Inside Tilt Rips: Sam Kiki’s Latest Empire Move Has Nothing to Do With Gambling
The veteran gaming entrepreneur is betting big on nostalgia — and the numbers suggest he may be onto something.
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Sam Kiki, founder of the online entertainment platform MonkeyTilt, has unveiled Tilt Rips, a digital destination where users buy virtual card packs, open them in real time, and receive physical Pokémon cards through the mail. The launch arrives as the broader trading card market barrels toward $52 billion in annual sales this year, fueled in large part by a wave of adult collectors revisiting a childhood pastime.
“I’ve spent my whole career building in the gaming space, but this one is closer to home,” Kiki said. “Pokémon was the very first thing I ever collected as a kid. Now I get to build the platform people want to use to do the same thing.”
Tilt Rips offers four purchasing tiers — Standard at $25, Enhanced at $100, Premium at $500 and Elite at $3,000. Every pack carries a chance at PSA-graded cards, with most containing at least one pre-graded example. Rare “God Packs” yield five graded cards.
“The best part of collecting was always the 30 seconds before you saw what was in the pack,” Kiki said. “We wanted to bring that feeling online. The suspense, the reveal, the chase. And at the end of it, you still get the card in your hands.”
Photo Credit: Tiltrips
Kiki’s timing coincides with jaw-dropping auction results that have repositioned Pokémon cards as a legitimate investment class. In February, Logan Paul’s PSA 10 Pikachu Illustrator fetched $16.49 million at Goldin Auctions, setting an all-time record for any trading card sold at auction. The following month, a Japanese Base Set Charizard in PSA 10 condition cleared $1.7 million.
“When a single Pokémon card sells for sixteen million dollars, you stop thinking about this as a hobby category,” Kiki said. “It’s a real market. The collectors driving it are sophisticated, and they deserve a platform that takes the experience as seriously as they do.”
The inspiration struck during a trip to Japan earlier this year. “Japan is a mecca for collectibles, particularly TCG-style,” Kiki said. “I came back and told my team we have to build in this space.”
MonkeyTilt, launched in March 2024, reached roughly $200 million in monthly betting volume within eight months.
“We like building products in the risk-taking space,” Kiki said. “We, the Tilt Mafia, are going to keep building in the collectibles space. I like that this allows me to reconnect with my childhood, and that it allows our customers to connect with their kids.”
The platform is live at tiltrips.com, with additional collectible categories expected later this year.
Sam Kiki, founder of the online entertainment platform MonkeyTilt, has unveiled Tilt Rips, a digital destination where users buy virtual card packs, open them in real time, and receive physical Pokémon cards through the mail. The launch arrives as the broader trading card market barrels toward $52 billion in annual sales this year, fueled in large part by a wave of adult collectors revisiting a childhood pastime.
“I’ve spent my whole career building in the gaming space, but this one is closer to home,” Kiki said. “Pokémon was the very first thing I ever collected as a kid. Now I get to build the platform people want to use to do the same thing.”
Tilt Rips offers four purchasing tiers — Standard at $25, Enhanced at $100, Premium at $500 and Elite at $3,000. Every pack carries a chance at PSA-graded cards, with most containing at least one pre-graded example. Rare “God Packs” yield five graded cards.
