President & Co-Founder of Quarter4.io, Kelly Brooks, joins Ryan on today’s show to talk all about their new platform serving NBA bettors. Quarter4 is a sports analytics platform utilizing AI and data to help predict winning bets.
Video of Kelly Brooks Interview
Show notes from Kelly Brooks President & Co-Founder of Quarter4.io Interview
Ryan Knuppel: Today we talk with Kelly Brooks, the co-founder of Quarter4, about their new sports analytics platform that uses AI and data to help us win at NBA betting. Everywhere you turn it’s the same old sports talk, the same headlines, the same news and the same boring information. This podcast is here to change all of that. We bring you hot sports takes, winning sports betting strategy and picks, reliable gaming industry news, and breaking interviews with some of the biggest names in sports business. My name is Ryan Knuppel, and welcome to The Knup Sports Show.
Ryan Knuppel: Hey, welcome back everybody to another episode of The Knup Sports Show. My name’s Ryan Knuppel, your host here for this show each and every time. Today I’m joined by another special guest. You are in for a treat today, Kelly Brooks. Kelly, the president and co-founder of Quarter4 is with me. Kelly, how are you?
Kelly Brooks: I’m doing awesome, Ryan, really, really good. It’s very wintry here outside of Toronto, Canada, but having a great day.
Ryan Knuppel: Awesome, awesome. So up in Canada, a little cold. It’s actually cold in Florida today. You would be surprised. It’s in the 40s or something. And I’m kind of chilly. I’m in short sleeves. I’m like, “Man, I need to put on some layers.” But I probably shouldn’t complain because usually we’re sitting in the 80s and 90s about year round, so I won’t complain.
Kelly Brooks: Don’t.
Ryan Knuppel: No sympathy from you?
Kelly Brooks: None, none at all.
Ryan Knuppel: Awesome, awesome. Well Kelly, tell us a little bit about Quarter4. I know we’ve chatted before. But for the audience that’s listening, give us that 1000 mile point of view of what Quarter4 is.
Kelly Brooks: Quarter4 is disrupting the betting resource industry. We are a smart platform built entirely on artificial intelligence to help specifically the new generation of iGamers, sports betters, more particularly, make smarter bets. So we are a technology company first, and that’s how we’ve built our platform. And it’s completely 100% built on artificial intelligence.
Ryan Knuppel: That’s really cool. That’s an easy elevator pitch there, but that’s amazing. I mean, it looks like you guys are doing great things. Tell us a little bit about how you got started with this. I mean, where did this come about? I know you said you’re a technology company at the core. Is that where this got started? Or where did this get started? And I guess a little bit further, how did you get into the betting side of things?
Kelly Brooks: Yeah. So it’s an interesting story. Because we are technology first, a couple of years ago we traveled down to Washington and we went to a blockchain event. Out of that, we also learned about artificial intelligence. I’ve been running a software development company for now 11 years. And I am addicted to it, progressive to technology. Every time a new wave of technology comes out, we always build something in it. Artificial intelligence became really hot a couple years ago, and I thought, to Danijela, my co-founder. We’re like, “If we could build anything with artificial intelligence, what would it be?” And the two answers that came up with something to do with dog rescue because we love animals, or something to do with sports.
Kelly Brooks: So we’re like, “Well, let’s do sports because if it actually ends up working, that’s a pretty profitable industry versus dog rescue.” We’ll take some money off the top and put it over to some good charities afterwards. So we built it, we put in tons of data because we really love players, more specifically basketball players. Toronto had a huge run with the Raptors last year. I’m a huge Kyle Lowry fan. I think he’s the grittiest, greatest player ever. And I’m like, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could understand the athlete a little bit more than just a number?” What drives them? What makes them succeed? What if we could pull all of this data into a profile, connect it to team, and see what happens? What could we actually predict how they were going to play in a game based on everything going on around them? So we ran a test, brought in some specialists, AI developers, ran clean data through the system. I did a six year back history on predictions through the AI model. And lo and behold, we ended up with a 74% accuracy of prediction.
Ryan Knuppel: Amazing.
