SofaScore: The increased desire for data and statistics

As the way that sports betting is consumed by punters continues to change, Zlatko Hrkac, co-founder at SofaScore, believes that the modern fan now requires an app that is more than just scores.

Hrkac claimed that with betting operators now offering markets on specific player and team statistics, the trend of football fans wanting in depth detailed data about the game is ‘more than obvious’.

He added: “One might say we’re witnessing a revolution in recent years in how football is consumed. Placing a wager is a serious thing and fans want to be empowered by cold facts, rather than relying on hunches. In this sense, football industry is following the steps of American sports that have brought match analysis to a scientific level.”

Detailing what the modern bettor wants to know prior to partaking in a bet, Hrkac commented: “We are not talking just about straightforward stats about home win percentage, number of goals from corners and similar, but a detailed breakdown that could give a football fan the edge when placing a bet or selecting a team for his fantasy league.”

Hrkac went onto emphasise just how the data provided by SofaScore is adapting to satisfy the continually evolving needs of football fans and punters: “SofaScore have received hundreds of requests for new features over the last couple of years, ranging from weather influence on the performance from a certain team to developing a system for predicting player’s performance.”    

The increased number of markets available explains why there is now a widespread desire for increased data about the game. Unlike many affiliates, SofaScore offers punters a wide range of markets because for a punter, as Hrkac states, ‘the market you have the least influence over is the final outcome market, thus, we’re circling back to stats’.

He added that: “If you know that a team plays very physically, picking up several cards every game, it might be appealing to bet on the number of cards in the game. Similarly, if they play gung ho, both to score might be the way to go. Placing a bet on these kind of markets is extremely popular with live betting as you can win your bet very early in the game, and place another wager, not needing to wait out the whole 90 minutes.

“It’s important to add that stats are not important just for the teams, but also for the referees as some show more cards than the others. Having all this information in one place is therefore extremely important and we believe it’s one of the reasons our users keep coming back to SofaScore.”  

An added element that SofaScore uses to appeal to the modern football bettor is the use of social interaction by allowing each consumer to tip results for each game. “It was intended as an engagement feature, but has grown over time,” said Hrkac.

“Users feel like they are competing among each other and it is always the question of who will get the better odds or make the bigger ROI. Many of the users use this feature to voice their support for their team, no matter who they are playing against, whilst others use it as venting tool when they don’t place actual bets.”