How are the third-party integrations with the likes of Rimble and Pro League Network progressing?
It’s been just three months since we launched our third-party partners project, but in that time, we have had three big industry shows where we were able to talk to our clients about what the feed can now do in addition to our core Football Player Markets.
The response has been positive, and we’re pleased to say that one of our tier one clients is currently finalising details before offering one of our partner feeds. We expect this to go live early next year; the first of many such deals, we hope.
The last few months have seen concerted effort from all parties towards educating current and future clients about the project and what it could do for them.
How do you reflect on the positive impact the third-party integrations with the likes of Pro League Network have had on Abelson Odds and the clients?
With ever-crowded roadmaps meaning distribution pathways for smaller providers are either choked or non-existent, it is becoming more and more likely that a route to market will follow via an aggregation platform. Although we haven’t specifically referred to our feed as an aggregation platform, it’s a fair term to describe what we have.
Speaking from Abelson’s viewpoint, the project has been fantastic, both in terms of adding value to our integrations but also from a PR point-of-view. We’ve upped our impressions across social media using a number of press releases as well as witnessing increased website traffic, particularly from the US.
Moving away from our core football markets has given the company a lift in terms of profile diversification; we are now being more widely recognised for our technical capabilities.
Hopefully the partners feel they are also gaining exposure as well as being introduced to the right stakeholders within our current client base. We’ve made adding the various partner feeds as easy as possible and we’d be disappointed if we don’t make some real inroads in 2025.
Do you have any more partnerships of this nature lined up? If so, how will the clients benefit from the third-party integrations?
We are always on the lookout for new partners and are currently in discussions with an exciting potential partner that offers more traditional US-focussed sports.
The idea to utilise our feed integrations in this way was only conceived during ICE 2024, when we reflect, at ICE Barcelona 2025, we’ll be delighted with what we have achieved in the previous twelve months, I’m sure.
From a wider perspective, what sports betting innovations do you expect to see in 2025 and why?
The years fly by so quickly (I’m sure there’s a correlation with advancing age and time perception!) and this question always pops up once a year.
I actually think that the sector has been in consolidation mode this past twelve months and I’m not sure we’ll see too much change in 2025. We’ve witnessed continued M&A as well as significant retreats from what were hoped would be gold mine markets in the US. 2024 saw further US state rollouts stagnate and without fresh impetus, that new state launches bring, we have observed distress signals from many of the smaller operators. Withdrawal has been endemic for that territory and that has also spilled into the affiliate business, which has witnessed a huge correction.
Brazil is another territory that has had operators expectant for a while now, it’s been two years since I predicted that a regulated Brazilian market would be huge news… we’re still waiting, and even with the end apparently in sight, there are constant blockers being raised. The fact that we are now seeing operators leave Brazil, citing it as a difficult market to trade in, is perhaps a portent of things to come as other territories consider regulation.
Much innovation appears to be emanating from offshore, unregulated, crypto-first platforms. With taxation, particularly in the USA, stifling the market and an incoming government with a pro-crypto stance, it’s been a bonanza for these unregulated operations, the number and scale of the enterprises is staggering.
How is the technology behind sports betting e.g. trading, pricing and risk management, continuing to innovate across the sector?
The latest technology continues to meander towards the betting and igaming industry but the application of any global technological advances is often neutered due to legacy systems and the difficultly of marrying old and new tech. Something as complex as a betting platform changes slowly, over a period of time. We often get accused in this industry of not moving fast enough but it’s hard to be too critical, there are many moving parts and wholesale change is hard to envisage, let alone enact. If you think about OpenBet, that platform is still one of the leading systems and yet it’s well over two decades old.
Trading and pricing can be bolted onto core platforms and this is an area where we can see innovative solutions. I’d say speed or latency reduction is one area in which we have realised measurable progression. Opta’s fast data feed for soccer has allowed for ever more granular metrics to be traded or cashed-out in-play. We’ve also seen improvements in up-time within the products of specialist providers, particularly within the US sports scene.
How do you reflect on the growing trend of products that combine the best of sports betting and igaming? What impact will these offerings have?
There are an increasing number of businesses considering adding sportsbook verticals (Financial trading platforms, like Robinhood), or stretching the boundaries of regulation to offer a sport betting-style experience (Sweepstakes or Daily Fantasy+, both in the US).
Virtually Sports, in which Abelson has an investment, offers products to bridge the gap between virtuals and sportsbook. Aimed to sit within the sportsbook section, it offers RNG-based games that mimic actual sports.
I think that the pandemic taught us all that the necessity for quality for bridging entertainment to fill gaps, large or small, during the transmission of live events is crucial and deserves its own space within the book.
