Pulse


enough to sway them to sign up for a different site or to switch apps. Tis segment of users tend to consider odds and sportsbooks in general as fairly ubiquitous and have their eyes drawn by different factors such as price boosts, promotions or loyalty rewards.


One of the big appeals of DFS sites is that they offer customers a new way to bet on the sports they love. Have traditional online sportsbooks responded to this challenge by creating new games, features and markets? Have there been any significant innovations of late?


Araz: Traditional sportsbooks are offering an ever-increasing range of markets on all sorts of minute data points. Bet builders then allow users to create customised bets at greater odds, along with bet of the day variants. Tese features are extremely common now, and, in some cases, could be in danger of becoming excessive and overwhelming for casual bettors or new users. Tere is a sentiment amongst some casual users that in order to get the value and excitement they need to make a small stake bet worth placing, they must include more and more selections on their bet slips and for markets like corners, yellow cards and shots on goal.


Fantasy turns this paradigm on its head. When a user picks a fantasy team, they are coming at it from a different angle entirely. Instead of picking more and more things which are less and less likely to happen, they are being asked to pick the players they believe will actually perform the best and if they do that correctly, they can stand to win large returns from small stakes.


For example, in the €200k Premier League season game that Scout runs, a user pays a buy- in of €20, with the top single prize being €20k. For the average punter, that‘s a potential 1,000/1 return on their stake for picking the strongest team they can. Essentially, they are betting on the things they actually think are most likely to happen, and that might seem like a breath of fresh air when compared to the current state of play with sports betting. What’s more, there aren’t many situations where you’ll get more than 100/1 for picking ten favourite teams to win.


In some of our other daily or weekly game formats, we have much lower buy-ins still with fairly high guaranteed prize pools that give potential returns of 5,000/1 or more for the game winner and even several hundreds to one for those that rank in the top five or 10 per cent of entrants.


Bob: I think US sportsbooks have evolved out of daily fantasy sports and that can be seen in the markets and odds being offered to players. Books are no longer just taking spread, total and moneyline bets, and instead are offering props, boosts, same game parlays and micro-markets to ensure that players remain engaged.


Tis is something we are seeing globally, too, with bookmakers becoming increasingly


“ I think US sportsbooks have evolved out of daily fantasy sports and that can be seen in the markets and odds being offered to players. Books are no longer just taking spread,


total and moneyline bets, and instead are offering props, boosts, same game parlays and micro-markets to ensure that players remain engaged. This is something we are seeing globally, too, with bookmakers becoming


increasingly granular with the markets they are offering such as the next point in tennis or the next play in Football (not soccer!).” Bob Akeret


FANTASY SPORTS FSB, SCOUT GAMING & INCENTIVE GAMES


bonusing rewards across their customer base to enhance the 24/7 in-play experience.


As well as this, operators also need to consider things such as data visualisations and having access to premium in-play friendly data feeds within their offering and this is something that FSB can support.


Victor: Although we do not provide in-play wagering, we do provide in-play free to play games. Tese games have been developed to engage with the players during a specific match and to help the operators to keep players coming back to their site. An example is our game Free- 4-All where players answer four questions before and during a match to win a share of a prize.


Araz: A good chunk of sportsbook betting now happens in play and most sportsbooks have strong and in-depth offerings. Due to the high pace of the action, the key things that really need to be done are the speed of the apps, how quickly markets and prices become available after key events within a game, and how quickly the bookie can create specials in response to the action taking place.


granular with the markets they are offering such as the next point in tennis or the next play in Football (not soccer!). Of course, to be able to offer these wide range of markets, operators must be supported by platforms with genuine scale and stability. Tis isn’t something that all providers offer – just take a look at some of the headlines following major betting events such as the Super Bowl 2021 with operators suffering major outages.


FSB prides itself on the near 100 per cent


uptime record it achieves. Tis gives our operator partners the confidence they need to deliver superior betting experiences even during high-volume events such as the Super Bowl and March Madness. Tis might not be considered headline innovation, but it is absolutely critical to ensuring players receive the experience they are expecting.


In-play betting has become a major focus area for online sportsbooks. What are the key ingredients for creating an engaging in-play betting experience? What match data should be provided and, in turn, how should bettors look to use this information?


Bob: Uptime is absolutely key here as well, so too is low latency. In-play is all about delivering real-time engagement with players and bonusing forms part of this. Our automated bonusing tools are hugely popular with our partners as they allow them to curate real-time


How can DFS sites make themselves more appealing to traditional sports bettors and vice versa? Is there sizeable overlap between the two customer bases or are there noticeable demographical differences?


Araz: Tere is definitely some overlap, and the overlap tends to be the greatest when sportsbook users are being provided with games that have the shallowest learning curve. When making fantasy appeal to a mass market sportsbook audience, the key is to not overwhelm that audience and use mechanics within the fantasy game content (such as goals and clean sheets) that those sportsbook bettors will already be familiar with so the introduction is fun and easy.


Over time those users can then be introduced to more deeply engaging fantasy concepts. Tose will appeal to some user segments more readily than others, but there is always a way to match the game content to the audience segment.


Bob: Tere is definitely overlap between fantasy sports and sports betting, and operators are certainly looking to drive fantasy players to their real money books. Daily players are a little different as they are incredibly analytical in their approach, and you certainly don’t see as many casual DFS players as you do sports bettors – sports betting allows casual players to put down a few dollars on their team to win. Of course, there are plenty of opportunities for more serious sports bettors to get granular through micro markets, props, hedging, and so forth.


NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA P97


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126