Legendary quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers and, for a short while, the Kansas City Chiefs, Joe Montana, has enjoyed a rich career beyond the gridiron since his retirement. The icon of the NFL has become one of the most successful sportspeople-turned-venture-capitalists going.

As a founding member and managing partner of Liquid 2 Ventures, Montana has pumped cash into, and reaped the proceeds from, several pre-seed and early-stage startups. Among the firm’s top investments are Retool, Athelas, Vetcove, Jasper, Bear Flag Robotics, and several others.

While Montana and Liquid 2 Ventures have acted swiftly in the past to get in early, there’s a sense of growing opportunity to dive into two surging US tech markets and up the competition to help empower bigger and better products.

The Ever-Growing iGaming Market of the US

Source: Pixabay

Back in 2023, Montana’s VC fund jumped into funding a $6.4 million seed round, as this report details, for a new sports betting exchange. That came about just over five years after the repeal of PASPA opened the option up to states to open a regulated iGaming market.

Some states have been more all-in than others. To date, eight offer a full iGaming offering, which spans online sports betting and online casino gaming. Annual change figures see iGaming jump by 21.5 percent from February 2024 to February 2025. Plus, IBIS World notes US online gambling as the third-fastest growing industry in 2025/26.

Much of this boils down to the sheer level of competition that’s been introduced in each market. On a national scale, casino gaming remains relatively niche, but you wouldn’t know if from looking at the list of top-rated platforms. Here, the list contains detailed breakdowns of all regulated and verified online casinos in the US.

Many of these sites have their roots in long-standing European online casino sites and companies, while others are US brands that have been bolstered by the systems setup overseas. This approach allowed for the new markets to get the best products in the world, which includes the most competitive welcome bonuses, like 10 Days of Spins.

Now, investing in an upstart US online casino would be one route to breaking into the ever-growing industry, another would be to team up with a games studio. Always looking for name recognition on their games, and official Joe Montana slot may do rather well – just as Jágr’s Super Slot did at the fifth-ranked US online casino.

Jumping into the AI Arms Race

Source: Unsplash

 

Artificial intelligence has long been hailed as a potential game-changer across tech and business, but it wasn’t until the launch of ChatGPT and then the much more efficient DeepSeek that the mainstream media truly caught on. Generative AI and analytical are said to be building a tremendous amount of momentum in the business world.

However, AI isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of technology. Programs need to be trained in broad or very specific ways to be of use to firms that plan to rely on them regularly. While there are more general, large-scale programs in development, such as those coming from Meta and Apple, much more niche plans look set to make a big impact.

Already, Montana’s investment firm has a finger in several AI pies. GitLab (AI-powered DevSecOps), Athelas (healthcare AI), Jasper (AI co-pilot for marketing), Apollo.io (AI-powered sales solution), and Tecton (to help produce AI faster) make up around half of the AI-powered firms invested in by Liquid 2 Ventures thus far. Still, the AI space continues to grow, with many more opportunities for niche applications to rise to the fore and significantly impact their applicable industries.

Emerging companies in AI and iGaming look to be well worth a watch for Joe Montana and his venture capitalist firm as both industries surge in the US market.