Betgenius is sponsoring Betting on Football 2018, the fifth edition of the largest international football and betting trade conference at Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea FC.
Ahead of the 20-23 March event, we spoke to the company’s Business Development Director Sam Hill about what he is looking forward to at #bofcon2018, which innovation he expects to capture the most attention in 2018, and who he is backing to lift the World Cup trophy in Russia.
SBC: What are you looking forward to at Betting on Football?
SH: Over the past couple of years, Betting on Football has been a great opportunity for us to showcase one of the key areas of our business and one we lead the market in – outsourced pre-match and in-play football trading. It’s a product that is constantly evolving and improving, so there’s always plenty to discuss with clients new and old.
We’ve also really appreciated being invited to share our expertise on various panels, talking about innovation, the changing role of the trader and how to engage the football punter through contextual marketing, among other things. This year, I’ll be sharing my views on how bookies can take a creative approach to trading to drive customer engagements and ultimately, profits.
SBC: What are you promoting at Betting on Football?
SH: Our in-play football product is used by many of the biggest regulated operators in the world, with the quality of our coverage and pricing proven to drive turnover and deliver industry-beating margins. However, it’s important to stress that we are so much more than a feed provider. From data collection by over 6,000 accredited statisticians around the world and official data rights agreements, to unique mathematical algorithms and customisable trading tools, Betgenius is truly a full-service solution for sportsbooks.
As a technology company, we are always looking at ways of improving everything we do. An area we are investing heavily into is giving our customers greater control over their risk strategy. To do this we are making it possible for traders to see their liabilities in our interface, meaning they will no longer need to flick between the Betgenius trading console and their platform because all the information they need for both pre-match and in-play will be presented in our platform right next to the prices.
Taking this a step further, traders will be able to create alerts when risk parameters are breached, create automatic trading decisions based on liability, display added liability views such as aggregated liabilities over a spread of markets driven via total goals and match supremacy, and Value at Risk calculations. This will derive a truer view for trading teams than is traditionally available across the market.
SBC: What industry innovation will capture the most attention in 2018?
SH: Late last year we partnered with Sportcast to launch BetBuilder, a unique product which revolutionises pre-match betting by enabling punters to instantly build accumulators made up of dozens of different player, team and event markets within the same game.
The growth of the ‘personalised’ same-game acca market has been phenomenal but driven by social media and manual trading. BetBuilder, however, automates the function and delivers a slick and fast user experience which gives customers the odds they want instantly. Interest has been very high and that will no doubt continue at Betting on Football.
SBC: How can your company help to improve the customer experience ahead of the World Cup?
SH: Our High Availability Cash Out service does exactly what it says on the tin. Punters often lose the option to cash-out way too early when any one of their chosen fixtures is suspended due to anything ranging from a dangerous attack to a red card, or even if one fixture is running ahead of time compared to other selections.
High Availability Cash Out allows operators’ cash-out function to run independently of its core trading, meaning hundreds of live markets across our live sports can be offered for 100% of their natural lifetime. In other words, operators will not only be able to offer their customers the option of cashing out for the duration of a game but also at times when normal betting would be suspended – such as after a penalty is awarded or in the last few minutes. The benefits to turnover and player retention are huge.
SBC: Who are you backing to win the tournament, and why?
SH: How can you look beyond England? Our goalkeeper is in the form of his life on the bench at West Ham and always thrives at international tournaments. Our right-wing back is letting League One sides score easy goals and we have an array of talent in centre midfield, including Ballon d’Or hopeful Jake Livermore. Added to our collective ability to thrive under pressure and our manager’s fine international pedigree and this certainly seems to be our year! Get your bets on early, I’d say.