Kelly Brooks: For athletes’ specific games. And even closer, around 80% predicting head to head match ups on players. Yeah, so we were like, “Oh, wow. This actually works.” So we actually went down to NBA summer league last year because one of our advisors said, “You guys have a great product. Why don’t you go down and learn about the industry?” Because we’re not from the sports better side, we’re from the sports side. So we went down, we flew down. We literally walked around the University of Nevada for days trying to find a connection. We had blisters all over our feet. We were trying to demo the product to anybody who would listen. On the last day, we were literally in tears. And we met up with agent out of Utah, one of our advisors, Austin Eastman.
Kelly Brooks: They looked at our product and they were like, “Holy. This is perfect for fantasy and betting.” And we were like, “What? Okay. Well.” And the rest is history. We’ve brought some great advisors onto the board who have familiarity with space because like I said, first and foremost, we’re a technology company. And we’ve built it coming in from a user, a young generation tech-savvy space versus the space, which I think has a lot of advantages because we’re just looking at things in a whole different way. And our interface is different, our technology is different, the way we price, the way we communicate with the end user. We have voice integration, so you literally can get all of your predictions just by saying, “Hey, Quarter4. How’s Kyle Lowry going to do tonight?” And she tells you the whole scenario, so it’s a really cool platform. We completely are continuing to build out on our success so far.
Ryan Knuppel: Wow. What a story. That’s a very cool story. And that just shows you, man, you can dive into anything you really put your mind and heart to. I’m sure you guys are learning a lot now about this space. Right? Probably more than you ever dreamed you would learn.
Kelly Brooks: Yeah. And can I tell you? I talk my husband out of the room now when it comes to basketball stats. I’m like. How are three points tonight? What are the rebounds? What are blocks? Who’s leading tonight? He’s just like, “Where did you come from?”
Ryan Knuppel: Amazing. Yeah.
Kelly Brooks: And Danijela is the same. Danijela loves sports. We both love sports. We’ve just now learned the lingo. We. And we’ve met some great people that have really taken us under their wing to show us the ropes.
Ryan Knuppel: Sure. I mean, and you’re in a great spot because the data side of things and the artificial intelligence and all of that, I mean, it’s been hot for a while. But it’s really hot right now, especially as it relates to sports betting. I think this analytical mind, and everybody wants to think they have a pick or can handicap a game or whatever, but it’s not that easy. And people start to realize that betting with your heart and making picks with your heart sometimes is not profitable. If you really want to make money, you probably need to have a little more analytical background, a little more data backed picks. And that sounds exactly like what you’re doing, especially for the NBA. Now tell me, because I notice I’m looking and it’s Quarter4, so the number four, Quarter4.io. That’s the website. And I’m looking. You guys are on the NBA right now. What else, what other sports are you going to branch into and kind of dive into here with Quarter4?
Kelly Brooks: Yeah. So I’m just going to go back to your stats and analysis piece. Numbers are so I’m right now. The other thing that we do disrupt is that there are other that do dump numbers onto a page. But again, we’re targeting the young, savvy tech better that’s used to gaming. They’re used to that gaming interface, so we make it really slick, really easy. You don’t need to know any of the actual line by line numbers. It’s a percentage. You drill down and it’s a report on why and how, and you can read it literally in a minute. So that’s another one of our advantages because we’re catering to a younger market. And that answers the question about NBA. NBA, the audience is the youngest, fastest growing viewership in the industry.
Kelly Brooks: A stat I pulled, so New Jersey last year, there was $939 million spent on football, $934 million bet on basketball. So they’re really there. There’s some interest. So we are the basketball efforts, we’re really perfecting that model. We’re dropping NCAA February 15th.
Ryan Knuppel: Perfect time.
Kelly Brooks: We believe … Huge. Yeah. A huge market for NCAA basketball betting. And our goal on the proprietary side is to merge the two data sets and see what we can predict when it comes to rookies and performance and people moving up through the leagues, and actually generating college betting interest from those that are already excited about the NBA, so we want to build those relationships through the data.
Ryan Knuppel: Oh, that’ll be really cool. That’ll be neat. And that’ll be a perfect time to drop for college basketball because everybody knows. I mean, March Madness, there’s probably no bigger timeframe event. I mean, everybody bets the Superbowl, but March Madness going over a period of two, three four weekends at a time, unbelievable how much money’s bet there. I always say I want to go to Vegas over March Madness time, but I never make it, unfortunately.
Kelly Brooks: $8.5 billion were bet last year.
