Micro Revolution
To founder and CEO Tomash Devenishek, Kero Sports gives fans an avenue during stretches of boredom within games. That avenue is microbetting, wagers on the smallest of moments within a game.
“We create thousands of predictive probabilities during each game that you can add the word ‘next’ to,” says Devenishek, who made his mark with a series of digital companies before Kero.
Next shot, foul, free throw, pitch, etc. Baseball is the kind of game made for that interaction. The clockless nature of the sport can bring slow periods where only the most devoted fan can cull something from it. To cite one example, take stretches of a game after the visiting team jumps to a 7-0 start by inning 2 and the next five innings are marked by trading outs.
Enter proposition bets, the next pitch, the next hit, and so on. Let’s say the home team erupts in the 8th for five runs and three more in the 9th to win. Think of the possibilities to wager.
“Our technology automates the availability, odds and settlement of all of these propositions in real time,” Devenishek says. “And we are very proud to have sportsbook operators, sports broadcasters and professional sports teams as customers of this technology.”
Sports, he says, represent the last frontier of linear content. “To bring about additional engagement seemed like a very important opportunity, not just for engagement with the broadcast and in arena experiences.”
Take the passion for sports and blend it with a fan experience like entertainment products. The result is a “cadence of highly contextual and fast content that is relevant to what I am watching,” Devenishek says. “This is what Kero stands for today with our curated microbetting products for sports like soccer, basketball, baseball and American football.”
Devenishek spent most of his formative years in Toronto before moving to the U.S. in 2019. But he also spent time growing up in the U.S.S.R. and Israel.
His outlets prior to Kero included technology products which crossed the intersection of entertainment and social. “The knowledge around how to build tech coupled with the experience of learning what types of digital experiences create engagement is what drove me to start Kero.”
He credits Kero board members for lending their expertise to create the company, such as Christopher Barnard and Benjie Cherniak.
Barnard served as president of Points International, a loyalty rewards technology and data intelligence company which he founded in 2000. He sold the company in 2022 for $380 million in cash.
Cherniak served as president of Don Best Sports, which sold to Scientific Games in 2018. As managing director at Scientific Games, he forged partnerships across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
“We will be the most dominant player in next-gen sports betting content and odds making,” said the Miami-based Devenishek, dad to three young children. “My days are maxed out between family and work.”
