Algosport is sponsoring Betting on Sports 2017, the second edition of the largest international sports and betting trade conference at Olympia Conference Centre in Kensington.
Ahead of the 12-15 September event, we spoke to Algosport CEO Leigh Herdman about what he is looking forward to at #boscon2017, his perfect sporting event, and how sports and betting can work better together.
SBC: What are you looking forward to at Betting on Sports?
LH: We’re looking forward to hearing about the latest industry trends in the trading and product realm. In the past in-play trading models revolutionised the online offering, however there hasn’t been much innovation since then until recently. With bookmakers now offering cashout and personalised bet requests, there is now a resurgence in this area.
We attended the sessions on innovation at the Betting on Football conference earlier in the year. Since then, ourselves and other companies have been working on developing these products. We’ll be looking forward to following similar tracks at Betting on Sports.
SBC: What are you promoting at Betting on Sports?
LH: At Betting on Sports, we are going to be unveiling our revolutionary model building software and trading platform. That will return control of the trading products back to the trading room, which will allow traders to create the models and markets without the reliance on quants and developers. The Algosport solution will be particularly useful for those companies who currently rely on 3rd party trading solutions but would like to have the in-house capability to control their own trading products.
The platform allows full flexibility over configuring feeds, models, market creation etc. The platform also supports next generation products such as cash out and personalised bet requests, where bets are created by combining goals, corners, cards and player markets from the same event.
SBC: Where can betting work together more closely with sport?
LH: The sharing of data is very much an important area for us, as ultimately our solution is driven by historical and in-play data. The betting industry is now becoming very proficient at analysing this data, the output of this analysis is something we could return to sports governing bodies for both integrity and spectator enjoyment. Some companies are already doing this. Although it would be good if this data was more widely shared rather than through exclusive partnerships, which creates a monopoly that stifles innovation and competition.
SBC: What sports betting partnership has stood out in the past 12 months?
LH: The Sun Bets sponsorship of the Arsenal v Sutton match stood out for me. Despite the subsequent events, the sponsorship allowed a small club to earn extra revenue from their historic achievement. Likewise, for Sun Bets it was a chance to get their brand out there on a high profile televised match in an era where shirt sponsorship deals don’t come cheap.
The subsequent events also put their sponsorship in the limelight. As for the following controversy, some bookmakers marketing teams consider a campaign a failure if it doesn’t cause controversy!
SBC: Describe your perfect sporting event
LH: I am a huge fan of greyhound racing. I used to be a regular at Wimbledon on Friday nights. Something to bet on every 15 mins and the closeness of the bar to the bookies made it much preferable to horse racing for me. Owning your own dog was much more accessible than owning your own race horse. Sadly, most of the dog tracks have gone now, an institution that will be greatly missed.
