The 5th EiG LaunchPad & Start-Up Zone

Living Sports Limited hailed the best iGaming start-up by EiG Start-Up LaunchPad audience – find out details here

For the last five years, the EiG LaunchPad has been a platform for innovative start-ups to pitch their ideas to a panel of experts, investors and to a room full of the EiG high-level attendees. Companies such as FSB Tech Solutions, USM Gaming, Passoker, TopHat Apps and Living Sports Limited won the LaunchPad, gaining industry exposure and launching their companies at EiG. The Launchpad has become an important and respected cornerstone in the iGaming sector especially for companies in their early stages looking to raise capital and gain industry exposure. Three of the four EiG winners have either raised the capital they were seeking or partnered with industry giants shortly after winning. This was not just true for the winners; Crowd Park who was a runner up at EIG 2011 also raised capital on the back of the Launchpad.

An unprecedented 27 submissions were received in 2012 – a true testimony to innovation happening in gaming. Up to five have been selected to pitch their propositions, get quizzed on their products and be subject to the expert panel's and industry's vote.

The 2012 start-ups were:

	LocusPlay: Hi-Tech lottery platform that can be quickly rolled out in developing regions with lesser bandwidth availability.  Supports wide range of lottery games with diverse regional flavours - could this be an innovative solution that lotteries worldwide are looking for? Presented by Rahuldev Rajguru, Co-Founder and CEO
	Colossus Bets: Bringing unprecedented high-prize pools to sports betting through the world's biggest guarantees; this innovative product is augmenting the existing way pools are being played by allowing multi-leg cash-in, as each leg progresses. Can they bring real drama to betting? Presented by Bernard Marantelli, Founder and CEO
	Goplay: An open-source iGaming platform that enables casino operators to embed free-to-play social games into their websites and reward users with incentives redeemable at land-based casinos. Does it offer a winning solution to integrate ‘social’ into the existing bricks-and-mortar business? Presented by George Zaloom, CEO, Goplay
	Living Sports Limited: Combine sports with casino by generating real time odds on outcomes, putting them into casino style user interfaces and providing a second-screen experience. Will the founders’ non-gaming, aerospace background help them succeed in sportsbetting? Presented by Dave Tharp, Founder and Managing Director
	Sofun Gaming: French start-up with an ARJEL license, operating Betkup, a social sports betting site that offers unique prediction challenges called Kups on which jackpots are formed. Founder defines it as "the poker of sports betting"; could this innovative approach be a solution to a challenging French market? Presented by Julien de Preaumont, Founder and CEO

Their products, revenue models and potential were scrutinised and judged during the 5^th EiG Start-Up LaunchPad by:

Edward Pfeiffenberger, Managing Director, Venatus Interactive
Phil Cronin, CEO, Tombola
Mark Blandford, Chairman, Valhalla Investments and Founder, Sportingbet
Uri Levy, VP Business Development, Playtech
Evan Hoff, Partner, Velo Partners
Moderator: Melissa Blau, Director, iGaming Capital

After hearing the judges’ commentary, it was up to the EiG audience to choose the winner – Living Sports Limited.

The next LaunchPad will take place at GiGse in San Francisco in April – click here for more details.

Or, if you’re interested in pitching at the 6^th EiG LaunchPad in Barcelona, keep checking the website as the submission process will open soon. In the meantime, check out the submission criteria by downloading this document.

Start-Up Zone

To bring even more innovation to EiG, the expofloor hosted an extended start-up zone that included the following companies:

	EiG 2011 Start-up LaunchPad Winner Casino TV (previously Top Hat Apps)
	GiGse 2012 LaunchPad Winner Use it Better
	EiG Predictor Game Partner OddsLife
	Mojo Win
	Sphonic.com
	Tyche Atlantic
	iGaming2go
	Bit8

Simon Collins, Partner at New Game Capital commented on EiG efforts to bring more start-ups to the show:

I applaud the EiG 2012 Barcelona conference for its leadership on the gambling space, especially the warm welcome they offered to start-ups. EiG's focus on new channels such as mobile and social was well timed - I think this is definitely what many conferences should focus on but few cover the space as well as EiG.