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

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Catch the video version of this episode here.

Learn more 👇

➡️ Staked AI website

➡️ Mark Antal 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.