When it comes to betting on sports, a solid live betting offering is just as important is a solid mobile offering. In fact, the two go together hand in hand and the stronger these two products, the stronger your sportsbook.
Most operators today offer some form of an in-play betting product, for example Bet365 has a great one, but the latest innovation in live betting I’ve seen is in Metric Gaming’s SuperLive product.
The depth and variety of SuperLive’s in-play markets are unmatched by any other operator today and it will likely stay that way due to the high technological and algorithmic hurdles. SuperLive covers sports around the world, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week offering additional markets on just about anything that happens during a game.
Metric Gaming also offers an innovative product called “Bettor Option”, a feature providing players with a perception of “wager control” by combining traditional pre-game betting with the interactivity of live betting. The Better Option product line includes “Double-Down”, the opportunity to double your bet in-play, “Flip-Flop”, the opportunity to change sides during the game and “Bad-Beat Insurance”, paying a set fee to guarantee your bet is refunded due to a last minute score.
With Live Betting technology like Metric Gaming’s, the opportunity to generate more revenue and attract new players presents itself in Asia and in America, immediately and in the future. To gain more insight into this innovative and lucrative space, I spoke with Metric Gaming’s newly appointed President and CEO Peter Bertilsson.
When asked what opportunities he sees in Asia for Metric Gaming Bertilsson shared, “The sports betting patterns in Asia, typically marked by extraordinarily high volume and high stakes wagers, indicate that Metric’s flagship products would be tremendously successful there”.
While a number of Western operators have had trouble succeeding in the Asian market, with the right distribution partners, Bertilsson is confident that his product will reap great rewards in the East.
“SuperLive would specifically appeal for its ability to add hundreds of new wagering opportunities per match, while Bettor Option™ allows punters the option to significantly increase wager size with only a relatively small up-front investment, providing a compelling vehicle to place the high stakes wagers that have become the hallmark of the Asian gambling scene”, he said.
Despite the promise of Asia, Metric Gaming has chosen to headquarter their organization on the other side of the planet in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bertilsson indicated that Las Vegas was chosen because most of his company’s angel investors reside there and he sees many business opportunities in the US, both short term and long term. Opportunities in America range from local casinos to social gaming and fantasy sports sectors with the long-term interest in real money gaming once the anti-sportsbetting legislation is (fingers crossed) repealed.
“For a country with such strict anti-sports betting laws at the federal and state level, there is a surprising amount of sports betting related information proliferated by major sporting news and broadcasting companies. Every time you look up sporting events online or even in newspapers, you can see the betting line, and ESPN is now running a “Cousin Sal” segment providing its viewers with sports betting tips”, he pointed out.
Its clear that Americans enjoy sports betting and that they are going to find a way to do it, regardless of the law. The wheels to regulate sports betting have been turning and its only a matter of time before the US realizes just how much money they are losing by restricting sports betting in the nation.
“It is practically common knowledge that the illegal U.S. betting market is nearly $400 billion, and when you factor in the explosion of real-money daily fantasy sports leagues and the formal efforts by New Jersey to effect change at the legislative level, it is hard to escape the conclusion that this country is reaching, or has reached, a tipping point. I believe we can therefore expect the regulatory environment here to start opening up – or, more accurately, catching up – in the relatively near future”, said Bertilsson.
One thing to keep in mind with live betting products and interactive sports betting in general is the significance of mobile. Mobile is now more important than desktop and an operator’s focus should be shifted accordingly, no matter what country they target.
“The World Cup numbers alone – showing 70% of all handle arising from mobile wagers – tell us all we need to know about today’s sports betting trend”, shared Bertilsson. “Any new betting product today simply must be designed for mobile first, including tablets/phablets and other mobile devices, with the ability to accommodate desktop as a secondary feature (rather than the fundamental platform). Otherwise, a “desktop-first” approach for any betting company today will only put that company on a path leading backwards”.
