AI to help personalize sports betting

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to help bring the algorithm-driven personalization that consumers are accustomed to on e-commerce and social media platforms to the world of sports betting.

SharpLink Gaming, a start-up that specializes in tech solutions for internet betting, is developing an AI-powered personalization and recommendation engine called BetSense that aims to use machine learning to tailor sports betting experiences based on the interests and preferences of individual users. 

"When you hear about AI being applied to sports, everyone agrees sports is behind," SharpLink co-founder and CEO Rob Phythian told FOX Business. "It’s not like Netflix or your financial stuff, it’s very transactional. So everybody agrees with that. But to solve this problem it’s a really big build and integration, and the integration part is the hardest." 

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Phythian said that BetSense is in a testing phase with sportsbook SaharaBets with more clients to be an eye toward a bigger rollout for March Madness. He said that the biggest challenge to integrating AI-powered into sports betting platforms is that "a lot of the sportsbooks are sitting on legacy European tech that’s really not that flexible."

Phythian explained that BetSense uses information gleaned from a bettor’s personal account management (PAM) system to personalize betting offers and provide content to bettors.

"It has a sense of what you like, and we surface that integrated into the UI/UX of your mobile experience at SaharaBets or wherever you’re at," he said. "We’ve got some content, some interaction with the weather or injuries… We know your appetite for betting so we can tailor an offer."

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"Let’s say I get some good data on your betting behavior from the PAM and I understand you like the New York Giants, you’re a $50 player, you’re a parlay guy and you like fantasy player props – whatever it is – I build a persona," he explained. 

"Well then when you log in to the book, it’s not just transactional… Guess what, the Giants are playing tonight, there’s a special on a parlay bet and you can get it two-for-one or whatever, and we use AI to do some articles on the Giants and pulling some data on the lines," which Phythian said will help retain users on the platform.

The opportunity Phythian sees with integrating AI to personalize sports betting platforms is to help increase time spent on the platform by pulling in data and generating relevant content for individual users to interact with before or after they place a bet. 

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He said that in researching other industries, the lift from personalization "is around 20%" and noted "the younger generation is demanding personalization, frankly," so the sports betting industry is lagging.

o"I believe that the sportsbooks have now turned inwardly to retention," he said. "They’ve spent to acquire customers and now they want to retain and them and this is a big piece of it."