In this episode of the Knup Sports Show, host Ryan Knuppel interviews Mark Szandzik, co-founder of Bettor Together, a cooperative daily fantasy sports platform that allows players to team up and use strategy to boost their chances of winning. They discuss the challenges of launching the app, the unique features that differentiate it from other fantasy sports offerings, and their plans for growth as they prepare for the NFL season.
Ryan Knuppel
Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on, everybody? Ryan Knuppel here, Knup Sports Show, episode 229. Hope you’re all doing well today. We are just under three weeks. Actually, three weeks from today, NFL season begins. Let’s go. All of us in the sports industry are super excited for football this season. Cannot wait for it to start myself. Man, it always goes so fast through the season, and then we’re like, oh, Where is it? And then it comes back so fast. So here it is. It’s going to be here in three weeks. Excited for that. Hope you’re all doing well. We have another great guest on the show today. Going to touch on that in a minute. We’re going to bring him on. It’s going to be amazing.
But first off, a little housekeeping. If you’re going to the SBC Summit Lisbon, enjoy. It’s in September, September 24th to 26th should be an amazing show. We’re proud media partners with SBC. So we always like to push it a little bit with them and help promote a little bit with them. Uh, if you don’t have your tickets yet, please use this promo code new partner VIP. Uh, it’s one of the better ones out there. You’re going to get like 50% off your ticket. So if you are looking to go, haven’t got your ticket yet, or know somebody may be looking to go use that, um, for you, not for me, for you to help get a nice little discount. So, uh, make sure to do that. Should be an amazing event. One of the biggest events, I think, in the world in terms of gaming. So should be awesome. All right. Football, SBC. Let’s get on to our guest. As you guys know, here on the Knup Sports Show, we love to bring on amazing leaders doing amazing things in sports and in gaming. And we have another one today. So let’s go ahead and get him on the show.
Ryan Knuppel
Today, we have Mark Szandzik of Bettor Together. Mark, how are you?
Mark Szandzik
I’m doing well. How about you?
Ryan Knuppel
Oh man, doing amazing, my friend. Doing amazing down here in Orlando, Florida. First off, where are you from? Where are you living?
Mark Szandzik
I’m in a suburb outside of Detroit. It’s called Grosse Pointe. But yeah, grew up here, born and raised here. Spent some time in New York a couple years ago, about 10 years ago, and then I moved back and dragged my now wife here with me and, uh, we’ve got some kids and so, yeah, we’re just settling in and in gross point.
Ryan Knuppel
So, so are we Lions, Tigers, and Pistons to the core?
Mark Szandzik
Yeah, you can give it, you could say that, uh, Red Wings as well. Got it. Gotta support the Wings. Uh, definitely, definitely Lions. It’s been a sad state of affairs with some of our, the Detroit sports teams of late, but the Lions are, are putting them all on their back and, We’re not here talking sports all day, but I could talk sports all day. That should be a good season for them, I think. I think we finally are over the same old Lions curse. I know I’m jinxing it just by saying that. Part of the reason I would get into fantasy was to avoid having to focus all of my negative attention on some sad Lions teams. The way around that is to be active and be involved, invested in some of the fantasy players out there to avoid having to cry over another heartbreaking, horrible, terrible, wild, you know.
Ryan Knuppel
We all know. We all feel that pain as sports fandom and all of the above. Yeah, we all wish our teams were better.
Mark Szandzik
Yeah, but I have a lot of hope and a lot of faith in them this year.
Ryan Knuppel
Cool. Awesome. Well, Marco, I’m excited to dive into Bettor Together and understand what you’re up to there. But first off, I want to hear about you. I heard a little bit about where you’re from, but why don’t you tell me a little bit about your career experiences and just kind of what world you’re in that led you to Bettor Together?
