Product & technology – FairOdds Network

August 8, 2024

Penn CEO Snowden: “Don’t believe everything you read” on M&A, points to late August NY launch

Penn Entertainment CEO Jay Snowden refused to comment on speculation of competitors teaming up to acquire the operator during Thursday's quarterly earnings call. Instead, he talked up deeper and deeper integrations with partner ESPN.
On Thursday’s (8 August) earnings call, Snowden said the company will be live in the biggest legal market in the US – New York – by the start of the college football season. He also addressed the controversial winners’ surcharge that DraftKings is floating. But his main focus was acquisition rumours.

The ESPN Bet launch last November brought the premier sports media brand into the betting sector. Snowden said it was a milestone moment. But it hasn’t yet translated into a podium position for Penn Entertainment.

Blended market share across six states averaged 6% for March, and investors have started to question Penn’s digital strategy. This led to rumours of a sale, suggesting Boyd Gaming would bite. Those rumours evolved into a joint approach with ..

August 2, 2024

Bettors, analysts say “no thanks” to DraftKings’ surcharge idea

US sports betting operators have long been grappling with ways to navigate increasingly high tax rates. But DraftKings' new idea isn't sitting well with bettors or analysts.
DraftKings spurred debated among the wagering community on Thursday (1 August) when it announced plans to implement a gaming surcharge for players in high tax states.

In its Q2 business update, the company said it has “plan to address high tax states”. That is to “roll out a gaming tax surcharge” starting 1 January 2025. This will be applied to winning bets “in any state with a tax rate above 20% that has multiple sports betting operators”. Those criteria currently apply to New York, Illinois, Vermont and Pennsylvania.

New York’s tax rate is 51%, Pennsylvania is 36% and Vermont is 20%. Illinois recently implemented a sliding scale that caps out at 40% for the highest-earning operators. The bottom of the scale is 20%.

DraftKings asserted the surcharge will be “fairly nominal to the customer”. The only ..

April 10, 2024

Solving sports betting – the AI way

The advent of AI-assisted products in the sportsbook space appears to offer up the prospect of an epoch-changing leap forward in risk management. But does it mean that margin volatility will become a thing of the past? Not quite yet, suggest the experts. But the product is developing fast.

Buzz phrases don’t get much buzzier than “AI-assisted”. The mere mention of the phrase either prompts excited optimism about a tech-driven future – or a very real fear of the same.

In the betting and gaming space, the use of artificial intelligence may not quite engender the apocalyptic visions of the AI naysayers in the wider world. But it still appears to offer the possibility of very much changed business practices.

the advent of ai could herald huge change for sports betting, writes Scott Longley

Notably, given the central importance of data to any potential machine learning or AI developments, it is the two leading sports data collection entities that are leading the charge.

The pair launc..

March 12, 2024

Genius Sports set to extend Premier League data deal until 2029

Genius Sports has been chosen as the successful bidder to extend its official betting data partnership with Football DataCo, which holds data rights to the English Premier League (EPL).

DataCo also holds rights to data from the English Football League (EFL), containing the Championship, League One and League Two, as well as all leagues overseen by the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), including the Scottish Premiership.

Genius has now entered into an exclusive period of negotiation with DataCo as it seeks to get the extension over the line. The renewed agreement is still subject to contract and the approval of the leagues and their clubs.

Genius has exclusively supplied low latency data to DataCo from the EPL, EFL and SPFL since 2019. The current deal expires at the end of the 2024-25 season, with the new contract set to last until 2029.

The fresh deal will see Genius Sports continue to distribute data from over 4,000 UK football fixtures per season.

Genius Sports repo..

January 30, 2024

FairPlay Sports Media announces Quarter4 purchase

FairPlay Sports Media (FPSM) has announced the acquisition of deep-learning neural network Quarter4 (Q4), hoping to “unleash” the full potential of its proprietary data and technology platform.

FPSM underwent a rebrand from Oddschecker Media Group last week and has now announced its first purchase. The price of the deal for the Toronto-based Q4 remains undisclosed.

Q4, founded in 2019, specialises in predicting sports outcomes, as well as providing unique data and content opportunities.

FPSM says the move aligns with the company’s objective to “transform BetTech”, benefitting consumers, publishers and operators worldwide.

FPSM brands will leverage Q4’s prediction technology in combination with the group’s price movement data across “millions of sports events”.

Stuart Simms, FPSM’s group chief executive, declared: “The acquisition of Quarter4 is a significant milestone for our group, giving our various brands the ability to unleash our already market-leading data and tech platform ..

January 30, 2024

Genius Sports announces “first-of-its-kind” Edge automated pricing tool

Genius Sports has announced an automated pricing tool called Edge, which it believes is the first of its kind in the market.

Genius Sports’ tool will allow sportsbooks to maximise profits over “unlimited” sports events and bets. Factoring in real-time liability, Edge can recalculate odds at a fixture and market-type level for maximum profitability, including bet-builder products.

Genius Sports product director Thomas Holland revealed early adopter partners of Edge have enjoyed an 18% average rise in margins. The tool is available now through Genius Trading Services or as a standalone solution.

“The explosion of betting content means sportsbooks offer hundreds of thousands of events every year,” Holland said in the announcement. “This makes it almost impossible for trading teams to truly optimise pricing and ensure they are squeezing maximum margin out of every bet, especially where turnover is highest.

“We’re excited to roll this ground-breaking solution out across our sportsbook p..

