In this episode of the Knup Sports Show, host Ryan Knuppel sits down with Dean Sisun, co-founder of ProphetX, to discuss the revolutionary peer-to-peer sports betting exchange and its unique approach to the betting industry. Dean shares the journey behind ProphetX, starting with his background in finance and passion for sports betting, which led him to create a platform that challenges traditional sportsbook models. ProphetX allows bettors to set their own odds and trade directly with one another, fostering a community-driven approach to sports wagering while addressing common frustrations with high fees and limiting practices found in traditional sportsbooks.
Dean dives into the challenges of launching a betting platform, particularly in a regulated market, and how ProphetX shifted to a sweepstakes model to offer a legal and accessible experience across 40 states. He also explores the platform’s focus on providing tighter pricing, eliminating user limitations, and solving the classic “chicken and egg” problem in marketplaces by leveraging strategic partnerships. The conversation highlights how ProphetX is designed to educate users, simplify peer-to-peer exchanges, and offer an innovative alternative to the sportsbook experience.
Ryan and Dean also discuss the importance of community-building, early adopter feedback, and the future of sports betting exchanges. Dean provides valuable advice for aspiring entrepreneurs, emphasizing the need to take risks, focus on a clear vision, and partner with the right people. Tune in to hear more about the challenges and opportunities of disrupting the sports betting industry, along with Dean’s insights on innovation, regulation, and what’s next for ProphetX.
Ryan Knuppel
Hey, what’s going on, everybody? Ryan Knuppel here, Knup Sports Show, episode two hundred and thirty-eight. Welcome to the show. Appreciate you tuning in, as always. Today we have another amazing guest. I cannot wait to dive in.
As you know, we love to bring you leaders in sports, gaming, and business to showcase what they’re doing. These awesome people doing awesome things. So we have another one for you today. I’m excited to do that. Hopefully, you’re enjoying the holidays, had a great Thanksgiving, and watched some amazing football. The Bears kind of choked it away—crazy game on Thanksgiving. I’m looking forward to some Christmas basketball and all the fun over the next few weeks.
All right. That’s about it—no real housekeeping for today. No more events or gaming events for me for the rest of the year. We’ll start showcasing some of those at the beginning of twenty twenty-five. But for now, I get a little break from traveling, so I’ll be here running a few shows and keeping the business afloat.
Without further ado, let’s go ahead and bring on our guest today. Today we have Dean Sisun. Dean, how are you?
Dean Sisun
I’m doing well, Ryan. Thanks for having me on.
Ryan Knuppel
I cannot wait to dive in and talk about you and ProphetX. Dean is with ProphetX. But first off, Dean, tell us a little bit about yourself—where you’re from, what you do, and the path that led you to ProphetX.
Dean Sisun
Happy to. So, where do I want to begin? I’m initially from the suburbs of New York. I grew up there my whole life. I went to college at Vanderbilt and lived in Nashville for another year and a half after I graduated. I loved it down there. I worked in finance and was in investment banking during my time there.
Always, though, I had a deep passion for sports betting. I was betting even in high school and college. You could call me an enthusiast, among other words. At one point, while I was in finance, I thought of this idea for ProphetX. It’s a marketplace for bettors to trade with each other—essentially an exchange where people can set prices or take others’ offers.
I was in banking for a year and a half out of school, then transitioned into this. My co-founder and I, who also went to Vanderbilt, started working on this when PASPA wasn’t repealed yet. We started looking into this in twenty seventeen, leading into twenty eighteen. When PASPA was repealed, we considered moving into the UK market because it was fully legal there.
We said to ourselves, “Let’s launch a test market out there while it’s illegal in the US.” We had heard rumors about what the legalized US space might look like, and it sounded expensive. As two twenty-three-year-olds out of school, we didn’t have much money. So, we thought, “Let’s build traction in the UK, raise funds, and come back to the US.”