Mark Szandzik
Yeah. So I have a business degree, undergrad, and then I got my MBA. I’ve worked for an advertising agency for better part of 10 years now. And after, you know, It’s fine. It’s a gig, but it’s not exactly what I wanted to do. It’s not where my real passion lies. A couple of years back, I had an idea about something. I’m constantly thinking about sports sports betting fantasy sports um and seeing what’s out there and and you know um and what’s not out there as well and so um one of the things that I realized uh you know after trying to to to find something similar to so sorry let me go back I also played sports growing up team sports my whole life um and so I think that’s kind of uh integral part of uh of my life and and something that you know as you get older and age out of uh really being active and playing team sports it’s kind of really hard to find um things that that can fill that gap and so you know a lot of times I would play you know video games with friends or I would play you know co-manage fantasy leagues to give me that kind of um That feeling, the camaraderie of doing something together in a team fashion. And so that was really where the idea came, where I was missing that. And you can talk to your friends. We have group chats and we have leagues and stuff where you’re maintaining communication with them, but there’s no real communication. and from what I’ve seen no real way to actively um participate together and and get that team that sense of team so that was where the the uh impetus for creating Bettor Together came was there was a a void in the market as far as I can tell and and that doesn’t that’s not out there and so rather than wait for someone else to come along and and try to do it I decided I would Be the one to try to build it.
Ryan Knuppel
Go by its horns and make it happen, right? That’s what we’re doing. That’s what entrepreneurs do. That’s amazing. What sports did you play? I said you played some sports growing up.
Mark Szandzik
Yeah, so I played soccer for a long time in my early childhood, and then I started playing football in middle school. I actually played with my co-founder in middle school, and then we played together in high school, played for a year in college, played lacrosse, did rowing, wrestling. I was year-round playing some sport, some of those individual sports, but the majority of them were team sports. And so that was really just a huge part of my life, you know. Yeah, all along.
Ryan Knuppel
So good. Yeah, it’s another another soapbox of mine I could get on for a long time. The kids these days don’t play enough sports, right? They play. They really pigeonhole themselves into one and being like an expert at this sport. And it’s like I think there’s so much value in playing a lot of them, even if you’re not great at all of them, just playing them under, especially as a kid. Right.
Mark Szandzik
Yeah. Yeah. You talk about that all day, but a lot of transferable skills from one sport that you may not necessarily think.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah, you never know what you’re going to end up being good at or love more as you get older and things of that nature. Now it’s golf. That’s all I got left for you.
Mark Szandzik
There you go. That’s all we got. It’s the best, but I wish I had started that at a younger age. My goal is to… get one of my two kids into it. So that’s a good sport to get the kid into because you can enjoy it with them.
Ryan Knuppel
Exactly. I’ll be taking them to practice.
Mark Szandzik
There you go.
Ryan Knuppel
Well, cool. Awesome. Well, thank you for that background. And so let’s dive into Bettor Together. What a great name, first of all, for even for not a sports company, right? A Bettor, Bettor Together. We are it’s Bettor Together. You say right on the homepage of your website. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about what you guys are up to, what challenge that you saw, what gap that you saw that you guys are, or that you are solving for people and just give us that, give us that five minute elevator pitch of what the heck you guys are doing here.
Mark Szandzik
Absolutely. Yeah. So kind of alluded to it a little bit, but really it’s, we’re trying to be the first cooperative daily fantasy platform. So, you know, like I said, I’m constantly talking with my friends about, you know, what bets do you like here in Michigan sports betting is legal, but what bets do you like? What fantasy plays do you like? What players do you like? I’m in a bunch of season long leagues. I do DFS all the time, always trying to get that edge by, you know, talking with your friends, seeing what, you know, what, what information they’re, they’re doing their research and what they’re getting. And then, you know, you, Assuming you’ll be Bettor when you’re when you’re together. So what one and I do a lot of co-managed season long fantasy leagues as well. So I find that that just has given me a slight edge. I’ve won a few leagues of late. So, you know, that’s and that’s what is, I think, really missing here. from the DFS market today, everyone can, you know, everyone has their, not everyone, but a lot of people have a similar, pretty similar offering. It started out with DraftKings and FanDuel with just the, you know, enter a lineup and then all the Pick’em style contests came in. But, I think they’re all great. I love playing them. I participate. But it is really a solo venture out there. You have to do the work on the back end to have your group chats and talk with your friends about what you like. But you really can’t both be in on those same bets together unless you both place the same bet or make the same lineup. But you’re not winning as a team. And so… As I mentioned, playing team sports my whole life, trying to get that feeling