# Sportsflare.

URL: https://levystreet.com/portfolio/sportsflare/
Updated: 2026-10-19

Sportsflare built AI esports odds for sportsbooks. Co-founded by Levy Street's founders, it was acquired by Entain in 2023 for C$13.25 million.

## 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 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.


*[Image: Sportsflare live trading screen for a Lazarus versus Cloud9 match]*

## 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](/research/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](/services/custom-ai-development/) to [monitoring AI quality](/engineering/monitoring-ai-quality/) once it is live.

## Questions people ask

### Who bought Sportsflare?

Entain, through Entain Holdings (UK) Limited. Tiidal Gaming Group, which had owned Sportsflare since January 2021, announced the sale on 13 March 2023 and completed it on 9 June 2023 for gross proceeds of C$13,250,000.

### How is Sportsflare connected to Levy Street?

Levy Street's CEO Max Polaczuk co-founded Sportsflare and was its chief executive, and Levy Street's CTO Chris Herrmann was its chief technology officer. Several of the engineers who built Sportsflare now work at Levy Street.

### What did Sportsflare build?

Sportsflare built AI models that priced esports matches before and during play, sold to sportsbooks as an odds feed, an esports bet builder and micro-markets on in-game events. Pricing had to stay accurate while games changed second by second.


Published by Levy Street (https://levystreet.com), Wellington, New Zealand.