Reel Lives: SeventySix Capital’s Wayne Kimmel On Betting On Entrepreneurs, Choosing Investing Over Lawyering, And Watching The Philly Special Live
The managing partner of the venture capital firm talks about his passion for backing winners
10 min
Every gambler has a story to tell. And so does every person who chooses to make a living in this unique industry.
In our “Reel Lives” series, Casino Reports shines a spotlight on people working in the gaming business, from executives, to analysts, to media members and communications pros, and all points in between.
The subject in this interview: Wayne Kimmel, the founder and managing partner of SeventySix Capital, a Philadelphia-area company that specializes in investing in sports betting, gaming, and sports tech companies.
Casino Reports (CR): You launched SeventySix Capital in 1999. When did you first realize sports-betting-related ventures were going to be a significant part of your focus? Were the wheels in motion on that before PASPA was overturned?
Wayne Kimmel (WK): When I launched SeventySix Capital, and we were a consumer tech and internet-focused venture capital fund. And from early on, we looked at gaming companies. We were involved with a real-money Bingo game, for example. But we were really not focused on the sports industry the way we are now until about eight years ago. And what spurred on the move to sports was the fact that we looked at the overall landscape and saw that pretty much every other industry in the world had been disrupted by technology, data, and analytics, and the one industry, generally, that had not been disrupted was sports.
So we looked at the experience that we had with doing that in the consumer tech world, with companies like SeamlessWeb, which is now part of Grubhub. And what we were doing with putting health care clinics inside of pharmacies, staffed by nurse practitioners — that was a complete change and transformation for a consumer and for the pharmacies. And this industry of sports had not been transformed like that yet. So we were looking at the overall sports world, and we saw the sports technology side of things, and gaming was part of that. It was everything from esports and video gaming to real-money gaming.
At that point, the Supreme Court case was in motion. So we certainly had our eyes on what was going on. At the same time, we started to get a lot of business plans from sports betting companies, fantasy-type companies, different types of businesses in and around the sports betting side of the world that we had never seen before. Once we put up the flag that we were looking for entrepreneurs that were looking to do the next next thing in sports, all of a sudden we started getting things on the sports betting side.
And one of those first companies that we were introduced to prior to PASPA was VSiN, with the Musburgers. Brian Musburger reached out to me, and we were talking well before PASPA was overturned. Also, Elysian Park, the venture capital arm of the Los Angeles Dodgers, reached out to us and said, “Would you be interested in investing alongside of us in a company called Swish Analytics?” And with both of those conversations, we were talking with the companies, but on pause because we said, look, if the Supreme Court makes a ruling on this and all of a sudden sports betting could be legal outside of the state of Nevada, we’re very interested. And the end of that story is, as soon as PASPA was overturned, two days later, I was in San Francisco in Swish Analytics’ offices, structuring our investment into their company. And then the next day, I flew to Las Vegas and sat down with Brian Musburger, Brent Musburger, Bill Adee, and working on our deal to invest in VSiN.
CR: How close were you to either going down a sportscaster career path or a lawyer career path before settling on the venture capital route?
WK: I wanted to try to do everything, but — well, I shouldn’t say everything. I didn’t know what venture capital was. I didn’t even know what it was when I was in college or in law school. It was not something I was focused on even a little bit. I was always going to be a lawyer. I was always going follow in the footsteps of my dad, 100 percent, and become a lawyer because that’s what nice Jewish boys do. And, I was really excited to go and start practicing law with my dad. But it was the mid-90s, and there were incredible things happening in the business world. And I was exposed to the world of entrepreneurship. I was exposed to the world of venture capital. And I was at one of these events, a networking event, I was standing there next to an entrepreneur, and I said, “Why is everyone going over and huddling in front of that person over there? Like, who is that person?” And they said, “That person is a venture capitalist.” And I said, “What’s that?” And they said, “He’s the person that makes all of our dreams come true.” And I was like, wow, that is super cool. I want to be one of those people someday. And that was really the beginning of my journey to become a venture capitalist.
