Pro League Network raised $2.2 million to bring gambling to obscure sports like CarJitsu and slapfighting. Read its 20-page pitch deck.

The company said it looks for sports that can “pop” with fans on social media, as well as properties that are easy to pick up on so that a casual viewer can feel comfortable placing a bet after watching for a few minutes.

The startup aims to fill gaps in the sports-wagering calendar when there are no or few other live professional sports for people to bet on.

“We’re solving a problem,” Yucatonis told Business Insider. “We’re targeting times a day and days a week that we know are a blemish for operators.”

PLN’s investors include Roger Ehrenberg, who led the company’s first seed round that closed last year, as well as Chris Grove, Kevin Garnett, and several angel investors.

The company said it has about 700,000 followers across social media and garners 10 million organic impressions a week.

“We’re an entertainment company making made-for-wagering content,” Salvaris said.

For the next 12 months, PLN is focused on building out four of its properties, including CarJitsu, the World Putting League for professional mini golf, SlapFight Championship, and Str33t, a professional 3×3 basketball league that’s a joint venture with Garnett’s Big Ticket Sports.

As part of that, the company plans to expand production by opening another studio on the East Coast. It currently produces about two to four hours of live content a week.

Selling a ‘network’ approach to alternative sports

PLN owns the properties it operates, which its cofounders said helped attract investors.

“The portfolio appeals to them because they’re placing a bet on different properties,” Salvaris said. “If one does hit, there’s equity in those leagues … It’s a one-to-many bet when you’re investing with PLN.”

But the cofounders also said it was challenging to explain to investors that the company wasn’t pitching another alternative league or the next pickleball.

“We had to get our messaging right,” Yucatonis said. “We had to shine a light on the network approach.”

They also had to convince investors they had the credibility and experience to actually get these sports regulated for gambling. “Early on, investors were like, who the hell is going to approve this?” Yucatonis said.

The SlapFight Championship was the first sport in PLN’s portfolio approved for betting, and it’s been regulated in several markets. That was the “holy shit” moment where the company realized it could do this, Salvaris said.

PLN shared the interactive, 20-slide pitch deck it used to raise funding. It removed some details from the version published below, including a breakdown of its funding, how it would use the funds, and its unit economics. Business Insider has viewed the full version.