Limelight Networks – Changing the sports viewing experience

With Betting On Sports three weeks away, SBC continues catching up with the event sponsors as we sat down with Steve Miller-Jones, Vice President of Product Strategy at Limelight Networks.

He told SBC about his excitement in attending #boscon and talked us through on Limelight Networks’ worldwide streaming service technology.

What are you looking forward to at Betting on Sports?

There are leaders from across the industry who are participating in the various sessions at the event. This is a great opportunity to hear so many experts share their views on the current state of the market as well as where we are headed. 

The networking sessions also offer a chance to meet people and chat in a relaxed environment. I’m also looking forward to strolling the exhibition floor to learn more about all of the recent developments in the industry and the new products and services being offered.

What are you promoting at Betting on Sports?

As in-play betting continues to grow, delivering live game feeds with the lowest possible delay becomes increasingly important. Limelight offers several services for streaming live online video with the lowest possible latency, including our Limelight Realtime Streaming that can deliver video to anywhere in the world with less than one second of latency. Limelight Realtime Streaming is ideal for watch and bet interfaces because it allows operators to provide live streaming video of any event with the absolute lowest possible delay.  

What industry innovation will capture the most attention in 2019?

The emergence of technology that offers real time online video delivery of sporting events will have a major impact on how sports fans watch and bet on sports online. This technology will help grow the market for online sports betting by making it easy to offer an integrated sports viewing and betting experience on any mobile device. Fans will be able to watch the action in real time with the opportunity to make in-play wagers, fundamentally changing the sports viewing experience.

Which sports betting operator has impressed you the most in 2019?

SportsRadar have really impressed us with their approach to the challenges in the market today and their range of innovative solutions.

What sports betting partnership has stood out in the past 12 months?

Sportradar’s partnerships with Major league Baseball to distribute real time game statistics and with the National Football League to extend its relationship to offer data to sports betting outlets is helping to position the company as one of the leaders in the growing US sports betting market. Real time data from the major US sports leagues will be one of the keys to growth in US sports betting. These partnerships will help open up the US market.

If you could attend one sporting event, what would it be?

I think that the best sporting event to attend would be they Olympic Games, for the sheer variety and range of sports and expertise on display.

Which parts of the conference agenda have caught your eye?

Sports betting is just starting to take hold in the US, and it is offering many opportunities for established companies to partner with operators in the various states to offer new services. I’m really looking forward to the various sessions in the USA in Focus track to learn more about the emergence of sports betting in the US and how live data from the sports leagues and teams can be used to offer real time viewing with integrated wagering opportunities to US sports fans. 

The Technology in Focus track also has several interesting sessions about how new technical innovations such machine learning and blockchain can be applied to change the sports betting market.

#boscon, held 17-20 September at Olympia London, is the world’s leading sports betting industry event, with this year’s conference set to boast 300 leading industry speakers across 50 sessions, with 120 exhibitors displaying their latest products. 

Delegates will be treated to world-class hospitality with plenty of business and networking opportunities at some of London’s most iconic venues including the Natural History Museum. For more information about the event, please visit the Betting on Sports website.