One thing led to another. We are out of the regulated market. We are now operating as a sweepstakes platform, but under the gist of still an exchange where people can exchange with one another on their sports trades. So anyway, that’s a little bit about me. Most of my background is very ProphetX-related, but that’s how I got into this. I was betting for a long time. I thought of this idea in college. I went into investment banking after school and then eventually transitioned into this.
Ryan Knuppel
Well, it’s funny. Out of all of that, my very first thought was, did you ever get to march down Broadway in Nashville holding a victory post when you went to Vanderbilt? Or did you miss out on that adventure when you were there?
Dean Sisun
I’m trying to think of our biggest win. Our biggest win was against Georgia at home. Actually, I’ll back up even more. My first game was in twenty thirteen. We were playing Ole Miss. It was the first Thursday when college football started. All the freshmen ran onto the field before the game—it was unbelievable. We were so excited.
We took the lead late in the fourth quarter with about a minute left. Jordan Matthews, if you remember, caught a fourth-and-sixteen pass. I can’t even remember who our quarterback was. Anyway, we took the lead by four, but Ole Miss ran a stretch play on their first drive and took it seventy-five yards for a touchdown. I’ve loathed them ever since.
Anyway, the point of my story is about the Georgia game. I was there for about a quarter and a half. It was an early game, we were tailgating, and I was exhausted. It started raining, and I thought, “I’m not staying here in the rain to watch us get killed.” I went home, passed out, and woke up to find out we had won. That was the biggest win of my Vanderbilt career, and I missed the entire game.
I would have loved to carry that victory post down Broadway or, better yet, into our backyard off-campus house. What a scene that would’ve been!
Ryan Knuppel
What a story! College sports are amazing. It shows the passion and excitement surrounding these moments. It makes me a little jealous since I went to a smaller school that wasn’t really football-focused. But hey, I guess we can all live it through fandom.
Let’s shift gears and talk more about ProphetX. I’ll pull up the site here. Why don’t you expand on what you’re doing in detail? What sports are you working in, and what’s your overall approach with ProphetX?
Dean Sisun
Yeah, so in detail, ProphetX competes against the traditional sportsbook model, right? The traditional sportsbook model offers minus one ten on spreads and pretty high VIG across markets. The VIG only increases as outcomes are parlayed together. The reason for this is that you, as an individual, are betting against the sportsbook. It’s you against them. So it’s in their best interest to win money and to carefully assess each user’s profile, which can impact who gets to play on their platform.
With us, everything is peer-to-peer. You can see prices are a lot tighter than the typical minus one ten spreads. Additionally, there’s no limiting or banning of users because we act as intermediaries, collecting a commission on the volume that comes in. On our site, you can also request your own price. You can adjust the odds and the stakes to your preference, which gives users a level of control not available on traditional sportsbooks.
Our sports menu is a function of our community size. On a peer-to-peer site, you can only place action on events where others are willing to take a price. As our community has grown, so has our sporting menu, and you can see that reflected in the broader range of available options.
Ryan Knuppel
Let’s expand on that because I’ve heard frustrations from others using peer-to-peer platforms. For example, someone might want to make a bet with better odds, but if the bet doesn’t get filled, they’re left disappointed. How do you address that frustration?
Dean Sisun
That’s a classic chicken-and-egg problem with any marketplace. I’ve spoken about this on other podcasts and often reference Uber and Lyft as great examples of solving this issue. Without drivers, you wouldn’t have riders, and without riders, you wouldn’t have drivers. To fix this, they initially paid drivers to sit and wait for riders, ensuring a good experience for users. Once the marketplace was established, they no longer needed to do that.
For us, a lot of the liquidity you see on the site—like the dollar amounts under each set of odds—comes from service providers. Think of these providers like institutional funds but for sports trading. They have an interest in trading on exchanges. They provide us with odds recommendations and indicate how much money to put on each outcome. In exchange, we offer them discounted services. This approach helps get the marketplace started, allowing users to request their own prices and have a better chance of getting them filled. Once the party is started, so to speak, the flywheel begins turning, and liquidity builds naturally.
