SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
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 eighth edition looks at August and more specifically at how operators focused on payments can provide the best experience, the threats faced by betting businesses, the next step for US sports betting and the need for scouts in stadiums.
EPG: Why working with exemptions could offset SCA setbacks
Businesses operating in a “tricky industry such as gaming” could see conversion rates significantly drop once Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is enforced next month, but it is not all doom and gloom writes Christian Diegelmann, CEO of Euro Payment Group (EPG) in Frankfurt and Malta.
Here, he provides a quick rundown of the revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) and associated SCA measures, before explaining why the successful handling of Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) exemptions will become a key component for an operator focused on providing the best payments experience for its customers.
The revised PSD2 was published in November 2015, entered into force on 13 January 2016 and applied since 13 January 2018. The Directive brought fundamental changes to the payments market in the EU, in particular by requiring SCA to be applied by payment service providers (PSPs) when carrying out remote electronic transactions.
In its fulfilment of PSD2, Article 98(1) mandated the European Banking Authority (EBA) to develop RTS for SCA, which were published on 13 March 2018 and will apply as of 14 September 2019.
Be there or be square: 3 key threats to your betting business
The future is not now. There are so many factors that influence the success of a betting website. So how can you plan ahead?
Jakub Myszkorowski, Chief Commercial Officer at STATSCORE, takes us through three main threats that should not be left ‘uncared’ for, before highlighting a couple of solutions to keep you in the game.
How big is the online betting market? Well, let’s just say that the UK is believed to have an active betting group of over 20 million players. Quite a lot, you could say. But now take into account that not all of them will choose online gambling as their first choice.
Some are the traditional old folks who prefer to go to the betting shops for the human touch or – for a more modern day punter – play on the Self-Service Betting Terminals (SSBTs).
Martin Lycka: Supreme Court’s (sports betting) punt return and beyond
It is 14 May 14 2018, which may be the US football offseason, yet the sights of the whole gambling industry are on a nine-bodied punt returner called the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Will the most honourable punt returner catch the ball thumped many moons ago by the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act’s punter?
The ball has been hanging in the air for what feels like a lifetime (well, 26 years to be precise) and then the ball is caught, and the punt returner is off. The first few gunners are left in the dust of the Capitol Hill pitch; but the long uphill return is stopped just yards short of the Capitol building (firmly in the state by state regulation territory). The first play has been successful but many more are yet to come.
14 May 2018 is the day when the modern area of US sports betting regulation was born. Since then ten US states have regulated and launched their sports betting markets – the Trailblazing Ten are Nevada (“grandfathered” into the new regulatory world), New Jersey, Delaware, West Virginia, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Arkansas and New York.
Live or latent? Why scouts need to be in the stadiums
Data from live scouts is the fuel that powers the sports betting business says Jakub Myszkorowski, Chief Commercial Officer at STATSCORE. Yet, while different levels of latency might have been accepted in years gone by, the need for the fastest and most reliable data – particularly to meet the demand for in-play wagering – means that all live scouts need to be moved to the stadiums.
What does live scouting mean? Basically, it is gathering incidents from the events as they happen and tagging them properly. For some of the incidents it is clear and obvious – eg. a goal scored would be normally counted and tagged the same way by everyone who follows the game. But the more detailed you want to get, the more interpretational problems you face.
Let’s take passing in football as an example. We can divide passes by their aim – they can go forward, backwards and sideways. So far, no complaints or differences. Besides some anomalies, we can also agree upon their trajectory. Yet, when it comes to dividing passes by length, the crazy game starts.
