Five startups have been selected to compete in the 2026 edition of First Pitch, held in partnership with BettingStartups at SBC Summit.
The competition will take place on Thursday, 1 October, on the Product Innovation Showcase Stage at the Feira Internacional de Lisboa and MEO Arena.
Each of the five finalists will have three minutes to deliver their pitch, followed by a three-minute Q&A session with a dedicated judging panel.
The winning company will walk away with a prize package valued at €139,400, designed to accelerate growth and support the next stage of their development.
Social prediction gaming platform Betsy aims to turn bets and predictions into shareable content, making participation itself a central part of the entertainment experience.
AI-powered competitive intelligence platform Gmonitor tracks market activity including promotions, games, advertising, rankings and regulation to help operators identify where rivals are gaining ground.
InsightPlay.ai offers an AI workforce for player engagement, deploying autonomous agents across acquisition, retention, reactivation and customer support functions.
Safefy uses artificial intelligence to monitor transactions in real time, helping operators prevent suspicious activities and minimise financial losses.
Whizgen AI, also known as Whizdom AI, provides iGaming operators with three interconnected AI tools covering player support, personalised game recommendations and churn risk detection.
The judging panel includes Rob Duboff of Velo Partners, Willy Joseph from Amazon Web Services, Paris Smith of Defy the Odds, Tom Waterhouse of Waterhouse VC and David Williams of Discerning Capital.
Paul Mills, Senior Event Director at SBC, said: “What stands out about this year’s finalists is the range of problems they’re trying to solve — from player retention to transaction monitoring and competitive intelligence.”
Mills added: “Each one is tackling a genuine industry challenge, but from a completely different angle. One thing’s for sure, the judges are going to have their work cut out for them given the amount of talent on stage this year.”
Jesse Learmonth, Founder of BettingStartups and host of SBC First Pitch, said: “First Pitch gives founders a unique opportunity to demonstrate what they have built in front of people who can help them move forward.”
Learmonth continued: “The pitch itself may only last a few minutes, but the introductions, feedback and conversations that come from it can have a much longer-term impact.”
The competition forms the centrepiece of SBC Summit’s expanded Startup Hub, which connects emerging businesses with investors, operators and potential commercial partners throughout the event.
SBC Summit 2026 will run from 29 September to 1 October, bringing together more than 40,000 betting and gaming professionals across three days.
Access to the Product Innovation Showcase Stage and the First Pitch final is included with Conference, Business and VIP Passes, with complimentary passes available to qualifying operators, affiliates and regulators.
