Kalshi and Polymarket ramp up their challenge against traditional sports betting. However, they are also creating opportunities for wagering operators and technology suppliers prepared to capture new users as their demands grow more sophisticated.

In mature wagering markets, regulation serves three fundamental purposes: protecting consumers, maintaining market integrity, and generating sustainable tax revenue. In principle, these aims are aligned. In practice, they can come into conflict.

Entrenched brick-and-mortar casino interests and legislative inertia have slowed the spread of iGaming in the United States. In that vacuum, sweepstakes casinos have flourished, becoming America’s fastest-growing wagering vertical.

This month, we flip the lens - from bettor to layer - and profile Ben Keith, the charismatic founder of Star Sports, one of the UK’s biggest and most respected independent bookmakers.

What separates extraordinary betting professionals from the average punter? In our exclusive webinar, we gained unprecedented access to the strategic thinking of Tom Dry, one of the world's elite tennis bettors.

January 1, 2025, marked a watershed moment for Brazil’s betting industry. After years of operating in a grey market dominated by offshore operators and loosely regulated local outfits, the country now has a clear regulatory framework which has a zero-tolerance approach to unlicensed betting. Far from a routine policy update, Brazil is poised to become one of the largest regulated betting economies, with revenues forecast to reach $6.3 billion by 2038.

Kalshi's groundbreaking regulatory approval has positioned it as the first legal event contract exchange in the U.S., allowing nationwide betting while bypassing state restrictions. With backing from Charles Schwab and Susquehanna, it's poised to reshape the wagering landscape across elections, sports, and beyond.

Over the 12 months to 31 December 2024, the Waterhouse VC Fund delivered a gross return of 28%, reaffirming the strength of our multi-strategy approach. As our portfolio companies succeed and our investor base expands, the volume and quality of opportunities continue to rise. With stronger deal flow and deeper industry insights, we are increasingly the partner of choice for founders in the wagering sector.

Nigel Eccles has long been at the forefront of innovation in the wagering sector. His betting journey began in 2000 and exchanges would be the early focus of his career. After a period away from the industry, Eccles would setup FanDuel in 2009, revolutionising fantasy sports before its $4.2B acquisition by Flutter. Eccles stepped away from FanDuel in 2017 to return to early-stage startups, and has since co-founded five businesses. Today, he is driving the convergence of wagering and crypto through ventures like BetDEX and BetHog.

As the dust settles on the U.S. election, prediction markets have captured attention far beyond traditional wagering circles. Polymarket handled over $3.6 billion on wagers on the election outcome, accurately predicting not only the President but also the results in every swing state. Historically, many exchanges have struggled to sustain activity beyond major headline events, limiting their capacity to provide consistently actionable insights. Today, a new wave of platforms are looking to overcome these challenges.