back, the sense of camaraderie of, you know, doing something together. And so what we offer is a way to do that. And that is, you know, you and a friend or a stranger, but I think mostly it’ll be you and a friend, both join a contest, team up. You’re given a… Each team starts with a bankroll. Everyone in that contest all starts with the same bankroll. And then you can use that to make a bunch of as many as you would like or as few as you would like player prop picks. So you allocate that bankroll based on odds of certain player prop markets. And then your aggregate team score at the end is combined to determine your position on the leaderboard. In addition to that, we have a chat functionality within so you can chat with your teammate, your partner in that specific contest. Who do you like? Who don’t you like? What picks are you making? And then we added a little bonus wrinkle here where you can use odds boost just like you would in, you know, a lot of your sports books. But you can use odds boost as a team when you bet together. So you get a 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent odds boost for the picks that you and your partner both like. So, you know, we’re putting applying strategy to the game as well. Tyreek Hill over 99.5 yards, boosted when you are both in on the same pick. And so, you know, we have in-game and pre-game markets available as well. So it’s a fully immersive contest. It’s not just set your lineup and then pray for the best at the end. Strategy comes into play as well in terms of, you know, You can save some for the end and try to game the odds markets or use it all up front. It’s really up to you and your partner. So I think that makes it a lot more fun where it’s not hoping for the best at the end. And it’s another way to differentiate your picks from your competitors, other teams of two in that contest.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah, so that’s amazing, by the way. I mean, really cool concept, and I think, you know, yeah, it definitely is more fun playing and talking, and we’re all talking about this stuff. Actually, a lot of times when I’m talking to all my friends about fantasy, I’m like, oh, everybody likes that one. I’m taking this one beyond what’s over here. I talk to them to get what not to take if they’re all doing something. But regardless of that, two follow-up questions from that. And you kind of alluded to this a couple of times as you talked, but just as my mind was going through it. One, is it always teams of two or can you have bigger teams?
Mark Szandzik
Yeah. So right now that’s where we are, teams of two. We’re starting out. We launched a We got in the app stores earlier this year, but we’re really primed for the NFL season. That’s kind of what we’re focused on. So early on where we’re trying to just get our concept out there and get some additional players and users on the app. Right now we’re starting with teams of two, definitely. long-term or down the line would like to expand that, make it a little more customizable. I liken it to golf as well. You’re in a two-man scramble, four-man scramble, or even playing video games. You’re playing Call of Duty or anything like that, where you’re partnered up and you can vary that team size, but then you’ll be competing against equal-sized teams. But right now, just teams of two as we’re initially launching.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah, and then the second question more from a playability and the product side. So every player on the team, both players on the team, actually still are responsible for setting their own lineup. That’s correct, right? You guys just talk about it. It’s not like you have one team lineup that you’re both responsible for setting.
Mark Szandzik
So it’s actually not a lineup. It’s really, we’re kind of blending everything that you’ve seen in the fantasy space. So it’s contest style or pool style contests where everyone pays an entry fee or you can play for free. We have the free to play as well. And then based on that entry fee, you get, A bankroll is what we called it, but akin to a salary cap. And then you’re managing that bankroll to try to maximize it by the end by making player prop picks. So over, under, on yardage, touchdowns, any available wagers. And so you can… You can bet as little as the of your each player gets 5000. Each player does still set their own card or their own experience. But you guys are have a little interface to like talk about it and figure it out. But at the end of the day, I’m still responsible. Even if you’re telling me as my partner, oh, I wouldn’t do that one. I’m still responsible. But these scores are going into your team.
Ryan Knuppel
Correct. Yeah. So if you’re blowing it and I’m doing awesome, you know, I’ll pick you up when you’re down and you’ll pick me up when I’m down. And then, yeah, they have to come to a like, oh, we have to do this on our lineup or our card. It’s still my decision on what I do, but I got to, okay, got it.
Mark Szandzik
Both players need to agree on using those odds boosts. So if I like something, I would propose it to you. You would get a notification and then accept. And so we both make that exact same pick and now we’re in it together. And you’re getting that odds boost, getting the better return on that one specific pick or those four specific picks, assuming you… You used all your boosts that you’re competing together on those. And it’s an aggregate score. So you make your own picks. I make my own picks. But our combined output is where we rank as a team.
Ryan Knuppel
Cool. Love it. Love it. I love it. It’s a really cool concept. Let’s move on to more of the business side, though. So where are you guys at in a product lifecycle of where you’re at with the product? Are you launched? Are you live?
