A raft of betting markets are beginning to emerge, providing opportunities for sportsbooks to reach and engage new audiences with smaller, quicker bets more focused aspects of each sport. Abelson Sports’ Jeevan Jeyaratnam, Altenar’s Matthew Ferrera and Genius Sports’ Thomas Holland share their thoughts on what’s next for the growing segment.
G3: How popular is micro-betting, and what’s the potential for this segment of the betting market?
Jeevan Jeyaratnam: Before I begin, I’d like to point out that Abelson Sports does not offer its own micro-betting markets but rather has partnerships and supports those that do. Micro-betting helps bridge a gap between sports betting and casino by using casino-style betting mechanics. It presents punters with a plethora of bets for any live match, increasing betting opportunities, bringing with it increased engagement and therefore handle.
Micro-betting is a product of our times- where Tik Tok videos and Instagram reels must land within seconds to hold attention spans. Micro-betting is by nature and title short-format, using narrow time-frames for action to occur and therefore involves fast settlement and play, with a frequency similar in style to what might be seen in a casino.
It is also a product that traces its roots back to 2010 and Cantor’s eDeck, but it certainly couldn’t have existed in the same format or style years ago. It requires low latency, highly accurate feeds from trusted suppliers and similar fast, reliable delivery mechanisms.
The segment has huge potential, it is a rapidly growing vertical and plays incredibly well into many sports. Its popularity in LatAm is another reason to be bullish. Some say, with plenty of justification, that it is the fastest growing vertical in sports betting. It’s now so popular that certain US states want it banned! This growing negativity, as evidenced by New Jersey and Ohio lawmakers, stems from a view that allowing markets such as “next pitch” are open to abuse. Indeed that metric is the cornerstone of the Ohio objection.
Compliance and regulation is key for suppliers and operators offering these markets but ultimately the transparent nature of legalised sports betting helps identify bad actors. Banning micro-betting in Ohio won’t stop the black market offering such bet types and that presents a much greater threat to sporting integrity.
The language used in any censorship needs very careful attention or all in-play prop bets (think, next goalscorer) will be deemed illegal. Something that would be incredibly harmful to operators, customers, channelisation and the State coffers.
Matthew Ferrera: Micro-betting is extremely popular, specifically for the younger generation, as it takes components/ingredients from social media. It provides the instant gratification and dopamine fix that many of us crave daily due to our habits and interactions with our cell phones.
As attention spans continue to shrink and users continue to seek out instant gratification, micro-betting will continue to grow in popularity. As for the future, recommendations and tailored content based on users’ preferences and the game’s flow, as well as the live event’s developments, will take micro-betting and its appeal to the next level.
Thomas Holland: Micro-betting is one of the fastest-growing trends in sports betting. Across football and other major sports, we’re seeing fans gravitate towards narrative-related betting markets, linked to moments rather than just outcomes, especially on TV games. This is particularly true among younger audiences who are used to the immediacy of social media and fantasy sports, where engagement is built around rich player data and analysis. In short, context is king and markets that link to broadcast or social media narrative add much stronger value than countdown-style markets like “goal in the next minute”.
The pace of change in sports data is faster than ever, and this makes the potential for innovation in micro-betting genuinely exciting. The most engaging opportunities though will still follow the broadcast, fantasy and social trends that fans are invested in. As real-time data and interfaces mature, the potential for growth with micro-betting will be from personalised and timely betting options, be that to short match windows or during high impact moments such as a penalty or VAR.
G3: How is your business evolving its product offering to capitalise on the swelling demand for micro-betting?
TH: The answer is really all of the above. Automation of data collection and trading, smart modelling and a UX that can bring it all together to engage users. To keep pace in today’s world of in-play betting, operators can’t just react. You need to be predictive. If you’re suspending every time a dangerous attack builds, or a striker shapes to shoot, you’re losing out. We’re investing heavily in our trading models to apply Monte Carlo simulations and AI. What this means is that we can run simulations of millions of possible scenarios to forecast the most accurate probabilities of each outcome. We can do this for all in-play markets thanks to our access to official, low-latency live sports data from venues across the biggest leagues.
For example, we’re building the ability to predict the likelihood of Erling Haaland taking a shot from inside 18 yards, before he even takes it, and then the subsequent ripple effects this will have on all related markets. The end result is less downtime, less bet delays and better pricing accuracy across every in-play market. BetVision, which merges live streaming, real-time stats, and frictionless betting into one single interface is also the ideal product for the future. Live across NFL, Serie A, Ligue 1 and 120+ other competitions, we can pair our modelling technology with powerful video augmentation technology to create a truly seamless and connected betting experience.
Crucially we will decided what to show next by looking at what the customer usually bets on and what is happening in the game. If a customer likes shots and Salah has not had a shot for ten minutes, we surface “Salah to have the next shot”. If he has had several quick attempts, we surface the same market or a small cluster like “next shot on target” and “Salah over shots”. Everything we do comes back to the point on context and BetVision as an interface is perfect for this.
MF: Altenar works with two best-in-class products for our micro-betting product – Kero and nVenue – which truly gives us the broadest range of micro-betting products on the market. As we continue to build in-house and rely on our partners, we expect micro-betting to account for a significant portion of our revenue. As mentioned above, providing timely micro-markets based on users’ behaviours and what is happening in the match will be a true game-changer. For example, If Aaron Judge is on fire and has a home run in the first few innings, a well-placed micro-market in the fifth inning would be “Will Aaron Judge homer again?” or “Aaron Judge has homered in his last three games, will he homer again?”
On the contrary, if a user is a Red Sox fan and his past betting history includes betting against the Yankees, delivering a ‘strike out’ market could entice a user to bet with his heart against his rival. This could be applied to all sports and provides an almost TikTok experience where prompts and content are delivered based on a highly sophisticated algorithm, which captures real-time data as well as unique user behaviour.
Additionally, we’re working to create a unique micro-betting UX which caters to the fast-paced nature of micro-betting. With questions being delivered so fast with little time to think, imagine a swipe functionality (similar to Tinder) where bets can be made with a quick swipe of the finger. Pairing this swipe functionality with a default stake size or easy-to-adjust stake amount and minimal delay in bet acceptance, we can create a betting experience which truly resembles social media and caters to the future generation of sports bettors.
JJ: Micro-betting can only be successful off the back of a strong core sportsbook offering and so Abelson Sports continues to focus on further strengthening its pre and live soccer player props offering, in particular expanding coverage of in-play metrics. We have added individual player level in-play shots, shots on target and assists, with more metrics to follow in the next few months.
Our partnerships with in-play suppliers means Abelson can support the global reach of our operators, with Abelson’s specialist compilers, who each work on specific regions/competitions, meaning our partners benefit from individual football intelligence on top of Abelson’s underlying proprietorial systems, rounded out by Twenty First Group’s extensive modelling expertise for detailed player metrics.
Although Abelson doesn’t offer truly fast micro-betting, it appreciates the importance of the vertical in the props space and realises how well it complements our own pre-match and live props offering. There are a large number of symmetries between our products and the offerings of micro-betting providers and we are excited to see the expansion of props markets in general.