Ryan Knuppel: And that’s over a course of a month, basically. That’s insane. That’s insane. Yeah, so great time to be launching that side of things.
Kelly Brooks: Yeah.
Ryan Knuppel: I’m sure that wasn’t an accident. Right? That was not by accident.
Kelly Brooks: No, no. It’s been very planned. We’re working with some really great advisors, who are experts in expansion and marketing in the US because again, we’re totally focusing on the US market. We think that the opportunity there is really great. As far as other sports, Ryan, you did ask about that. We are going to really hone in on basketball for the next 12 to 24, with intent to move into football at some point. But we’re going to completely really take advantage of this young NBA fellowship that they have.
Ryan Knuppel: I think that’s actually a good lesson for some people listening. I mean, from a better perspective, and maybe even from a business perspective, everybody wants to try to do it all. Everybody wants to try to tackle every sport, even if it comes to just betting on games. Right? You can’t be an expert in everything. You can’t do everything super well. And so I really commend you guys because it would be so easy to say, “Oh, man. We need to get into baseball. We need to get into football. We need to get out here and do this.” But you guys are saying, “No, we’re going to hone in on basketball. And we are going to become the best at this.” So I really commend you for that because I think that’s hard to do from a business side of things and from just a personal side of things. We go too wide instead of really get deep into one area. And so I think that’s a different but good strategy for you.
Kelly Brooks: Yeah. And we’ve had some criticism from people. Why don’t you do? What about soccer? It’s and we’re the same. We haven’t been afraid to say no. We want to be the experts. We don’t want to cut any corners. We don’t want to lay ourselves too thin in multiple categories. We want to come out the experts and having a 99% accuracy versus sports of 65% accuracy.
Ryan Knuppel: Sure.
Kelly Brooks: And you know what, there’s a lot of … I mean, NBA is global now. There is a lot of countries that are betting on the NBA that want to learn more. So I’m like, “Why can’t we be the North American force for the global industry who wants to understand the NBA and NCAA markets of betting?” So we want to be that.
Ryan Knuppel: I love it, love it, love it, love it. So you guys are making some noise. I’ve seen some press releases. I’ve seen some different things out on LinkedIn and out on some of the different social channels. I also heard a rumor, maybe a rumor that you may be going to a certain conference coming up soon. Tell us a little bit about what some of the news you guys have around your business.
Kelly Brooks: Yeah. So we have some really … We’re moving and shaking. We dropped the product in December. It’s live now, so we call it a soft launch. We’re just seeing how people are reacting because again, we come from a technical side, so we’re really drawn to understanding user experience. How do they like it? How can we change things a little bit? How can we make it better? So that’s one thing that we’re doing right now. While we’re doing that, we’re applying like crazy to a lot of pitch opportunities, and know that betting and sports tech market the most that we can. So we actually applied to ICE London back at Christmas. I think I rewrote the application five times because I’m like, “This is going to be the best event to go to.”
Kelly Brooks: Yeah, so then from Clarion Gaming emailed us last week, Thursday, and said, “Hey, you guys are coming to London. You are 20 companies selected out of I don’t know how many globally to represent in ICE.” So it’s a 15 minute time slot. We’ve got to pitch to some really focused investors.
Ryan Knuppel: Amazing.
Kelly Brooks: And hopefully develop partnerships and get some more money so we can continue to built out this amazing platform.
Ryan Knuppel: That’s amazing. Congratulations. That’s, like you said, one of 20. I’m sure there was hundreds, if not thousands that applied for that. I have no idea the number. But that’s quite an honor to be selected out of that, so good job there. And now you get to go to London.
Kelly Brooks: We go to London. And then we’re excited, hopefully we get to see you in April.
Ryan Knuppel: Yes, yes. I won’t be in London, unfortunately. But I will definitely be at the SBC event and the ICE event, so hopefully see you at one or both of those when they come, so that would be awesome to meet up with you two.
Kelly Brooks: Yeah. It would be great.
Ryan Knuppel: Awesome. Well, good. So tell the audience, tell the people listening, so a little bit about I guess who Quarter4 is for. Is it for the sports better? Is it for the individual? Can an individual just sign up for your data to help them bet? Are you going business to business here? Is it a little bit of both? Who’s your audience? And how would they get it if they want to get this product or be a part of it?
