Ep. 160: Building the Gambling as a service platform w/ Sebastian Lewis from Plucky

Ep. 160 features Sebastian from Plucky, which is pioneering "gambling as a service," enabling brands with an audience to offer real money gaming without getting involved in regulation. This episode was recorded on-site at the NEXT Summit New York in March 2025.

Hear him discuss:

• Winning the Starties award for Best Collaboration after partnering with Genius Sports to monetize free-to-play games
• The deal with The Sun, monetizing half a million UK fantasy players through Plucky’s platform
• His journey from a high school dropout to building and exiting multiple tech startups
• How Plucky integrates regulated real money gaming seamlessly into fantasy and live environments
• Plans to expand into Ireland, Australia, South Africa, and explore the U.S. market as a game of skill provider
• The innovative live environment partnership with Sixes Cricket, allowing friends to bet while playing in a bar
• The importance of lifetime value and building stickiness in Plucky’s business model
• Why he believes in prioritizing distribution over product in the early stages of a startup
• His strategy for handing off leadership when Plucky scales beyond the initial growth stage
• His long-term vision of making Plucky a verb synonymous with engaging audiences in real money gaming environments
• How he sees massive potential in blending real money gaming with live sports environments in the future

Catch the video version of this episode here.

Learn more 👇

➡️ Plucky website

➡️ Sebastian Lewis on Linkedin

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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.