Founder of Israel’s Gett Partnering With NBA Stars to Take US Lottery Tickets Online
by Meir Orbach / CTech
In the United States, the $100 billion per year lottery business has been mostly offline and cash-based, with very little technology and data integration. In 2021, about half of all Americans purchased lottery tickets, but only around 7 percent of those sales came from online transactions.
Jackpot is a digital platform that facilitates the purchase of official state lottery tickets online. The new capital will enable Jackpot to launch its product in the United States and to increase hiring, strategic acquisitions, partnerships with state lotteries, and local market expansion.
Jackpot was founded in 2016 by More, who had already left Gett by that stage, and CEO Akshay K. Khanna, a former executive at StubHub and vice president of strategy at the NBA team the Philadelphia 76ers. Gigi Levy-Weiss, general partner at NFX and Israel’s most notable investor in the gaming sector, was one of the company’s early investors, as was Dave Waiser, who last month stepped down as CEO of Gett after more than a decade. Jackpot’s R&D center is located in Serbia and the company does not employ any Israelis.
Jackpot closed a $35 million Series A last week, with investors including NBA stars James Harden and Joel Embiid, and NHL legend Martin Brodeur. The round was co-led by Accomplice and Courtside Ventures, with participation from the Kraft Group, CEO of Fanatics Michael Rubin, Haslam Sports Group, Elysian Park Ventures, Arctos Sports Partners, Sapphire Sport, Theo Epstein, Fenway Sports Group President Mike Gordon, DraftKings Co-Founder and CEO Jason Robins, and musical artist Lil Baby.