Back in 2013, data specialist STATSCORE introduced key sports widgets PrematchPro and LivematchPro to deliver pre-game insights and live match data to drive online projects and boost the shop experience for self-service betting terminal (SSBT) users.
More recently, the company has worked on a “major refreshment” for these products to ensure that turnover for its partners, which includes the likes of BGT and Ladbrokes, is “riding an upward wave”.
We caught up with Jakub Myszkorowski, STATSCORE Chief Commercial Officer, to find out more.
SBC: Hi Jakub. Easy one first up – what are PrematchPro and LivematchPro?
JM: Long story short – these are our key sport widgets built mainly for betting online projects. The first one is aimed at delivering the pregame insights. Starting with information about an event, it moves on to the standings for any league or competition, recent results, head to head, key stats, squads and the Twitter accounts of the competitors.
This combination provides all the action and news in one place. The idea behind this product is to make sure that pre-match betting is inspired and supported with the right information delivered in the right place and at the right time.
LivematchPro also brings tons of valuable data but served with all the live action as games progress. The heart of this product is a live sports tracker that consists of a representation of where the event is taking place e.g. soccer pitch, race track or even ice rink.
This means we can recreate all the action with a dedicated set of great visualisations, as well as tracking the ball, puck or even car where applicable.
SBC: How does this ball tracking feature actually work?
JM: The idea here is simple. Scouts use STATSCORE special panel to indicate where the ball actually goes. By clicking into the certain part of the pitch they not only show where the action takes place, but they also automatically generate the info about the attacks and so called dangerous attacks (those where the ball is close to the scoring zone).
SBC: If you were to name just one feature (besides the ball tracking) that stands out STATSCORE widgets from the competitors, what would it be?
JM: If you just want one feature, then we can go for the animations for the live incidents. We spent some time on analysing, how to replace the experience of watching the game from the stands or in TV for the final users of the live trackers. At the end of the day, if they do not remain focused and if their interest in the event they follow drops, there is a huge risk that they will stop placing bets and leave.
This is certainly something we wanted to avoid, so we came up with unique set of animations for each of the 16 sports that we deliver live in LivematchPro. Whenever something important happens during a match, we can inform about it immediately with a special graphical notification.
SBC: And how are they used by the clients?
JM: At this stage, the majority of our partners come from the betting market. They use both PrematchPro and LivematchPro to engage more people to bet actively before the sports’ events starts and once they are in progress. Thanks to the mapping procedures on STATSCORE side, we can easily integrate our widgets with their odds no matter who the provider.
We have also recognized recently a rising interest from the media sector. More sport websites tend to add live trackers to deliver their readers a better experience over the old format, which was mainly based on the pure text info about the incidents from the games.
Internet is more and more all about securing an immediate intense sports’ event experience. If you do not succeed here, then your viewers move further to find what they are looking for somewhere else and they may never come back.
SBC: What are the recent changes introduced for terminals?
JM: A refreshment for both has been offered to make the betting shop experience even better and to help ensure that our partners’ turnover is riding an upward wave.
More intuitive display was the motto behind this. First things first, a decision was made to introduce extended standings for PrematchPro. This feature allows users to see the whole table without the need for scrolling down.
Head to head game results were moved and placed just above the list of recent matches. So you can now build a better picture of what the competing teams are capable of.
At the top of the widget, you will now find a summary of all the key information, plus the team comparison. Both widgets now show the redesigned kits (or helmets, when it comes to American Football) for the competitors.
SBC: What makes the betting experience different on these terminals?
JM: Basically, the big screen allows to focus comfortably on a chosen event and make the betting decisions more easily. SSBTs have been created to secure a better gambling experience for those that still prefer to play in the stationary kiosks rather than stay home on their sofas.
These users can therefore combine the best practices of individual screen experience from the home surroundings with the joy of using a big and comfortable display tool.