Mark Szandzik
We’re available in Google Play and Apple App Store. We… We have we can offer we offer pay to play contests in four states, Illinois, Florida, Texas and California. And we have free to play in all 50 states. So, you know, we’re again, we’re really early on. Like I said, we had launched. We got approved in the app stores in end of last year, early this year. It happened in one in 20. 23, one in 2024. But I think we’re really primed for the NFL season. So this is our first real NFL season. We’ll have live contests and we’ll be out and about getting ready for users. We’ve recently partnered with SCCG Management in their managed service uh, offering. So we’re hoping that they can help, you know, make some connections and, and make some recommendations and kind of further flesh out our, uh, our, our plans and help us take it to market and, and maybe explore other opportunities in, in other States or other countries, or, you know, we’ll, we’ll see what, what, what they think as well. Um, but yeah, early, early, uh, early on and we’re just trying to make a name for ourselves and give people a different option out there.
Ryan Knuppel
Good. Yeah. So for some reason you’re, you’re bringing up a lot of soap boxes for me. When you started listing the States, you listed Florida and I’m like sitting here, I can’t believe the position we’re in as consumers where we got to like literally think what we can play and what we can’t play. Like, wait, I’m in Florida and I can play, I can’t play underdog or price picks, but I can play Bettor Together, but I can’t bet. Well, wait, now I can bet. Then I can’t bet. It’s like, as consumers, we’re really like screwing it up or like the business world is screwing it up for consumers. They have no idea what they can and can’t do what’s legal. What’s not legal. It’s, it’s absolutely mind blowing to me.
Mark Szandzik
As a business owner as well, trying to figure it out, trying to navigate that with, with no real legal background.
Ryan Knuppel
So, I’m sure that’s a challenge, right?
Mark Szandzik
It is definitely a challenge.
Ryan Knuppel
You touched on that now. I’m sure that’s a big challenge, right? The whole just regulation around the space is just crazy.
Mark Szandzik
Yeah, trying to stay on top of it, getting legal opinions and proving the concept. And so, yeah, it’s definitely something that there’s a ton of different things that you have to deal with every day as a founder. And so that’s something that I, I wouldn’t say I wasn’t prepared for, I knew a, you know, regulated industry like this, that there are going to be those challenges, but yeah, that’s just another thing that we have to constantly, you know, be aware of and educate myself on. And then you have to trust someone else and, and figure out who you can work with. And so.
Ryan Knuppel
yeah you know that kind of leads me into where I like to go at this time of the show typically and talk a little bit more about just the entrepreneurial side and the business side and you seem like a pretty laid-back uh type of entrepreneur which you know entrepreneurs are different in their own way and uh you know uh I’d love to hear from your perspective. I mean, obviously we just talked a little bit about the regulation side so we can maybe touch on something different, but from a pure business side and starting up a company from scratch and navigating, I mean, it sounds like you got some companies helping you with some different things and all the above, but what’s just one of the challenges that maybe you weren’t quite expecting? I know the regulatory was one, but I don’t know, just one of the challenges that you were or weren’t expecting that you’ve faced over the last year or so here, putting this all together.
Mark Szandzik
Yeah, so I think one of the most difficult things, especially non-technical, I’m not a non-technical founder, so I don’t do any of the development of the work. So, you know, I think one thing is, you know, finding people who can bring your vision to life. And, you know, where I can’t, you know, I can monitor the progress, but I have no real hand in it. So I think finding good partners and being able to trust who you’re working with, that they’re going to act on your vision and bring it to life in the way that you want it to make the changes that you request, because there’s constantly changes that are ongoing. And so… Some of the development work we’ve had to redo because people that we had contracted with couldn’t deliver what they promised they could deliver. So it’s like, you know, as you go, you’re constantly making missteps and they’re expensive, costly missteps. And it sucks, but you got to bite the bullet and keep moving on. And you can’t let couple setbacks here here knock you down because that’s going to happen every day so I think for for me one of the most difficult parts has been really just trusting some trusting someone else to to bring it to life on my behalf and then there are risks involved and you try to take the most calculated risks you can and they don’t always all work um but keeping you know vision forward and and You know, trying to move on and figure out a way, you know, spent a lot of money developing it one way and then had to be kind of reconfigured completely on the back end. It’s kind of like doing, you know, foundational work to your house where you don’t really see that value or that, you know, you don’t. feel that value it’s not like you got a brand new kitchen or a brand new something else but structurally and foundationally the house is sound and that’s where we need to do that’s what we need to do with the app and that’s to ensure that you know we’re getting the data feeds that we need and it’s uh getting the the um bringing the product exactly what we want rather than settling for you know uh half half version of what we’re wanting.
