GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 17 - September 2011

By Aaron Todd alk into a Las Vegas sports- book and you’ll find dozens of high-definition televi- sion screens broadcasting sporting events. Bettors place wagers at the front desk and then watch as the action unfolds on the screens in front of them. Some sportsbooks have personal stations with a small television screen where bettors can choose the event they’d like to watch and put on a pair of headphones to listen to the action, as well. But that’s nothing compared to what online sportsbooks have to offer. With the increased bandwidth available both to the operators in the online gaming industry and to bettors within their own homes, online sports- books have now developed a menu of live sport- ing event coverage that dwarfs what’s available at a Vegas sportsbook. Betfair, which started live streaming five years ago, now streams more than 2,000 sporting events a month through its website, livevideo.betfair.com. Horse races, football (soccer) matches, tennis matches, and even darts are available through Betfair’s live streaming offering. “You name it, we’ve got it,” says Will Brown, head of commercial operations for Betfair. “We have top-flight horse racing, over 50 football leagues and cups, and various other sports.” The menu of options has expanded greatly over time, and not just at Betfair. WilliamHill, bet365, bwin and many other online sportsbooks have begun live streaming events through their sites, and with good reason. According to Brown, bettors who watch events through live streaming at Betfair bring about 20 percent more value than those who do not watch live streams. And if affiliates have revenue share deals with sportsbooks and betting exchanges, that 20 percent increase in player value can make an enormous difference in the monthly payments affiliates receive. “If you can bring a customer in and they’re aware of live video and they start using it early on, you’re going to make more revenue by taking them to a site where they’ve got a decent range of live streaming than you will by taking them to a site where they don’t have live streaming avail- able,” says Brown. “It’s like companies that have decent mobile products; it’s just having that ex- tra little thing that gives them more information and a better experience.” While watching the outcome of the game is part of that experience, live “in-play” or “in-running” betting is perhaps a more important part of that experience for the operator. Live streams are accompanied by a host of live in-play markets, where bettors can bet on a game as it unfolds in front of them. Gone are the days when you missed your window of opportunity to place a bet once the game had begun. Now you can bet on the winner of the match at any point in the game, as well as a host of other outcomes. “There’s a massive trend towards in-running betting,” says Tony Kenny, head of internation- al and online PR at William Hill, which boasts about 1,200 live streaming events a month. “We now offer 100 markets in play, and 170 markets before every football match. The increase in turnover on sporting events, especially in foot- ball, has grown dramatically.” Live stream goes mainstream Research shows players like to bet on sports they can watch. And with live streaming on the Internet, online sportsbooks are bringing more sports to the people – and the people are making more bets. W Live stream goes mainstream