Andy Koeberl: Leadership Is Learned During Days of Thunder Not of Sunshine | The iGaming Leader Podcast
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Andy Koeberl: Leadership Is Learned During Days of Thunder Not of Sunshine

Leo Judkins sits down with Andreas (Andy) Koeberl, aerospace engineer turned entrepreneur, who built HappyBet from three people to 180, survived COVID wiping out 100% of its revenue overnight, turned around BetGames into one of the most profitable live dealer companies in the world, and is now building Autonomous Minds, an "agent-first Palantir."

Andy Koeberl
CEO, BetGames · Co-founder, Autonomous Minds
Watch the episode Apply to the Mastermind 18 Jul 2026 · Sponsored by Sumsub

01 · Watch the episode

The full conversation

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02 · The guest

Andy Koeberl

Co-founder, HPYBET · CEO, BetGames · Co-founder, Autonomous Minds

Andy is an engineer turned entrepreneur and CEO. Starting out in aerospace as an engineer, he later moved to Microsoft and started his first business HPYBET in 2017. After exiting HPYBET in late 2020, the Austrian moved on to turn around betgames successfully and founding Autonomous Minds, an AI deeptech startup building an “agent first Palantir”.

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03 · Inside this episode

Moments worth queuing up

00:00 How COVID wiped out 100% of HappyBet's revenue in 90 days.
03:00 Running a seven-figure monthly OpEx with zero revenue.
06:00 The two-column whiteboard exercise Andy used to manage the crisis.
08:00 Why not a single person quit during COVID.
11:00 "Andy bombs": dropping unscheduled harsh truths and why it kept the team together.
13:00 "Shock them with your honesty." Advice from mentor Armin Sageder.
15:00 Leadership is learned during days of thunder, not sunshine.
21:00 BetGames: flying to Lithuania and finding great people.
27:00 Turning down a deal that would have more than doubled revenues to protect a niche identity.
30:00 How BetGames went from near-death to the number two crash game in its core markets and record growth.
36:00 What an "agent-first Palantir" actually means.
42:00 Burnout does not come from hard work.

In his own words

01 / 05

“You are not allowed to call yourself a senior leader until you've managed at least one substantial crisis. Not successfully. Just managed one.”

02 / 05

“Everybody can be a sunshine leader. Leadership is only forged during a crisis.”

03 / 05

“My mentor always told me: shock them with your honesty. I try to live by that in my personal life too.”

04 / 05

“Burnout does not come from hard work. It comes from emotional stress. And as a founder, you are in with your time, your accountability, and your own cash.”

05 / 05

“The best advisors are the ones who've been in your shoes and who you can call and say: I have no clue how to handle this, without being anxious about what they'll think.”

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