January 24, 2024

Home field advantage: Strive creates a PAM for North America

Three years on from entering a crowded, competitive field, Strive Gaming has built a foothold in the North American market. As its roster of clients expands, president Damian Xuereb aims to ride the market’s evolution through a new wave of growth.

Strive Gaming president Damian Xuereb is sure of one thing. “Strive was certainly not a first mover in the US,” he says. But the US market is approaching its sixth anniversary. Strive Gaming has been in play for just half of that.

Established by Xuereb and CEO Max Meltzer, both veterans of the post-PASPA gold rush, Strive knows the market. Coming in three years after the first bets were placed, it has watched what works and what doesn’t.

Strive’s experience of the post-PASPA Gold RUSH Sets up the business for success as the US market matures says president Damian Xuereb

“We had the advantage of understanding the state-by-state nuances in each market,” Xuereb continues. “We had the opportunity to do our research and ensure we built a pro..

December 13, 2023

Bill Hornbuckle on MGM Resorts’ global growth ambitions

MGM Resorts’ home town of Las Vegas evolved beyond all recognition during Bill Hornbuckle’s time in gaming, but it’s not the only show in town. He’s eyeing up expansion across a range of global markets and expanding into new channels.

Things are booming in MGM Resorts’ home town, but it’s much more than a Vegas-based business. Hornbuckle leads global development efforts and having taken MGM into Macau he’s still looking east.

MGM Resorts looks east

Japan’s ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism certified plans for a $10bn integrated resort in Osaka in April. After finalising agreements with Osaka Prefecture and City, construction can begin on the property.

Marginally closer, opportunities are emerging in the United Arab Emirates. First Wynn sealed an agreement for a resort in Ras al-Khaimah. Then a federal regulator, the General Commercial Gambling Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) emerged paving the way for resorts in other Emirates.

MGM is focused on Dubai, Hornbu..

December 8, 2023

Stats Perform pens 2030 extension to WTA rights data deal

Data provider Stats Perform has penned an exclusive agreement to continue as the rights partner of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) until 2030.

Stats Perform will continue to be the exclusive data rights partner of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) after signing an extended deal.

Under the agreement, Stats Perform will continue to serve as the official data supplier of the WTA. The deal will see the provider deliver an exclusive umpire-derived data feed for matches and an ultrafast data feed collected by the supplier’s Opta analysts.

Data collected by Opta analysts will include detailed match statistics, including rally and shot level. This, Stats Perform says, will increase the level of live insight available for WTA matches. It will also help power a new range of broadcast, second screen and betting experiences.

Extended until 2030

Stats Perform signed an initial six-year contract back in 2020 to become the WTA’s official data supplier. This fresh renewal, announced on..

November 28, 2023

PointsBet CEO: On course to deliver growth in FY25

PointsBet chief executive Sam Swanell has outlined a focus on technology to deliver growth in Australia and Canada following the group’s departure from the US.

Swanell told investors at the AGM that PointsBet remains on course to break even this year and deliver growth in FY25. The CEO reiterated the rationale behind the $225.0m sale of its US business to Fanatics. He also gave an update on growth targets in its remaining Australian and Canadian markets.

PointsBet CEO Sam Swanell

Central to its performance, Swanell said, will be the proprietary technology powering its own platforms as well as Fanatics. In total, PointsBet’s platform handled more than $7bn in wagers during the most recent financial year.

PointsBet also retains the rights to use and further develop the Banach “Oddsfactory” technology assets. This drives in-play, parlay products and cash-out features in Australia, Canada and the US.

“The strength of our technology has also been validated through our sale of the plat..

November 23, 2023

The art of harnessing artificial intelligence for sportsbooks

As we’ve seen this year, the groundbreaking and rapidly evolving technology powering artificial intelligence (AI) is sure to revolutionise the economy, including the world of sports betting. In the second part of this two-part series, Russell Karp, senior vice-president of DataArt, focuses on the many ways sportsbooks can benefit from harnessing the art of AI.

Today, one of the most promising uses of AI in sports betting is bettors’ ability to use the technology to place bets more strategically and attempt to minimise their losses.

Apps like BettorTakes and Juice Reel aim to boost users’ performance through comprehensive analytics of their past betting behaviours. As BettorTakes CEO Steve Rubenfaer described in an interview with DataArt this year, the app “show[s] you your patterns, biases and things you might not know about yourself”.

With these apps, AI can be used to assess bettors’ gambling history, in addition to player or team stats. AI can then present digestible, comprehensi..

November 15, 2023

ESPN Bet launches across 17 US states

ESPN Bet, the newly branded online sportsbook operated by Penn Entertainment, has now officially gone live across 17 states in the US.

Players can now place bets with the sportsbook on the ESPN Bet app and website in states including Arizona, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Illinois and Ohio.

ESPN Bet is the product of Penn’s $1.5bn (£1.2bn/€1.4bn) partnership with Disney-owned ESPN, the largest sports media brand in the US.

As per the agreement, Penn will operate ESPN Bet while ESPN promotes the app across its online and broadcast platforms.

The launch details

ESPN Bet is a rebranding of existing sports betting app, Barstool Sportsbook. In August, Penn said it sold Barstool Sports back to its founder Dave Portnoy for $1.

“We are excited to announce that we plan to simultaneously launch ESPN Bet across the 17 states in which we operate online sports betting, subject to final approvals,” said Penn CEO Jay Snowden, commenting on Penn’s Q3 results.

“This strategic allia..

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Tag: Product & technology