Meet Jakob Hagemann, Founder and CEO of Kiggit, social betting company based in Copenhagen

Social betting has always been a key part of the industry and it seems that companies are still fighting for innovation in the vertical. Such the company of Jakob Hagemann, who is the CEO & Founder of the social sports betting platform Kiggit.

With a background in mobile apps product management and experience of working with a mobile operator, Jakob has always been launching and managing apps. This is how he came up with the idea of launching Kiggit,  a social betting app for football fans. The description of the game play is simple and yet complex, users get 500 credits when signing up, and can spend it on bets against other users or in private bets with friends. They push out daily and weekly bet slips for specific target users which include prize bets. Examples are gitcards for Amazon, Nike or digital gift card provider. The company’s revenue model is that users spend credits in their bets and can win more. If running out of credits, users top-up via in-app purchase.

The company is headquartered in Copenhagen and it is run by 6 people working on Kiggit. Their investors include Seier Capital and a group of business angels. Next step is to create a mother brand as they are broadening out to include other sports and various products so they can integrate with sports media companies, sports betting operators and even large corporations wishing to run closed office pools.

First of all thank you very much for accepting this interview. As it can be read in your biography you have rich experience in end-to-end product management including team management, prototyping and idea generation, management of design and development phase, go-to-market and commercialization, ASO, product management. I would like to ask you to shortly introduce yourself to our readers and tell us when and why you started working in this industry.

Jakob: I have been working with apps for a lot of years now. Actually, from before the iPhone hit the market, so a lot has happened since then. I am not a developer myself, but have more of a product-oriented role although in a startup you end up doing a lot of stuff.

I had the idea of creating something social around football for years before setting up Kiggit as a company back in 2013. My friends and I have always created a betting pool when watching the Champions League final together. We basically, wrote down our tips with pen and paper. I wanted to take this experience and create a digital platform where friends and colleagues should be able to compete like that – no matter if they are sitting together or are in each their location.

You are the founder and CEO of Kiggit, a social sports betting platform. Tell us please about your role, your tasks and responsibilities at Kiggit.

Jakob: I am very product-focused, so I work a lot on wireframes, roadmaps and specifications for our designer and devleopers. I try not to get too distracted, but there is also a lot of work with investors and potential partners, and at times that really takes up all my time – and thoughts.

Will you please shortly introduce the company you represent for our readers? Please speak about the services it offers and its future goals in Europe and around the world.

Jakob: Kiggit is a social betting platform for football fans. Instead of betting for real money, we are developing a more game-like experience around football tips. Basically, we let you create or join groups and make predictions on football. There are weekly, monthly and season winners. We have tested out different flows and revenue streams, and are soon opening up for companies, so they can offer prizes on our platform. An example is that you will be able to join a Company X competition during the World Cup and win prizes from that company if you are best at predicting winners and goal scorers during the World Cup.

We have recently launched and the plan is now to update with the groups feature before the World Cup. We are looking at different interesting markets. Currently, approximately 60% of our users are from the US. We will be rolling out in LATAM, Asia and more European countries. Let’s see, I hope to be live in 20+ countries by the end of 2018.

Having such a rich professional experience my next question would be: which have been the most difficult periods in your career so far and what do you consider your personal success?

Jakob: To me personally, fundraising can be really tiring and put you under pressure. The most difficult times have definitely been the times where it has been very unsure if we could land an investment. It just brings out a lot of discussions and I had to learn how to better cope with the stress it involves to be under that kind of pressure.

Tell us please about your future plans, projects regarding your professional life.

Jakob: I really focus 100% on the short-term with Kiggit right now. Earlier I have been dreaming about selling the company and become a business angel myself, but I have much more focus on the smaller steps now as I simply need to act on those rather than always thinking years ahead. I am sure that if I work hard on Kiggit, we can make it big in one way or the other.

What does success mean to you and do you consider your career a successful one?

Jakob: Success to me is related to freedom. I really cherish the freedom I have being in a small company where we manage our own time and work when we want. I put in a lot of hours, but it is at my own schedule. I have two sons and a girlfriend, and I consider myself successful when I can spend so much time with them.

My last question is a bit more personal: Do you like travelling and which places would you like to travel not just in Europe but in the whole world?

Sure, I like travelling. I have just been to Madrid with my family to watch Atletico Madrid play. It was a great experience. I would love to take my family to Japan and see the country by train.