It’s worth noting that if a user asks for a price that’s unfair for the other side, or if the number moves against them, it might not get filled. But for fair prices, the experience is generally very positive.
Ryan Knuppel
Great answer. That makes a lot of sense. I used to obsess over bets not getting filled, but now I think, “If it wasn’t meant to be, it wasn’t meant to be.” Let’s shift gears a bit. You mentioned sweepstakes earlier. Some people might wonder how that’s legal or how it differs from other betting operators. Can you explain sweepstakes and the legality behind them, as well as where people can play?
Dean Sisun
Sure. First, I’ll say that I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t dive too deeply into the legal aspects. But at a surface level, we’re live in forty states. Sweepstakes are fundamentally different from traditional regulated betting sites. What we offer is a free-to-play service with a social currency. Attached to that is a sweepstakes service where users can win real prizes by entering with sweepstakes currency.
This concept has existed for a long time. I believe VGW launched the first sweepstakes casino back in twenty ten. The casino side of sweepstakes is far more popular than the sports side, though the sports space is growing with a few key players entering. The reason we chose this path is that the regulated model isn’t built for startups. It’s focused on short-term tax revenue and consumer protection, which comes with significant costs—costs that are prohibitive for startups.
The number one reason startups fail is running out of money. We felt that pain when operating in New Jersey. Launching in additional states would have been even more expensive, so we pivoted to the sweepstakes model. Users can still use our platform as an exchange, but there are different ways to utilize it, such as the free-to-play and sweepstakes components. It’s a bit nuanced, but hopefully, that provides some clarity on why we made the switch.
Ryan Knuppel
That’s really helpful. I think a lot of people are hearing the term “sweepstakes” more these days, so your insights on how it fits into ProphetX are valuable. Thanks for sharing!
Ryan Knuppel
Let’s talk a little bit about your community because you mentioned community earlier, and I’m assuming being a peer-to-peer and very social type experience, the growth of a community is very important. Let’s talk about your community and how you’re working on building that and growing that.
Dean Sisun
Yeah, so it’s a good question because it’s a different answer depending on what phase you’re in, right? I think when we were in New Jersey, phase one was just educating people on the exchange—one hundred percent. Someone’s going to come onto the site, and they’ll have thirty seconds to figure it out. Otherwise, you lose their attention, and you’ll never see them again. So it was very product-oriented. It still is very product and education oriented.
But now that we have more of a base that enjoys using our site, a lot of it is understanding why they are using it and then building the site to serve those earlier adopters. At that point, you can start building more flywheels from there. So that’s number one.
Number two is, honestly, it’s not a super sexy answer, but spending money to get the word out there is huge, right? We’ve seen our early numbers, they’re strong, and we like what we have. But how do we make this for the masses? Is it built for the masses? Our vision is to make the exchange mainstream—to compete with sportsbooks, but also complement them.
How do we get there? Again, the non-sexy answer is spending money for awareness. We have a big plan for how we’re going to do that, who we’re going to work with, and the right people to partner with. It starts with getting the product right for that initial community and then getting the messaging right afterward.
Ryan Knuppel
I’m sure you do have a big plan. Let’s talk a little bit about this plan without diving too deep—not necessarily the marketing side, but just in general with ProphetX. What are you guys looking to do in the near future? What’s the game plan look like? Is it as simple as just building the community, or do you have some things in the pipeline?
Dean Sisun
I would love to. So, you know, I don’t know how many listeners have used our site, but there’s certain friction on the site right now that you frequently run into. Number one is just cleaning up some mistakes.
