In The Forest

What is In The Forest?

For all the hoopla surrounding prediction markets and expectations that the industry will eat away at sportsbooks’ NFL handle this season, the old guard industry is expected to control nearly 80% of pro football wagers this year.

Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (EKG) estimates that bettors will plunk down $40.5 billion on the NFL this season through regulated channels. Traditional sportsbooks are projected to capture $31.7 billion of that total, compared to a handle analog of $8.4 billion for prediction markets—a 79% to 21% split in favor of legacy operators.

Handle analog is a metric used as a cleaner comparison between sportsbooks and prediction markets because the latter’s volume doesn’t compare evenly with sportsbook handle.

How to play In The Forest

For Kambi, data must be combined with the knowledge of experienced traders who can direct the technology, scrutinise its output and identify where it can add value next.

“You don’t have to search high and low in this industry to find companies talking up the benefits of AI,” Lamb adds. “Realising them requires a combination of deep data and human expertise not everyone has access to, and there is no shortcut to acquiring.”

The World Cup proved Kambi’s AI could perform under the greatest pressure sports betting can provide. The next task is to turn that tournament performance into new, increasingly on-demand experiences for its partners and their customers.

How to play In The Forest

“Unregulated is not illegal,” he asserted. “We will continue to support those markets that we believe over time will become regulated.

“Our investment is going into regulated markets, and yes over time we will likely consider pulling out of certain markets. I think Playtech has done a very good job, [regulated revenues] are more than 85%.”

Meanwhile its B2C revenue, which took a significant hit last year as it offloaded the majority of its B2C operations, including Snaitech and Happy Bet, declined 22% to €32 million.