CR: I also know there’s some sportscasting experience in your background. Was that ever something that was close to being your career?
WK: It’s really funny. Throughout college at the University of Maryland, I did play-by-play and color on the college radio station, and I loved it — loved every second of it. And I’ll never forget, my senior year, before one of the football games, I was sitting with Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon. They were both at The Washington Post, they were just regular newspaper guys at the time. And they said to me, “So, kid, what are you doing after college? Are you going to go to some radio station somewhere and try to get into this racket?” And I said, “No, I’m going to law school.” And they said, “Yeah, that’s smart.” After that, when I was in law school, or maybe just out of law school, I tried out to be the PA announcer for Villanova basketball. But I haven’t done any games since. But now, having my SeventySix Capital Sports Leadership Show is amazing. I love interviewing entrepreneurs, executives, and athletes. That’s good enough in terms of broadcasting right now.
CR: Can you tell a story of a company you invested in where you knew better than everyone else — in other words, people were skeptical, but you correctly saw something in this business or this idea that some of the people around you were missing?
WK: I think VSiN is a perfect example of this. I mean, one, it was a great company. It was a great idea. It wasn’t my idea, it was the Musbergers’, it was Brian’s and his uncle Brent’s and Bill’s idea, this whole idea of becoming the CNBC of sports betting. That was our thing, like CNBC was reporting on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange about the movements of the stock market, and we, at VSiN, were reporting on the movements of the lines on the floor of a 24-hour sportsbook in Las Vegas, at South Point. And there were a lot of people saying to us, “Why do you need a 24-hour sports betting media network?” We’re talking about an industry that was less than $10 billion bet a year at the time. “Why do you need a 24-hour channel to do this?” Well, now, in 2024, where we’re going to have over $150 billion bet on sports, it makes sense to have something like this. In the end, I’m just so proud of having had the opportunity to work with those guys, to build this, sell it to DraftKings, and now really excited to see what’s next now that they bought it back. It’s exciting to have my favorite channel back in Brian’s hands.
I mean, look, backing entrepreneurs and helping them achieve their dreams, this is something that, every single day, still gets me going and gets me to jump out of bed. It’s incredible, the whole sports industry, this whole incredible new asset class that has been created over the last several years, I believe it will be the most successful asset class over the next 10 years.
CR: What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the online gaming industry over the next couple of years?
WK: I think one of the biggest challenges will certainly be to make sure that everything is truly on the up and up. To make sure that everything has the utmost level of integrity, that every single company is making sure that they comply with all the rules and regulations, that players aren’t betting, that coaches aren’t betting, that other types of interested parties are not betting on these games. I think that’s the most important piece moving forward. And that’s the reason why we’re investors in IC360. That’s one another one of those that we were really excited about being part of, because we believed that the industry would grow at the type of pace that it’s been growing at, and one thing that we need to make sure of is that you have the right boundaries around it. This industry, because it’s state-by-state governed, there’s no overarching company watching it, like the SEC. So right now, we are playing that role at IC360, being that company, the independent third party, the integrity and compliance provider to make sure things are on the up and up across the industry.
CR: You deal with athletes, you deal with gaming companies. Overall, how do you feel the pro sports leagues have done handling gambling policies, violations, suspensions, etc.?
WK: This whole industry has moved incredibly fast. You look at where we were six years ago, and to where we are today, and we’re moving into what will be the most heavily bet season on the college football and NFL side of things. And there are really, really big players coming into the market now. With ESPN Bet, with Fanatics, with bet365 coming in to go head to head with FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, and Caesars — this is like a battle royale, right? This is a cage match.
