In this episode of the Sports Tech AllStars Podcast, we present Evan Kirkham, CEO and Co-Founder of Outlier.
The conversation explores how Outlier is building a data-driven sports betting platform that charges bettors directly rather than taking affiliate fees from sportsbooks, why that single decision shapes everything about the product, and where the $11 million Series A company is heading next - including a data acquisition and a new live betting product.
Takeaways
Outlier charges bettors a subscription fee instead of taking affiliate money from sportsbooks - a deliberate choice that keeps the product fully aligned with the user
Taking affiliate fees from sportsbooks creates an incentive to funnel users rather than serve them - Outlier refuses to make that trade-off
The platform is essentially a Bloomberg Terminal for sports bettors, taking users from insight to analysis to bet execution in one seamless flow
65% to 70% of Outlier's traffic is NBA, with prop bets driving 95 percent of overall usage
The US skipped the betting shop era entirely - everyone came to digital sports betting at the same time, which is why adoption has been so fast
The financialization of sports betting is the defining US trend - bettors will increasingly move in and out of positions like traders, with limit orders and automated execution
The market is bifurcating between serious data-driven bettors and casual fans who just want entertainment - most products are still trying to serve both at once
UK bettors have ingrained behaviors tied to legacy sportsbooks - breaking those habits is the core challenge of international expansion
Outlier is acquiring a data technology provider and launching a net new live in-game betting product
To learn more, visit: https://www.outlier.bet
Get in touch with Evan Kirkham at:linkedin.com/in/evan-kirkham-581b1220
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:59 What Outlier Is and Why It Calls Itself a Bloomberg Terminal for Sports
03:28 Is Outlier for Casual Bettors or Serious Ones?
04:08 The Match.com Model - Building a Suite of Data Products
05:14 The Origin Story
05:51 Game Lines vs Prop Bets
08:40 Why Outlier Charges Subscribers Instead of Taking Sportsbook Affiliate Fees
10:13 Subscription as the Core Business Model
12:10 Why Affiliate Models Serve the Sportsbook, Not the Bettor
13:18 100,000 Monthly Active Users and the NBA Dominance
13:48 Expanding Into Soccer and International Markets
16:00 Why the US Adopted Sports Betting So Fast Compared to Europe
17:57 The Learned Behavior Problem in UK Betting Markets
19:47 The Stale UK Market and the Opportunity for a Fresh Product
21:13 The Financialization of Sports Betting
23:20 The Bifurcation of Sports Betting: Serious vs Fun
24:11 Prediction Markets, Cultural Betting and Responsible Gambling in Europe
25:03 Betting as a Shared Entertainment Experience
26:38 Why Sportsbooks Are Missing the Fun Segment Entirely
27:12 What Is Next: Series A, CMO Hire, Data Acquisition and Live Betting Product
29:18 Favourite Sporting Moment