Kelly Brooks: Yeah. Quarter4.io, it will give you all the information you need. There’s a 30 day trial right now, so you can sign up, get it for 30 days for free. Give it a go. Give us some feedback because we’re always looking for feedback. It’s specifically right now, it’s for the sports better, whoever enjoys doing a small to medium level size bets on NBA. We really want to entertain people who are maybe nervous to bet, they’re overwhelmed by betting resources that tend to be really stat heavy. We actually have a couple of female betters using the tool, and they’re like, “It’s the best thing we’ve ever used, so friendly.” And we’re really focusing on win, loss right now over under and spread and total points. So those are some of the stats that we’re running now.
Kelly Brooks: So if you just want to start getting into and understanding, that’s what we’re for. But we are going to expand that. We have a really big plan to make those models. We’re actually developing 20 models a week right now, based on all different waiting algorithms, whether it’s three points, minutes played. And those are going to start appealing more to the advanced better. And we also have a B to B roadmap as well for any kind of organization that wants to get involved in AI on the iGaming side. We can plug our AI dashboard into their system, so they can actually monitor all their own odds and lines, and can.
Ryan Knuppel: Nice.
Kelly Brooks: Yeah, the Quarter4 feed. So we are a B to C right now, but we definitely have a B to B roadmap.
Ryan Knuppel: Very cool. So everybody listening, definitely go out, check Quarter4. Very affordable too, especially for the consumer standpoint. I mean, I think you’re at 10 bucks a month or something like that. Am I correct?
Kelly Brooks: Yes. Yep. $9.99. We’re really inexpensive compared to some of the other tools out there.
Ryan Knuppel: I mean, yeah. Looking from a sports better perspective, right? I mean, even if you’re betting $10 a game, I mean, over the course of a month, you’re betting on 50 games, you’re betting $500,000 throughout the month. What’s 10 bucks going to hurt you to give you more information? You’re not claiming that you’re going to make everybody a winner. You’re not claiming you’re going to always get winners. That’s just not true. But you’re another tool in the tool shed. Right? That’s what I like to say. You’re another just piece, you’re another piece that you can use to help you make informed decisions, help you make the right bets. And at the end of the day, just make some money. I mean, that’s what we’re all here to do in the sports betting space, is make some money. And how do we increase that? Quarter4 can help with that.
Kelly Brooks: Yeah. And just enjoy the experience. Not having to sweat over numbers and be overwhelmed by lines and lines of numbers. But you go in quickly, you get your predictions in a couple, like 30 seconds, read about the latest updates on injuries and players, and leave. And also, do it through your car or your Google Home.
Ryan Knuppel: That’s cool. That’s cool. That’d be fun. Well, Kelly, I won’t keep you any longer. I could sit here and talk to you all day long. But for sake of time, I’ll let you go, and we’ll go from there. But how would people get ahold of you if anybody wants to chat with you, or your team, or anything like that? What’s the best way of getting ahold of you?
Kelly Brooks: Yep. Quarter4.io. There’s a contact form. I am on LinkedIn under Kelly Brooks, Quarter4. I am on LinkedIn all the time. I love to connect through LinkedIn, so please reach out to me through that tool.
Ryan Knuppel: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. This was great. And I’ll be looking at all the news that comes out about Quarter4. I hope they video those pitch competitions because I’ll take a look at those after the fact, the one in London, and then definitely looking forward to meeting you up in New Jersey for that conference in April.
Kelly Brooks: Thanks for the support, Ryan. You’ve always been great to talk to. We’ll talk to you soon.
Ryan Knuppel: Any time. Listeners, thank you so much for being here, appreciate it every time. That was Kelly Brooks of Quarter4. Until next time, you guys all have a great time, and thanks again, Kelly. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Knup Sports Show. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing to our iTunes channel today. Plus, visit us at knupsports.com for more picks, previews, strategy and news. That’s K-N-U-Psports.com
Relevant Kelly Brooks President & Co-Founder of Quarter4.io Links
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You can connect with Kelly out on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellybrooks1/
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You can learn more about Quarter4 on their website here: https://www.quarter4.io
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Read more about Pitch ICE that they were selected to be a part of in early February: https://www.icelondon.uk.com/pitch-ice
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