Short answer
Sportsflare was a New Zealand-founded company that built AI esports betting odds for sportsbooks, including in-play odds across hundreds of markets and the first esports bet builder. Co-founded by Max Polaczuk as CEO and Chris Herrmann as CTO, it was acquired by Tiidal Gaming Group in 2021, and Tiidal sold it to Entain in June 2023 for C$13.25 million.
- Real-time esports odds sold business-to-business to sportsbooks.
- Entain completed the purchase on 9 June 2023 for gross proceeds of C$13,250,000.
- Research from the Sportsflare team is cited by Google Brain, Amazon and Alibaba researchers.
- What
- AI esports betting odds, bet builder and micro-markets for sportsbooks
- Founders
- Including Max Polaczuk (CEO) and Chris Herrmann (CTO)
- 2021
- Acquired by Tiidal Gaming Group (CSE: TIDL)
- 2023
- Sold by Tiidal to Entain Holdings (UK) for C$13,250,000 gross, completed 9 June 2023
- Research
- Temporal Probability Calibration, 2020
What Sportsflare built
Esports markets move fast. A single round of a game can swing a match, and sportsbooks need prices for hundreds of outcomes that update as play unfolds. Sportsflare built AI models that priced those markets in real time and sold them to sportsbooks as a business-to-business product.
- Sportsflare Odds
- In-play and pre-match esports odds across hundreds of markets.
- Esports Betbuilder
- Described at launch as the first bet builder offering in esports.
- Micro-markets
- Prices for in-game events as they happen.
The research underneath
Real-time pricing is a probability problem. A model can be accurate on average and still be badly calibrated partway through a match, which is exactly when sportsbooks need it most. The Sportsflare team’s 2020 paper, Temporal Probability Calibration by Tim Leathart and Maksymilian Polaczuk, tackled calibrating predictions made on incomplete sequences. It has since been cited by researchers at Google Brain, Amazon Web Services and Alibaba, among others.
The acquisition
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| November 2018 | Sportsflare Limited incorporated in New Zealand |
| January 2021 | Tiidal Gaming Group (CSE: TIDL) completes its acquisition of Sportsflare |
| 13 March 2023 | Tiidal agrees to sell Sportsflare to Entain |
| 9 June 2023 | Sale completed for gross proceeds of C$13,250,000 |
Source: Tiidal Gaming Group announcements via Newsfile. At the exchange rate on the completion date, C$13.25 million was roughly NZ$16 million.
Why it matters for Levy Street clients
Sportsflare is where the Levy Street founders learned what production AI demands: models that run continuously, are measured against money, and fail in public when they are wrong. That experience shapes how we approach every system now, from custom AI development to monitoring AI quality once it is live.
Written by the Levy Street team in Wellington. Last updated 19 October 2026.