George Oborne, Managing Director of India Bet, said that cricket has the potential to become a ‘growth sport for betting’, particularly given the huge turnover in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and other Twenty20 competitions, the way it lends itself to in-play betting and its status as a relative minor in the UK betting market.
He was backed up by Todd Buckingham, CEO at Australia-based TopBetta, who also cited high recent growth for American sports in his country, as a result of more content, more betting markets and higher availability of matches.
Conall McSorley, Commercial Director at Metric Gaming, predicted that golf would start to attract a wider betting appeal with advancements in shot by shot markets. He referenced some specific examples from the Metric platform, where they offered markets for scores around Amen Corner at the US Masters, and ‘water or no water’ for golfers tackling the infamous 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass.
Finally, Michal Kopec, Senior Business Development Manager at Better Collective, acknowledged that providing emerging sports such as MMA could prove to be the most cost effective route into the betting market. The price of player acquisition continues to rise year on year, but there is less competition in non-mainstream sports, and therefore the potential to increase operators’ margins.
Buckingham, Oborne, McSorley and Kopec were talking on the ‘International appeal’ panel discussion at Betting on Sports 2016. The session was moderated by iGaming Performance director, Paul McNea.
