In the first part of this iGB L!VE 2025 speaker interview series, MetaBet founder Mark Phillip traces his route from MIT dropout to sports data entrepreneur. He explains what a “smarter betting journey” entails, why curation is key in the age of AI search and how affiliates can move beyond SEO to stay competitive.
MetaBet founder and iGB L!VE 2025 speaker Mark Phillip has something in common with Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates: he’s a college dropout.
Growing up, Phillip had always been among the smartest kids at school and got a perfect score in math SAT. During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, he received an offer to study computer science at MIT, the world-renowned incubator of Nobel laureates.
“I loved everything I learnt there, but it was intense,” Phillip says. “You had all these people who were used to being the smartest one in the room, the class president and the captain of everything. I learnt a lot academically, but I also learnt a ton about how to work with people who are used to carrying the team.”
I learnt a lot academically (at MIT), but I also learnt a ton about how to work with people who are used to carrying the team
Then something snapped during his final year. While sitting for an exam, he watched a fellow student have a seizure and fall out of her chair. But the exam wasn’t paused, and the teachers simply told other students to keep writing. That moment stayed with him.
Just five months away from graduation, Phillip had already started interviewing for jobs. Itching to “build things and couldn’t wait any longer”, he left MIT and accepted a job offer at a fitness startup, designing a swipe card product that could track gym workouts. Unfortunately, the idea didn’t go anywhere, and Phillip soon moved down to Austin, Texas. He spent a few years working in enterprise software consulting and advertising before launching Are You Watching This?! (RUWT), a real-time sports excitement data provider.
I didn’t do any market research. I didn’t have a co-founder. I just jumped in and thought I’d get bought out in 18 months
“I just jumped in”
Phillip started RUWT in 2006 out of, in his own words, “a bit of selfishness and being naive”. A basketball fan and loyal New York Knicks supporter, he was tired of waking up and realising he’d missed a great game. So he built a tool that could flag exciting matches while they were happening, so fans could tune in live.
“I didn’t do any market research. I didn’t have a co-founder. I just jumped in and thought I’d get bought out in 18 months,” he laughs. “Eighteen years later, I’m still here.”
Today’s RUWT has grown into a respected platform for sports discovery, powering alerts for major media companies, affiliates and operators, including Fox Sports and Raketech. Then, in 2018, when sports betting became legal in the States, the company took a new turn.
“It was the monetisation piece we were missing with RUWT. It’s one thing to find a game, another to tell a fan how to watch. But when you add a monetisation hook so rights holders profit when great games happen in real time, that’s when things unlock,” Phillip explains. Just a few months after the PASPA overturn, Phillip and his team launched MetaBet, allowing sports publishers and affiliates to embed real-time betting widgets into content. The platform currently holds long-standing contracts with DraftKings and Playmaker HQ.
When you add a monetisation hook so rights holders profit when great games happen in real time, that’s when things unlock
A smarter betting journey
At its core, MetaBet is about removing friction from the user journey. But Phillip is wary of the industry’s current obsession with options. “Microbetting is huge now – you’ve got tens of thousands of things to bet on,” he says. “But I’ve never met a first-time punter who said, ‘I didn’t bet because I didn’t have enough options.’”
Instead, Phillip advocates for more relevance and “curation”, his magic word for “a smarter betting journey”, the theme of his speaker session at iGB L!VE 2025. He believes affiliates and operators are still underusing curation as a tool. Discovery remains a pain point, even for seasoned fans.
In response, his team launched a tongue-in-cheek website called icantfindthegame.com, which does exactly what it sounds like. Though some operators have slowly started to stream matches, he suggests they help users find any match, even if it’s on a third-party platform, to build bettors’ loyalty.
Most affiliates aren’t differentiated. They’re buying content from the same providers… That might have worked before. But with Google’s recent updates, that era is ending
More social curation
For affiliates, he sees a need to shift away from a pure SEO play, especially given that AI search and Google’s parasite updates are now shaking up affiliate marketing.
“Most affiliates aren’t differentiated. They’re buying content from the same providers. They’re optimising for the same keywords. They aren’t thinking about the experience,” he says. “That might have worked before. But with Google’s recent updates, that era is ending.”
But Phillip also sees an opportunity. While AI can surface answers, it can’t replace personality yet – that’s where he sees influencer content playing a role. Though it’s not necessary for affiliates to all start filming TikToks or launching podcasts, Phillip says they could be aggregating that content, curating the best insights from social media in one place, helping users stop the endless scroll.
Aggregating content is close to low-hanging fruit. You won’t replace TikTok, but if you can pull content together for Real Madrid fans so they don’t check ten sites
“Maybe your site lets users sign up for alerts for discovering new content on TikTok or YouTube about games, or notifying them when games heat up. Aggregating content is close to low-hanging fruit. You won’t replace TikTok, but if you can pull content together for Real Madrid fans so they don’t check ten sites, then add a bet next to it, you become a return-worthy tool,” he explains.
Next steps
Going forward, Phillip’s focus is on merging the two strands of his work: the excitement-first, fan-facing RUWT and the betting-oriented MetaBet.
“It’s a Venn diagram,” he says. “Some clients do curation. Some do monetisation. We sit in the middle. And when you bring those two together, everything improves.”
Phillip is also working on bringing social content back. Though it used to be a major focus for both brands, he had to stop aggregating after X shut down its public API. Getting access again would mean paying tens of thousands, which the team wasn’t willing to do. He’s currently watching platforms like Bluesky and hopes to bring back the feature in the near future.
It’s a Venn diagram. Some clients do curation. Some do monetisation. We sit in the middle. And when you bring those two together, everything improves
Though RUWT and MetaBet’s focus has been the US market, where regulations are patchy but full of high-roller players, Phillip adds that the team is now eyeing international growth, particularly in the UK and Brazil. They are also in discussions with the gaming association in the UAE as the market opens up. But no matter where the future lies, Phillip emphasises that the company’s aim remains unshaken – to help partners innovate, produce evergreen content and give sports fans real tools that improve how they engage with games.
Mark Phillip will be speaking at “Features, Feeds, and Funnels for a Smarter Betting Journey” on 3 July 2025 at iGB L!VE 2025.