Sam Kiki | |
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| Born | Samer Mohammed Kiki Jr. Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Amherst College |
| Occupation | Business executive |
| Years active | 2018-present |
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Sam Kiki is an American gaming and technology executive. He is the founder and CEO of Monkey Tilt. [1] [2] He was Chief product officer and Chief strategy officer of Caesars Interactive Entertainment and later the Chief commercial officer of Game Play Network. [1] He is also the co-founder of Manifold Trading. [2] He has been featured on Daily Mirror, Binance, OK! magazine, Complex, Fortune, amongst others. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Kiki was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada to parents of Syrian descent. [2] He attended Amherst College in Massachusetts on scholarship, where he earned a degree in Neuroscience. [2] [1] [6]
He began his career at MGM Resorts in investor relations, where he worked with senior executives on projects related to sports betting, online gaming, and investor relations. [7] [8] He later joined Caesars Interactive as the Head of Product and Strategy. [2] At Caesars, he contributed to the due diligence process for the William Hill acquisition, managed partnerships involving ESPN and the NFL, and co-directed the company’s investment in Superdraft. He then became the chief commercial officer at Game Play Network, where he oversaw commercial strategy, partnerships, and capital development in online gaming. [9] [10] Kiki subsequently co-founded Manifold Trading, a quantitative trading firm focused on high-frequency strategies and arbitrage. [11] [12] [2] He and his team later developed Ather Technologies as a spin-off, leveraging technology from that business to deliver market access and order routing solutions for institutional clients. [1] [12] In 2023, Ather Technologies was sold to Versifi. [13]
Kiki is best known as the founder and CEO of Monkey Tilt, a Web3 and crypto-integrated iGaming company. [14] In 2024, Monkey Tilt raised $21 million in an early funding round led by Polychain Capital, marking one of the largest investments in the iGaming blockchain sector at the time. [3] Later in 2024, the company announced an additional $30 million Series A round funding led by U.S hedge fund, Pantera Capital, [15] [16] [17] to further develop its platform and global reach. [4] [18] [19] The platform integrates blockchain technology, NFT-based player rewards, and crypto payments, to bridge Web3 culture and mainstream entertainment. [20] [21] [22] Coverage from AOL Finance and Yahoo Finance described the round as part of a broader effort to make online gaming more social and community-driven, [23] [24] being one of the first platforms to support cryptocurrency staking, integrating transactions in bitcoin, ethereum, dogecoin, amongst other stablecoins. [25] Some of the investor includes Tyga and Ryan Garcia. [6] [2]
In addition to its gaming, the company partnered with Complex and Super Bowl during Super Bowl LIX to host a $1 million jackpot experience, [26] [27] as part of the Complex’s Family Style festival in New Orleans. [28] [29] [5] The event was developed teaming-up with Truck Tilt and West Coast Customs. [30] [31] [32]