Inside the raise to build "Expedia for sports betting" w/ Gino Donati from BetOpenly and OpenMarkets

Ep. 229 welcomes back Gino Donati, Founder of BetOpenly, for a bonus episode exploring the evolution of his peer-to-peer betting exchange and his ambitious new venture, Open Markets. Gino discusses building a universal betting marketplace, connecting liquidity across platforms, serving institutional clients, and the lessons he's learned about fundraising and scaling a business.

Hear him discuss:

• How BetOpenly differentiates itself as a peer-to-peer exchange focused on fair, devigged lines and odds rather than traditional market-making models.
• The growth of BetOpenly over the past year, including changes to its customer acquisition strategy and expansion across social platforms and partner integrations.
• The launch of Open Markets and Gino's vision for creating an “Expedia for sports betting,” allowing users to compare prices and access the best available lines across multiple platforms.
• How a universal wallet and partnership infrastructure could make it easier for bettors to move money and execute trades without maintaining separate balances across multiple operators.
• Why Open Markets is also targeting the institutional side of the industry, offering infrastructure, data, liquidity solutions, and other B2B services to operators and market participants.
• Gino's fundraising journey, including raising pre-money valuation and why he chose outside capital after years of bootstrapping BetOpenly.
• The licensing, regulatory, and infrastructure challenges involved in building a centralized layer that connects sportsbooks, exchanges, and prediction market platforms.
• Why Gino believes Open Markets can act as a neutral “Switzerland” for the industry by bringing liquidity to multiple platforms rather than competing directly with them.
• His long-term vision for BetOpenly, including the possibility of eventually giving ownership to its users and creating a community-owned betting exchange.
• Gino's plans to invest in early-stage startups, provide founders with access to data and infrastructure, and potentially build an accelerator-style ecosystem around Open

Join the Next Predict conversation on October 22-23rd in New York. Tickets are still available, get yours now and use discount code STARTUP15 for 15% off your pass! Grab tickets here: https://nextpredict.io/summits/the-worlds-prediction-markets-summit/