Here on USBettingReport.com we get to meet the minds behind all the great innovative sports betting products that are launched in the U.S.
This week we had the great pleasure of speaking with Caleb Dykema, co-founder of FixdPicks which is a sports betting app that helps the more experienced sports bettors to become better bettors. Caleb’s is an engineer who has experience with both mechanical and product engineering, and who has worked with several ventures including outdoor party games and wedding organization software.
What is FixdPicks and who is the app for?
Dykema. FixdPicks is an app that empowers sports bettors by helping them manage their bankroll and make smarter bets using AI-powered simulations.
Think of FixdPicks as the Intuit Mint of sports betting! Intuit Mint is an app that allows a user to securely link their financial accounts like credit cards and investment accounts. Their data is aggregated in one location and the app’s algorithms help the user manage their budget.
In a similar fashion, FixdPicks allows a user to securely link their sportsbooks. The user’s bet data is aggregated providing them their verified records, ROI, trends, graphs showing their bankroll over time, and other useful information. To further help bettors make more informed decisions, we provide odds comparison tools and predictions on game outcomes that have been simulated using AI.
The more serious sports betting crowd that tends to bet on a lot of games will find FixdPicks the most useful as they already tediously track their bets on a spreadsheet or manually in other apps.
“Weekend warrior” type sports bettors who don’t place many bets or don’t care much about bankroll management won’t find this app as useful because the more bets the user places, the more data our algorithms have to help the user determine their strengths and find their ideal strategy.
How did you come up with the idea? I read that you don’t have a background in sports betting so where did the concept originate from?
Dykema. As the company’s name suggests, we began as a picks subscription service back in late 2019 when Zach Nichols, the first co-founder, developed the first NBA simulation. Zach has a background in machine learning, sports simulations, investment software, and loves sports and sports betting, so this was a perfect blend of all of those things!
AI. It’s a buzzword across this industry and hundreds of others
Although I had very little knowledge or background in sports or sports betting when I started, Zach and I were friends back in high school and I had experience in leading several other startup ventures. While the simulations were successful over 2020, our team began realizing that the picks subscription space was highly saturated and on top of this, after being immersed in the industry, we realized there were other, larger problems that needed to be solved.
In early 2021, we began to pivot towards solving this new problem.
Since you started working on FixdPicks, has your interest in sports betting grown at all?
Dykema. Zach Nichols, huge sports fan. Jake Margolis, the third founder, huge sports fan. Kate Constable and the rest of our team, all huge sports fans. I, personally, don’t follow sports much but I’ve always loved going to games and enjoy watching them when I can. I get a few laughs when I tell people this, and although I have the disadvantage of not knowing the sports/sports betting industry when we first started, I believe it is/was an advantage. The reason being, I come in with a fresh set of eyes that have been in a variety of different industries and have been able to see opportunities that many in the space may not notice because it’s “always been like that”.
As far as the sports betting industry itself, I’ve grown to love it. I’ve been immersed in it for over a year and a half now, have met hundreds of sports bettors of all types, and I’ve seen the opportunities that lie within this industry here in the U.S. Sure, I may not be able to tell you who won the World Series in 2019, but I have a solid pulse on this industry, and the rest of my team can tell you that it was the Nationals (had to look that up)!
Many apps and pick providers talk about AI and it’s becoming an intrinsic part of sports betting as a whole. Why is that? And how does your app differ from others on the market today?
Dykema. AI. It’s a buzzword across this industry and hundreds of others. In my opinion, it’s the only way serious sports bettors will be able to consistently beat the books going into the future, especially as those books get better data and simulations.
But Ai won’t stop there! It will be also be used for getting fans more involved, providing them a personalized experience, and a whole slew of other things. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg. Sports bettors have wanted picks for decades and they will continue to be something that is desired.
But making the right pick is really only 50% of the challenge when it comes to sports betting. Being able to manage one’s bankroll is the other half if profitability is the goal. You can read plenty of articles about the importance of bankroll management, but we didn’t find a technology that helped us do this. That’s why we are building FixdPicks – to not only help users make smarter picks but also actively help them manage their bankroll.
Finally, when can we see the app available for download in the app store and on android?
Dykema. We plan to launch a Beta around the start of the 2021 NFL season. We will only be taking a limited number of users initially so we are recommending individuals to join our waitlist here to get early access to the launch.
You can sign up to get early access to the app by visiting https://www.fixdpicks.com/mobileapp