Halftime Snacks

Joe De Pinto is focused on empowering the gaming community but believes that blockchain technology can positively impact all of humanity.

Joe played four years of professional baseball in the Chicago White Sox and dove into the world of entrepreneurship right after finishing his sports career. He founded a few companies, including Haste Arcade.

Haste Arcade is the world's first Instant Leaderboard Payout (ILP) system, enabling gamers to get paid for their high scores on virtually any game. The platform also features a software developer kit for game developers who wish to add these new incentive mechanisms to existing or new video games.

We talked about Joe's sports career and process towards building Haste Arcade, play to earn, ILP (Instant Leaderboard Payout), the role of microtransactions on the internet, and ended up sharing diverse takes on eSports, crypto, NFTs, Bitcoin SV, and much more.

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Former guest of the Snacks – Steve Madincea – joined me for a second conversation on the show.

Steve is a marketing communications expert, and he’s the managing partner of Fantastec. This platform uses new technologies to enable globally distanced fans to engage more deeply with the sports, teams, and athletes they love. The platform has already joined forces with Real Madrid, Dortmund, and Arsenal.

Our first conversation was a general conversation around digital collectibles, but this time, we dive deep into some lessons from the Flow blockchain, token utility, community & engagement, and social trends. We also discussed controversial takes around NFTs – scams vs. valuable projects, investments vs. gambles, and who to follow. Finally, we talk about what Steve expects from the future of NFTs, market adoption, and their role in the sports industry.

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Former guest of the Halftime Snacks and good friend from Australia- Clint Vojdinoski - joins us for a second episode this week.

Clint is the founder and director of Bullpen – a media company covering startups, investments, and trends in media, sports, music, entertainment, and everything in between.

Last time, it was all about digital piracy in sports. This time, we talk about the new deal tracker by Bullpen, we discuss best practices for startups looking to raise capital (do’s and don’ts, how to navigate the networking phase, checklist of a pitch deck), and end up discussing trends to keep a close eye on for 2022.

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Gerald Asante is a tech entrepreneur creating an impact by making sports activities more accessible and allowing facility managers to generate revenues.

He's one of the Co-founders of GameOn Active – a startup on a mission to get everyone playing more sports by making it easy to book venues, organize events, find games to join, and meet other people.

In this episode, we discover Gerald's story with GoA, learn about its progress and development, discuss product, strategy, and operations that will take GoA to the next level, and end up debating diverse takes on grassroots sports.

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Today’s Halftime Snack features Todd Cooper.

Todd worked in regulatory finance and risk management for over 20 years before starting his blockchain business focused on creating NFT products for sports, music, and entertainment rights holders.

He’s the CEO & Co-founder of NuArca Labs – a platform focused on creating NFT products for sports, music, and entertainment rights holders. Their goal is to create fan engagement through innovative, cutting-edge technology, web3, and the blockchain.

We discussed the fundamentals of the blockchain, NFTs, web3, their current/future relationship with sports, NuArca’s projects, the product launch with the Rugby League World Cup, and more.

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Former guest John Balkam joined us this week for a second Halftime Snack.

John is a social entrepreneur, marketing specialist, author of 3-Win Sponsorship, and founder of Third Win Group.

We discussed purpose-driven marketing, how small brands and athletes can get involved, trends enabling more and better partnerships, mental health, environment, and much more.

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Today's episode features Cole Morgan. Cole is a former Division 1 level quarterback, coach, and entrepreneur.

He's the CEO & Founder of Snap! Mobile – a platform that aims to improve the fundraising process for educational programs and youth sports teams.

Their mission is to simplify program management, allow visibility and financial transparency, build successful athletic and extracurricular programs that can positively impact kids beyond their high school years.

Their signature product, Snap! Raise, is the largest digital fundraising tool in the US for high school programs, and it has been used by over 88,000 teams and clubs, raising a collective $500M. 

During our quick chat, Cole shared stories from being a pro athlete and an entrepreneur in sports; we learned how Snap! 's brand went from idea to product to monetization. We ended up discussing verticals, trends, and technologies relevant to Snap! 's future.

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Joining us today from Lithuania is Dariuš Butkevičius.

He has wide experiences in technology, including Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence (AI), while he's also led different teams and co-founded FitpassU – a popular social fitness app in Europe.

Today, Dariuš focuses his energies on his latest venture– FittyAI – where he's the co-founder and CEO.

FittyAI provides a virtual trainer that gives real-time feedback to the user on his training which fitness platforms can integrate into multiple online fitness platforms.

We talked about connected fitness as the disruptor, threat, and competitor of gyms and traditional fitness programs, the value and benefits of leveraging technology to measure, calibrate, and improve our wellbeing, Darius' plans with FittyAI, his expectations on the market, and plans for funding and scaling it.

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Deven Hurt's background in sports includes work in cybersecurity for Nike and the NBA.

He's currently the CEO and co-founder of PredictionStrike – the world's first sports stock market, allowing fans to buy and sell shares of their favorite pro athletes.

The company raised its first VC funding in 2021 and has processed over $4.5M of transactions on the platform to date.

In this conversation, I discussed with Deven the past and present of PredictionStrike, the differences, and similarities between the stock market, sports betting, and PredictionStrike (risk profile, intrinsic value, expected returns, etc.), his plans, projects, and projections for sports investing, and so much more.

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Today's Halftime Snack features Scott Deans – former collegiate kicker and punter, architect, designer, and data analytics manager.

Scott is an expert in design, performance, and technology. Today, he's the CEO and founder of BeONE Sports – a platform that uses AI to help young athletes maximize their performance, gain exposure for their talents, and get advanced training on demand.

In our conversation, we talked about:

- How Scott's background as a semi-professional athlete tied him to BeONE

- BeOne from idea to product to monetization

- Strategic growth for BeONE

- Scott's vision for the future of young athletes & NIL

- And more!

Come snack with us!

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Learn more about the intersection between sports, business, and technology by subscribing to the Sports-Tech Biz newsletter or following Ronen on Twitter.