PickVision

Beginning in the early 1990s, sports betting has slowly become ingrained into the modern sporting world. With the click of a few buttons, bettors can find odds and potential payouts for any game in any sport. It’s become increasingly easy to wage money on the outcome of games, and the sports betting industry has grown exponentially alongside the big players like DraftKings and FanDuel. With this growth in popularity came a market for research and analysis into which bets are worth making and which ones to avoid. Bettors want to know as much as possible before placing a large bet, and the more data they can analyze, the more confident they’ll feel with each bet. With this market in mind, Jake Chavis created PickVision.

The idea behind PickVision was long in the making. Jake grew up an avid sports fan. He played numerous sports, including baseball, soccer, and golf, and spent just as much time watching. Over the last decade, the college sports betting scene has exploded, and Jake inevitably developed an interest in it during his time at the University of Maryland. As he progressed through his computer science degree, he was able to apply the new technical skills he learned in class toward his own interests, which included sports betting. He eventually figured out how to scrape data analytics websites and turn that data into usable betting statistics. As the years went on, Jake’s roommate repeatedly asked him to use his data scraping scripts to determine whether his bets would be profitable. Each time this happened, Jake had to manually write the script and scrape all the relevant data. After being asked to do this repeatedly, he thought there must be a way to automate this and turn it into a real product. Following that realization, Jake began developing what would become PickVision.

In essence, PickVision is an analytics platform for sports bettors. With its robust collection of data, bettors can “create analytical models that provide clear and useful insights.” PickVision has data that stretches back 10+ years, allowing detail-oriented users to create the most accurate and precise analytical models. The design allows invested users to go in depth with each model while also allowing casual bettors to find something useful. Beyond creating their own models, users can browse models published by others to inform their own potential bets and see the recommended bets of the day.

At his day job, Jake works as a software engineer for Amazon. While he has the technical skills to develop the app almost entirely on his own, he couldn’t sacrifice his full-time job to work on it. Around May/June 2023, Jake contacted Vertex Labs, who provided him with an intern to continue development while Jake was unavailable. The intern started recently, but the experience has been beneficial for both parties thus far. This extra set of hands has facilitated UI adjustments, while social media features, such as following and interactions, were also being implemented.

Progress has been substantial, but challenges still lie ahead. PickVision has been in the making for about three years as of this writing, and the current and most pressing challenge is still getting it to a state where those who build the analytical models will find them useful. Currently, the product has been handed out to beta testers, whose feedback will help PickVision mold it into something that can achieve that goal. Beyond that, there lies another large challenge: marketing. As a highly technical founder, Jake was able to create a useable product entirely on his own. However, on the marketing side, he has no experience with attracting customers and building a user base. Vertex Labs has also been a massive help in this regard by advising Jake on marketing PickVision and strategizing about the most effective way to cultivate that user base.

PickVision’s future is bright. Its long-term goals include getting involved with companies like FanDuel and Barstool, who want to integrate this product into their own platforms. In the short term, PickVision hopes to add the ability to generate models for other major leagues in the United States, including the NBA, NHL, and potentially the MLS. While that presents its own set of challenges, these additional options come with an even larger user base. Challenges aside, the sky’s the limit for PickVision, and it’s worth keeping an eye on over the next few years.