Brad Cummings grew up in Chicago just 20 minutes away from Arlington Park. Problem was — he had no idea it existed.
When he met journalist Ray Paulick, Cummings had only ever attended two horse races. But Cummings soon found himself immersed in it, and he and Paulick went on to co-found an online news publication dedicated to covering the horse racing industry, the Paulick Report, in 2008.
"I saw my first Breeders' Cup in person in Santa Anita and I walked away thinking, 'This is a really cool sport — I'd like to see if I can get people to watch horse racing outside of the Triple Crown,'" Cummings said. "We wanted to find a way to bring people to the sport outside of the marquee events."
That was the inspiration behind EQL Games, a live sports lottery startup that has developed a series of quick-pick-style games designed to get casual and dedicated fans alike in on the excitement. Unlike traditional sports betting, EQL Games offers games of chance — meaning you don't have to be an expert on the sport to win.
"Some people are going to want to pick their horses or their teams, and there's plenty of options for them," he said. "We're building an option for people who love live sports and want to be a part of it, but they have other things to do with their time than dig down deep into statistics. They just want to have some fun."
Win Place Show, the company's flagship product, launched in 2020 in partnership with the Kentucky Lottery. While the three-number game is based on the results of live horse racing, EQL hasn't stopped there — it's since partnered with the NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR and Team USA.
For example, EQL Games' MLB product, Baseball Bucks, allows lottery players to purchase tickets based on multiple live MLB games happening that day. The company's patented technology, called the Secondary Draw System, creates quick picks, randomly choosing the winners of each game for the player. If the outcome of the game matches the winner on the player's ticket, the closer they are to making money.
"The difference between our games and something like a sportsbook is you get paid for matching six out of 10, up to 10 out of 10 so you have more winning opportunities," Cummings explained. "It's like taking a sports wager and converting it into a lottery ticket."
Aside from the lottery games, the company has also developed EQL Integration Hub, a middleware solution to assist lotteries, systems vendors and third-party developers by offering a faster and less expensive alternative to the way integrations are currently handled in the industry. The product supports all standard application programming interfaces and can be used for data needs, such as ticket sales transactions, reporting, validations and communications.
Late last month, EQL Games closed on a $2 million fundraising round. It's not the first capital investment for the startup, which is registered as EquiLottery LLC, as it secured $2.15 million in 2020. Cummings declined to disclose the company's revenue.
The fresh capital will be used to turn the company's current innovations into products and product releases, Cummings said. EQL also plans to hire some additional talent, specifically software engineers, to aid in that process.
In addition to Cummings, who went full time with the endeavor in 2014, EQL Games' team includes Austin Mayberry, chief technology officer, Kimberly Spaulding, chief financial officer, and Jarret Oldham, product manager. The company plans to open an office space in Downtown Louisville or NuLu in the coming months.
