SBC’s Year In Review: June’s big betting news

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As 2019 comes to a close SBC looks through the year to highlight major news that you might have missed in the sports betting world.

This sixth edition looks at June and more specifically at the AFCON boost for African sportsbooks, how data changed sports leagues, the importance of both technology and human expertise and Campeón Gaming Partners’ move to the Sweidh and UK markets.

Starting in Egypt, the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) will take place in Europe’s summer for the first time, having been moved from its traditional January/February slot.

We caught up with Will Westcott, Head of Business Development – Africa at Betgenius, to discuss what impact this change might have on African sportsbooks, what betting behaviour to expect across the four-weeks of action, and his 10/1 pick for tournament glory.

Westcott stated:

“African sportsbooks will have welcomed CAF’s decision to move the tournament to the summer months with open arms.Without the all-consuming Premier League to compete against, the tournament will have the opportunity to hog the spotlight with prime TV slots and blanket media coverage. Fixtures are scheduled every evening and on the weekends, and there are more football superstars in the competition than ever before, such as golden boot winners Salah and Mane.The decision to expand the tournament to include more teams and matches should also provide a major boost to turnover.”

If you follow any of the top sports leagues for team disciplines, you have probably already realised that whenever you watch a game, enter a web-page or download a mobile app, you get the most sophisticated performance stats delivered straight into your hands.

But, when did this become a trend? And how does it affect league organisers? Jakub Myszkorowski, Chief Commercial Officer at STATSCORE, explores the ‘then’, ‘now’ and ‘next’ for collecting and sharing sports data.

THEN: When did it start? Well, let us go back to the first half of the 20th century with the men in great wide pants and women with perms. Sports stadiums were then areas full of people smoking cigarettes and the first collectors of sport related statistics.

It all began with the analysis of basic stats.

For years, people have been breaking down sports mathematically based on the probabilities of various outcomes. It’s a popular topic amongst fans keen to discuss, engage and predict elements of their favourite sport. Thanks to technology, the ability for bookmakers to serve this interest by providing as many betting markets as possible has become a lot more efficient.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to revolutionise the industry, many have said that sports trading will transition from being a manual task to a more automated one, perhaps eventually ruling out the need for human sports traders.

But for Sportradar, this means something different. At the foundation of all their products and services is quality – but this isn’t just restricted to their comprehensive sports coverage, data and ISO-certified data procurement processes. Quality and reliability are also applied to their sport trading efforts.

Having secured a licence from the Malta Gaming Authority, igaming operator Campeón Gaming Partners has set about adding four new gaming brands in the second half of 2019, as well as finalising the deals of new licensed operations for both Sweden and the UK.

We caught up with Marinos Shiapanis – the firm’s Co-Founder and CMO – to discuss the ‘extra push’ provided by the Malta licence and waiting for the “final green light” from both Spelinspektionen and the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), as well as treating its affiliates as partners by pursuing mutually beneficial relationships, despite too many instances of CPA abuse.

Shiapanis commented:

“We hope that with the licence our brands will be more accessible to players everywhere. Additionally, we want to provide a safe space where players can be reassured about gaming fairness, responsibility, and security of personal data. The MGA licence brought stricter procedures to guarantee safe gaming zones. We want all of our brands to be equipped with the best tools to cater for the best possible platform; an MGA licence will be an extra push for us to help us to continue to grow and evolve, and ultimately provide a great product for our players.”

Source: sbcnews.co.uk