Balancing the bet builder bias

Estimated read time 4 min read

FairPlay Sports Media’s CEO Stuart Simms on how the group’s industry-first bet builder comparison tool supports improved decisions for both sides of the value exchange
The post Balancing the bet builder bias first appeared on EGR Intel.  

The operator race for endless sports betting content has thankfully evolved into something that now looks at engagement rather than raw numbers. In my experience, consumers have always wanted action delivered in a more captivating way, not just more of the same.

The current betting behaviour we’re seeing increasingly aligns with a want for customisation and personalisation around those events players already enjoy, as well as for more interesting and social ways of betting on them.

It shouldn’t be underestimated how powerful a curated experience can be in this often homogenous marketplace of odds. Other entertainment channels are successfully leveraging data, technology – particularly AI – and showing the merits of providing personalised storylines that speak directly to the reader or the viewer.

The tide is now turning in our industry, with resources being channelled into empowering the consumer with the tools to make more informed bets, while the interests of federations and clubs are being aligned with the value exchange facilitated by data and tech providers.

An uneven playing field

Bet builder products have slotted seamlessly into this new insatiable demand from consumers for bespoke betting offerings. With tangible modelling and trading commitment to overcome related contingency issues, consumers can now run a same-game treble on the Super Bowl or a 10-fold on a Saturday early kick-off with little friction in the post-Request-a-Bet world.

Targeted at the more recreational bettor, bet builders have been a crucial pivot for an enhanced betting experience and arguably the biggest front-end step forward since in-play’s potential was realised. There’s no doubt they’ve helped engage engrossed bettors for longer, while dangling that carrot of higher prices to appease the resource-heavy trading floors deliberating over vast new market types.

That’s not to say this is a slam dunk for the consumer, though. Bet builder-type offers have pincered consumers between the unavoidable overrounds of the accumulator and the obfuscation of derivative and prop bets.

This has led to stark price differentials among operators and, without serious commitment and time, consumers tend not to check whether they can find more value elsewhere. Operators have also struggled to showcase their own unique value and differentiation to competitors, with no transparent comparison tool available. This is yet another example of an invisible, uneven playing field that consumers and operators are struggling with.

Realising true value

As a sports media group aimed at both empowering the end consumer and driving engagement and retention for partners, we want to mitigate these information biases and provide more transparency and unique data to support improved decisions on both sides of the value exchange.

Our UK-first bet builder comparison tool gives bettors a leg-up via insights and edges, and operators the opportunity to showcase their uniqueness in one easy-to-use tool.

Those familiar with Oddschecker’s price comparison grids will appreciate why a new development was required. The possible variants of a bet builder on just one game is in the billions for major events. This data requires careful integration and alignment, powered by robust operator APIs and proprietary BetTech and feeds, to present outputs in a fast and transparent way for those looking to compare bet365 to Paddy Power, for example.

Few have the capability to do this at scale or the tenured and trusted operator technology relationships to execute it in a low-latency, practical manner.

We are now providing an industry-first comparison tool that actually fills a product void, rather than iterating on existing ones, while also realising true value for the bettor and the operator.

This comparison tool is one that will favour the brave. Courageous consumers can sure up their longshots quickly, checking for top value, while operators confident in their modelling, individuality and trading capabilities should have no issue highlighting their prices to the masses against competitors, and realising the returns from traffic boosts that more generous prices deliver.

Stuart Simms, Group CEO at FairPlay Sports Media, is a highly experienced leader with strong expertise in the sports betting industry.

Rising to his current role via senior positions at companies including Microsoft, Rakuten and XLMedia, Simms has a proven track record of value creation and delivering on ambitious global strategy.

Leveraging on his experience, Simms heads up FairPlay Sports Media’s new chapter as a tech-led, data-powered brand aiming to level the sports betting playing field.

The post Balancing the bet builder bias first appeared on EGR Intel.

 

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