State Of In-Play: Three Betting Executives On The Drive For More In-Game Content And Higher Uptime 

In-play betting remains one the greatest potential growth areas for sports wagering operators in the U.S. As markets continue to mature in the states, and both trading and broadcasting technologies evolve, operators increasingly recognize the potential of in-play betting to enhance user engagement.

Reports from Europe indicate that in-play betting accounts for about 70% of all betting volume in the more mature, soccer- and tennis-heavy markets overseas. In contrast, it only represents 20-30% in the U.S. Yet the belief if not expectation continues that the percentage will increase to closer to 50% within the next five years.

With this in mind and football season on the near horizon, Casino Reports gathered insights from key players in the in-play betting industry to discuss the current state of the market and future prospects. Hear from AJ Bessette, chief product officer at Simplebet; Shawn Tucker, CEO at StatX Sports; and Sabin Brooks, commercial director at Bettormetrics.

Casino Reports (CR): What strategies are operators currently using to engage users with in-play betting? Which methods have proven most effective?

Sabin Brooks, Bettormetrics: There has been a clear correlation between increased mobile usage and the growth of in-play engagement. Operators have facilitated this in a number of ways, initially deploying traditional media, like television advertisements in live sports events, and accompanying this with social media “commentary.” Sportsbooks have also enhanced the overall in-play experience — from investing in more rights to live streaming broadcast events, integrated within sportsbook apps, to adding more stats as cues to prompt betting activity, as well as adding greater visualization of the bet placement experience and increasing the frequency of notifications to keep the emphasis on the live action.

Sportsbooks are increasingly pushing dynamic markets, for example “next basket” ephemeral markets, active only for short periods of time so punters can bet and have a quick payout, ready to go again. Easier and more accessible cash-out has driven this trend, coupled with more markets, especially in-play prop bets, and all centered around the drive towards greater in-play turnover.  

Shawn Tucker, StatX Sports: In-play betting tends to have higher margin than pre-match betting, so U.S. operators are starting to follow their European counterparts in pushing users to in-game bets. They’re putting in-game bets front and center, providing lots of in-game bet promos, complete with push notifications. The most interesting thing that I see operators doing is adding microbetting to their offerings. Currently, the U.S. market is mostly made up of traditional sports bettors, who bet mostly pre-match, but might also be convinced to bet again at halftime. There’s also a large segment of bettors who like to make bets that win or lose quickly, to get a feeling similar to the feeling you get when playing at a casino. Microbetting is allowing players to get that feeling and it seems to be working. For sports with lots of breaks in play, like football, baseball, and cricket, microbetting could start pushing more American bettors to in-game.

AJ Bessette, Simplebet: The straightforward and effective strategic push is for more in-play content and higher uptime of that in-play content within existing experiences. Operators have a wide selection of pregame content that disappears once matches start, and simply improving availability is a difficult but highly valuable product strategy. That begins with maximizing uptime of core markets like full game money lines and spreads, and then moves to high uptime on live player props and a variety of popular micro markets for shorter time periods of each match. As this first phase completes, operators will be able to build better in-play experiences on top of that broader set of in-play content. 

CR: What are the key challenges in providing a seamless in-play betting experience to users, and how are operators addressing them?

Tucker: A key challenge is oddsmaking. In-game odds are slow and expensive for operators, so major operators are trying to create a better customer experience by creating their own models and building their odds in-house (or acquiring an oddsmaker). Most sportsbooks and oddsmakers are still using traders to manually input data into spreadsheets, which then have to load to update odds, which means less uptime for in-game betting. If you can automate the role of the trader with machine learning algorithms like we can, it means more uptime and lower costs for you as an operator. 

Brooks: Operators are focused on reducing the friction between the event and the punters’ appetite for betting at any given time. This means seeking to optimize the mobile experience as best as possible, integrating more live streaming, growing the number of markets offered, partnering with microbetting companies and innovative third-party suppliers to lay or cash-out bets in play, as well as executing well on the more obvious operational aspects like improving both the speed of placing the wager and then the cashout to allow bettors to recycle their winnings and begin the betting cycle again. 

Bessette: The biggest challenge is improving the accuracy and breadth of live data available from matches. The live data infrastructure for U.S. sports was originally built for media and team or league usage, not for betting. Live betting experiences can only be as good as the data quality, latency, and breadth allows. This has been improving but there is still a long way to go to unlock a complete live-betting offering to users. The next challenge will be easy access to low latency video streaming options so that users can bet in sync with the matches they are watching. 

CR: What new features or innovations are being introduced in the in-play betting space? How are they expected to impact user engagement?

Bessette: We are only scratching the surface of in-play betting experiences. Microbetting markets have unlocked fast feedback loops and unique content for live betting, but should continue to be built on and gamified as the space matures. The breadth and quality of all live betting content will continue to improve, first by improving uptime and market breadth and then by replicating successful pre-match offerings such as SGPs to allow them to be truly live and available for all bets in-play at all times. Retaining users and keeping engagement times high during live matches will become a key metric to overall user and brand loyalty. 

Tucker: Microbetting is the biggest opportunity, in my opinion. Younger Americans have lower and lower attention spans, and If you can build a betting system that caters to that, you can unlock a huge and growing segment of American bettors. Simplifying the betting experience is also critical. The American odds system (e.g. -100, +250) is outdated and creates a barrier to user acquisition because it’s not intuitive. Technology is making everything in American life simpler, but for some reason we haven’t figured out how to simplify betting odds!

Brooks: Microbetting is doing incredibly well right now, led by operators like Betr. Specialist companies are emerging to price and service the growth in demand for player proposition bets as well as other markets well-suited to in-play. Additional companies like Wager Wire are allowing bettors to lay off their existing bet, akin to a betting exchange, which is gaining traction in the U.S. More payment options like crypto are being integrated, and there is an ongoing focus on user experience, data/stats coverage, visualization, increased gamification and community content, in-game score, and other alerts sent as part of a wider notification strategy.

CR: What actionable steps can operators and stakeholders take to capitalize on the growth of in-play betting in the U.S.?

Brooks: I think there are several things sportsbooks can do. Clearly working with a company like Bettormetrics allows them to identify and address trading deficiencies like uptime and margin to tightly manage the trading desk’s operations. This frees sportsbooks up to invest in the opportunity to create new pricing for the types of innovative in-play, micro markets, and player props that are well-suited to a distractible betting audience looking for immediacy and instant gratification and fueled by the ever-faster turnaround of bet and cashout.

Partnerships with rights holders who often hold the data and will want a slice of the pie is bound to happen. I expect the trend to move towards an even greater in-play share of total betting volumes and more immediate betting markets gaining in prevalence and popularity.

Bessette: The winners will be the operators who make in-play their top priority. This cannot be an add-on experience, it must be a cohesive and comprehensive product in which all elements of the experience work in concert, from event streaming content, to live data sourcing, to accurate pricing models, to a seamless and fun front-end experience. If any element is missing the entire experience can fall apart. In-play is the clear next frontier for user experience and brand loyalty, but it is difficult to execute at a high level. The best operators will rise to the top and earn market share with great in-play experiences.

Tucker: I think there’s an opportunity for operators to really make their in-play products stand out. I think FanDuel is doing a good job for now, and it’s likely because of their European backend. Betr is also a legitimate innovator here because of its differentiated product vision. There is so much white space in in-play betting and I don’t think any operator is fully taking advantage yet. In-play betting can also solve the problem of commoditization. In-play betting has so many different permutations and combinations; couple that with the limited screen space on an iPhone and operators have a huge opportunity to differentiate themselves to the end user.