SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The percentage of in-play wagers on tennis in the US, combined with the sport’s potential betting-based turnover once the market reaches maturation, continues to dispel the misconception that the biggest sports in the country are the “only show in town”.
That was the view of Perform Group’s Bill Anderson, who delivered a presentation on live betting at last week’s Betting on Sports America conference in New Jersey.
The Group’s VP of Business Development spoke about why the natural stoppages of play in tennis make it a good fit for in-play wagering, as well as how Perform can bring about more engagement with the live action by keeping markets open longer for players.
This goes against a backdrop of cautious trading and longer bet delays seen across the US in the first 12 months since the Supreme Court struck down PASPA.
Information from Kambi, a sports betting services provider working with Perform and whose director Max Bichsel joined Anderson on stage for part of the presentation, showed that the percentage of bets placed in-play on tennis in New Jersey has been consistent at 80 per cent across 2018 and through the first quarter of 2019.
By contrast, the proportion of in-play bets placed on the NBA in the same state came in at 50 per cent for 2019 (up from 33 per cent in 2018), while those wagered on ice hockey saw a similar year-on-year increase, but only from 25 per cent to 40 per cent.
Anderson also discussed the merits of applying the live streaming model in the US, citing information from bet365 – another of Perform’s partners – which increased its number of live streamed sports events by 167 per cent between 2014 and 2017.
He concluded that in-play betting is rapidly being adopted by US audiences and a “significant proportion” of the betting ecosystem comes from non ‘big 5’ sports, for whom engaging 1st and 2nd screen experience are critical to future success.
