The news: Five early-stage founders will take the stage at SBC Summit Americas in Fort Lauderdale on June 11 for First Pitch, one of the gaming industry’s most visible startup competition, with a prize package valued at over $100,000 on the line. The finalists—InsightPlay.ai, Odditt, OddsBlaze, ParlayX, and The Sharps—span AI-powered CRM, parlay discovery, odds data infrastructure, prediction market middleware, and skill-based sports competition.

Zoom in: The range of bets on display is striking. ParlayX is building Bloomberg-style institutional infrastructure for prediction markets. At the other end of the spectrum, The Sharps went from concept to live apps in the Apple and Google Play stores in roughly 60 days—founder Robert McCall built it with no prior programming experience. “When you believe in a project and you believe in what you’re doing… it leads to a lot of 20-hour days,” he said.

Why it matters: First Pitch has become a reliable early signal for where gaming startup activity is concentrating, and this year’s cohort reflects two clear pulls: AI and automation on the operator side (InsightPlay.ai, Odditt), and infrastructure for emerging market structures on the other (OddsBlaze, ParlayX).