In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Rebecca Liggero, Oulala Games CEO Valery Bollier explains why big data has become the cornerstone not only of fantasy football, but also sports betting.
Big data is radically changing the sports betting landscape, and it’s time people are educated about how this development will increase their odds of making money, according to Oulala Games CEO Valery Bollier.
“Right now, iGaming operators are already using a lot of big data in order to optimize their odds so customers right now, they’re getting a lot of information and they think they’ll going to be able to pick the good odds, but they’re starting to realize that the big data is mostly helping the operators to optimize,” Bollier told CalvinAyre.com.
It’s no secret that betting on sports is part of the DNA in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom. But Bollier said players still need to learn that fantasy sports is big data, not something else.
“In the United States, they have a very close relation between sports and big data. In Europe, it’s not the case. If you speak about basketball player in the States, you’re going to give stats. In Europe, if you’re going to speak about the football players, you’re going to say, ‘He played amazingly well,’ you know, something like this,” Bollier said.
Oulala’s strategy to tap into the community in Europe involves “constant interactive process.” The company started in 2013 as a free game to familiarize the expectations of the European customers. Now, users can compete against other players to win real money.
“For two years, the game was free just [so we are] to understand the multiple reality of the market,” Bollier said. “We’re in a constant interactive process. We’re learning to understand because the reality of customers are very different. You can’t compare a UK client that already knows what fantasy football is [to] a German one that doesn’t know fantasy well but is already big data oriented and an Italian or French who speaks with their hearts.”
Currently, there are already a number of start-up companies vying for their share of the European daily fantasy sports market. And with DraftKings crossing over to Europe is a welcome news for European operators, according to Bollier.
“We’re more than happy. We need this. It’s key for the industry. We need some leaders. They’re doing a great job, those guys. We need them. We want them. We’re talking with them and we’re more than happy to welcome them [to] Europe,” Bollier said.