Ryan Knuppel
Well thank you for sharing that I appreciate that it’s never Never fun to talk about challenges, but always the realistic view of where you’re at as entrepreneurs.
Mark Szandzik
It’s the reality. It’s the reality.
Ryan Knuppel
Yeah, absolutely. Well, we’ve got a few more minutes here, Mark. Let me ask, what are you guys needing? What are you looking for? Where are you lacking? Maybe the audience, maybe somebody in the audience can actually help you guys or has advice for you guys. I don’t know. What are you looking for here over the coming seasons?
Mark Szandzik
Yeah. So, I mean, we’ve proved early on, you know, I started this idea with a spreadsheet and using lines from an Excel spreadsheet that I turned into a Google sheet so I could have people participate remotely because I know, you know, a lot of times people aren’t all together and we wanted to try to create that experience. So, you know, we have we’ve proved concept with groups of friends and a few, you know, friends of friends and everyone who’s played it has enjoyed it. I’ve gotten people who don’t participate in fantasy much or sports betting much. They tried it out and they liked it, I think. So what we’re trying to do now is just prove concept on a larger scale. And so what we need now is to get this in front of as many people as possible and see if it’s a fit in the wider industry than just friends and family. and friends of friends. So we’re just trying to get the name out there and get some users. So that’s where we’re starting Proven Concept and ensuring that this can scale, finding ways to grow and scale it.
Ryan Knuppel
Amazing. So if people did want to check it out, wanted to play, obviously it’s on the app store. Give us all the places to, one, find it. Two, maybe to contact you if they have ideas or interest in chatting with you guys. We’ll list it in the show notes, but go ahead and check it out.
Mark Szandzik
BettorTogether.co is a website. It’s just really informational background. You can download it at either of the app stores there. It’s on Google Play and Apple App Store. It is a mobile app completely. We don’t have a web-based interface. So it’s all mobile app. And if you have any questions, you can reach out to me at mark at BettorTogether.co or we have an info at BettorTogether.co is a support website. inbox.
Ryan Knuppel
And for those listening and not watching, that is Bettor, B-E-T-T-O-R. Yeah. So just in case
Mark Szandzik
Play on words, but I think it explains who we are and what we’re all about. Winning.
Ryan Knuppel
Love it. Love it. It is Bettor together.
Mark Szandzik
It is Bettor together.
Ryan Knuppel
Absolutely. Well, really good to chat with you, Mark. I really appreciate you coming on here. Any last words, anything we forgot to talk about that you want to make sure we spoke about?
Mark Szandzik
No, I really appreciate your time. Really looking forward to the NFL season. Please go check it out. Bring, bring your friends. And yeah, I think it’s a, I think it’d be a lot of fun for everyone.
Ryan Knuppel
Very cool. Awesome. Well, appreciate you being here. Take care. Good luck with this season and we’ll keep in touch and talk to you soon.
Mark Szandzik
Thank you.
Ryan Knuppel
All right, Mark. Have a good one.
Ryan Knuppel
All right. That was Mark Sanzik of Bettor Together. Thank you so much for being here, Mark. That was amazing. Really appreciate all you guys tuning in. 229 episodes. Every time I say that number, it just is like, I’ve really done 229 of these things. That’s crazy. It’s been a lot of fun to get to know people like Mark and others in the industry and really just learn. um about what they’re doing to help this uh crazy uh get gaming and sports and sports business and all the people that are in here doing awesome things to just help move and push the needle forward in this business uh that we’re all in so really cool really amazing stuff um I think that’s it for episode 229 so thank you for being here again spc summit lisbon uh is late september uh make sure you use that new partner vip if you need tickets Other than that, I’m Ryan Knuppel. You can find me out on all the channels or connect with me on LinkedIn. Be happy to chat with you about anything in sports or business. I’m easy to talk to. So really appreciate you all. Have a good one. Take care. We’ll talk to you soon. Till the next one. Bye bye.
Relevant Guest Links
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- You can connect with Mark Szandzik.
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