So, you asked, how have the leagues and everyone done? They’ve done a decent job. But it’s been a very complicated situation of bringing these two worlds together. And in many cases these are new relationships between people that needed to get to know each other, and in the middle of all this growth, we had COVID so people couldn’t even meet in person. So the big answer to all of this, and what I believe in, it’s a big thing that we’re doing with IC360, is education, education, education. That is what will help everyone. Whether that’s a player, a coach, an owner, a casino, a sportsbook, everyone needs to make sure that they know what the rules are, that everyone’s educated and realizes what you can do and what you can’t do. To me, that’s going to be the key moving forward.
CR: It’s been all work and industry questions so far. Let’s shift gears. How do you like to spend free time away from work? Any unusual hobbies or hidden talents?
WK: I’ll tell you, the way I love spending time is actually at sporting events with my family, and my extended family — whether that’s my brother, my sisters, my kids, my wife, all of us going. Like our family fantasy football draft is Saturday, and everyone’s coming together, we’re all going to be at my brother’s house to do our draft. I love spending time with family. To me, that’s what it’s all about. And when we’re hanging out, typically sports is on in the background, and I’ll say something like, “Did you see that pylon cam? That’s our company.” And so, sports is part of my work, but it’s also what I love, it’s my getaway. I’m very, very fortunate. I’m a very lucky person, to be able to work in sports, be around this 24 hours a day. This is not work. This is about building amazing businesses in the sports industry, being part of the industry, and trying to make the industry even better.
Reel fast
What’s your all-time favorite sports team — meaning, franchise and season?
Wow. There are a few. The 1980 Phillies is definitely one of those. Also, the 2002 University of Maryland team that won the basketball college championship — that team, that year, and that season were just incredible. Also, getting to celebrate the 2008 Phillies World Series with my kids was awesome. And then the 2017-18 Eagles winning the Super Bowl. It’s tough to pick just one of those.
You wrote a book titled Six Degrees of Wayne Kimmel. So … how many degrees does it take to connect Wayne Kimmel with Kevin Bacon?
Hmm. Not one. I don’t know him personally. But I could probably figure it out in like two moves. There’s got to be somebody who directly connects us.
If we find you in a casino, or on a casino or sports betting app, what game/bet are you most likely to be playing/making?
Well, I’m not making any bets because I’m a board member at IC360. So I don’t make any sports bets. But that doesn’t mean I’m not on there looking at the lines. I always am, and I always have. That’s something that even goes back to growing up looking at the lines in the New York Post, USA Today, the Philadelphia Daily News, it would be me looking at lines of games to give me more information about what potentially is going to happen out there. But I’m not betting. And you’re not going find me at a table game. I just don’t play those games. When it comes to betting, I bet on entrepreneurs.
The best thing about gaming industry conferences is …
Meeting new people and developing new relationships. That’s the part I love. I love learning — really developing relationships and learning.
The worst thing about gaming industry conferences is …
I don’t know. I love them! It’s hard for me to say something that’s the worst. No matter where it is or when it is or who it’s with or if it’s for legislators — which I just came back from one of those, NCLGS, which was totally different than a G2E. … I guess the worst thing is there’s so many of them! There’s just so many and I could end up spending all my time on the road. But that’s not such a bad thing. Again, we need education. We need more people to meet each other. We need more people to come together and develop more relationships.
What’s your singular favorite sports fan moment?
One of the coolest things ever was the Eagles winning the Super Bowl and being there with my brother. My dad was not well enough to go with us, and immediately after them winning, my brother and I were FaceTiming with my dad. And we were sitting right in that end zone area, a couple rows up from where the “Philly Philly” incredible play was. We were right there when Foles caught the pass for the touchdown. That takes the cake.
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You can keep up with Wayne on Twitter/X or LinkedIn, or find him in person at just about any gaming industry conference you may attend.
Previous installments of Reel Lives:
PokerGO’s Donnie Peters On Covering Poker, Online Expansion, Roulette, And ‘Rounders’
Sporttrade’s Arpita McGrath On AML, Exchange Wagering, And The Luxury Of Power Windows
