Ep. 163: Building the Alexa of sports w/ Mark Antal from Staked AI

Ep. 163 features Mark Antal from Staked AI, which is crafting an Amazon Alexa-like AI for sports to deliver personalized, real-time audio content. This episode was recorded on-site at the NEXT Summit New York in March 2025 with guest host, Thomas Coiner.   Hear them discuss: How his background in AI and machine learning at Vault AI led to building Staked AI Why audio is a breakthrough for sports engagement The importance of time-sensitive content and its impact on driving sportsbook engagement How Staked AI’s partnerships, like the one with Wager Games, validate the product’s impact Why sports’ emotional connection makes it the ideal industry for AI-driven personalization How his co-founder, Chris Shreeve, guided the decision to focus on a B2B model How Staked AI trains models to pronounce player names and speak authentically to fans The vision of cloning media personalities’ voices to scale one-to-one engagement The roadmap for Staked AI, focusing on speed, personalization, and conversational AI How his advisors from AT&T and Sportradar help accelerate B2B partnerships His approach to scaling the company, raising capital, and building an AI-first operation Why he believes decisive action is key to success in the fast-moving AI landscape   SBC Americas makes its debut in Fort Lauderdale on May 13-15, and you won’t want to miss it! Get 50% off your Full Event Pass at checkout using discount code BETTINGSTARTUPSVIP. Secure your ticket now: https://sbcevents.com/en/sbc-summit-americas/full-event-pass/    Catch the video version of this episode here.   Learn more 👇 ➡️ Staked AI website  ➡️ Mark Antal on Linkedin     📩 Get the top headlines from the industry's most promising growth-stage companies every week—totally free! Subscribe to the Betting Startups newsletter here: https://news.bettingstartups.com/   -- This podcast is presented by Optimove, the #1 CRM Marketing solution for the iGaming industry. Since 2012, Optimove has served iGaming Operators from startups to industry leaders. Today, 4 out of the Top 5 US Operators Personalize Player Experiences with Optimove. iGaming operators know their growth journey begins and continues with Optimove, the #1 CRM Marketing solution for the iGaming industry.