Number two is if you’re trading on both sides of an outcome—let’s say Rams vs. 49ers on Thursday night—and you take the Rams at +125 at the beginning of the game and want to trade out of your position, you can do that, but you would need to deposit or purchase more funds on a traditional sportsbook. With us, what we want to do is allow you to trade out of that position without needing to add more money. Essentially, our site would read your net position, and your wallet would function accordingly. So, if you have positions on both sides, there’s a worst-case scenario where you wouldn’t need $100 on each side. Your wallet would reflect that worst-case scenario. That’s a big feature we’re focusing on.
In terms of the plan, without divulging too much, it’s really about working with the right people—people who are bought into the exchange and understand it. That’s key. If you don’t partner with the right people, users might have misconceptions about the exchange, and they may not like it or come back. Educating those early partners is critical, and it’s why we’ve hired people on our team to do that. But overall, it’s about improving the product and executing the plans we have in place.
Ryan Knuppel
Very cool. Amazing. It looks like an amazing platform. I’m excited to dive in and try it. I’ll admit I haven’t used it yet, but I’ve looked at it and checked it out. I’ll dive in soon. A couple of follow-up questions here. Most of the listeners of this show are probably more B2B type listeners—other businesses, leaders, or CEOs doing amazing things in this industry we all love.
So here’s my first question: What advice do you give other co-founders, leaders, or startups who admire where you’re at and want to get there? And second, what ask do you have? What do you need from people who might want to work with you or help out?
Dean Sisun
The ask I would have for the community is, number one, what would you do differently if you looked back five years ago at how your product shaped up? I know what my answer would be, but I’d love to hear how others view it. Number two, where do you see the space going as a whole? That’s what I’d like to know from leaders out there.
In terms of working with others, as an operator, it’s binary—can you help us get more customers and more revenue or not? It’s almost solely focused on the marketing side for us right now. So, if anyone out there is an affiliate and wants to work with us, I encourage you to reach out.
For advice to startups or leaders, I’d say think about where you see yourself in five years and where your company will be in five years. Also, take more chances than you’re comfortable with. That’s something I think about a lot when reflecting on my journey. Quitting my job in finance and starting a sports gambling company at twenty-three years old was a big chance, but honestly, I wish I took even more chances along the way. If you’re a younger company, consider how you can push yourself to take risks you’re not even thinking about right now.
Ryan Knuppel
Amazing advice, Dean. Really appreciate you sharing that. Any last words? Anything we missed or that you want to cover before we wrap up?
Dean Sisun
Good question. I’m very curious to hear your product feedback once you try it, so keep me posted. But no, I think you covered everything pretty well, especially for your audience. I also appreciate that you pulled up the site during the podcast, which is unique to some of the podcasts I’ve been on before. I enjoyed my time here.
Ryan Knuppel
Absolutely. I wish you all the success in the world, Dean, and I can’t wait to have you back in the future to discuss your successes. Congrats on everything, and best of luck moving forward.
Dean Sisun
Sounds good. Thanks for having me on, Ryan.
Ryan Knuppel
Take care. All right, that was Dean Sisun of ProphetX. What an amazing story he has, and it looks like an incredible site. Like I said, I can’t wait to dive in and play. Hopefully, you all got some value from this. If you’ve played on ProphetX, I’d love to hear your feedback. If not, we’ll put links in the show notes, along with contact details for Dean.
Remember, Dean’s last piece of advice for up-and-coming founders and leaders: take more chances than you’re comfortable with. I totally relate to that advice now in my entrepreneurial journey. You’ll never regret taking chances, so take them and see where they lead you.
That’s a wrap on episode two hundred and thirty-eight. I really appreciate all the support. If I don’t talk to you all in the next few weeks, have a great holiday. See you at the beginning of the new year. Until next time, I’m Ryan Knuppel. Take care and stay safe.
Relevant Guest Links
- Learn more about ProphetX on their website.
- You can connect with Dean Sisun on LinkedIn.
- Big thanks to BettingOnTech.com for setting up this interview.
More Knup Sports Links
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- This episode was sponsored by Coded Content — data driven AI sports content unique to your brand!
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