million MediaTech venture capital fund in association with Bear Stearns;

Julie Haddon, former Senior Vice President of Global Brand & Consumer Marketing for the NFL; two decades of leadership and consulting roles at SoFi, eBay, DreamWorks, Zynga and Twitter; co-owner of the Chicago Red Stars NWSL women’s professional soccer team;

Steve Kaplan, co-owner of multiple professional sports teams including DC United and Swansea City; co-founder of private equity firm, Oaktree Capital Management;

Carl Sottosanti, former Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Penn National Gaming, Inc., where he served for nearly two decades; 

current Fubo Gaming Board member and compliance committee chairman and advisor to other early stages real-money gaming businesses;

Carl Vogel, private investor and advisor; current board member at multiple public companies including SiriusXM; former Chairman of the Board of FanDuel; former President of Dish Networks and CEO of Charter Communications;

“We are thrilled to formally announce our partnerships with Melissa, Julie, Steve, Carl and Carl,” said Jake Kleiner, Investment Partner at Bettor Capital. “We are grateful for their support, and excited for the expertise they have already brought and will continue to bring to augment the capabilities of our investment platform. The knowledge, focus, and subject matter expertise that these individuals bring to the table is unparalleled in their respective fields and we could not be more excited to have each of them on board as Advisors for Bettor Capital.”

“The opportunity to join this team and impact the growing development of tech infrastructure that is powering these dynamic new startups in the real money gaming space is exciting, said Julie Haddon, Advisory Board member. “We’re honored to be working with this extraordinary team to help scale the technology businesses that are innovating how consumers will experience these exciting new betting products.”