SPORTING SOLUTIONS
SPONSORED EDITORIAL
SPORTS BETTING FOCUS
Don’t take your eye off the
ball during the World Cup
Simon Trim, managing director of
Sporting Solutions, the market leading
B2B software and data services
provider, explains how sportsbooks
need to manage their resources during
next summer’s World Cup to make sure
they don’t neglect other sports
T
he World Cup is going to be the biggest betting event of all
time. The kick-off times are attractive to a European customer
base, with games scheduled at 5pm, 8pm and 11pm BST, and
we estimate that England qualifying will boost turnover by roughly
30%. It is a huge opportunity for sportsbooks of all sizes, but also one
of the toughest challenges.
Smaller operators need to throw everything at the tournament
just to try to compete with the big boys, while the larger operators
will also be investing heavily to try to outperform their competitors.
Resources will become increasingly stretched as the tournament
nears and sportsbooks will require assistance to make sure they are
not missing out on other opportunities while their focus is on the
World Cup.
The growth in the number of betting markets across an ever
increasing range of sports has been quite staggering in recent
years, especially in-play. For many operators there has had to be a
significant change in the way that they run their businesses to deal
with such a product-led expansion. In particular, many no longer try
and undertake everything themselves and increasingly outsource
large areas of their trading functions.
Sporting Solutions is the undisputed market leader when it comes
Simon Trim is managing director of Sporting
Solutions. He began his career at William Hill
before moving to Ladbrokes. He first joined
the Sporting Index Group in 1998 and, after a
succession of trading roles, was made trading
director in 2006. He became managing director
of Sporting Solutions in October 2011.
www.egrmagazine.com
to the provision of quality pricing and trading services. The smaller
sportsbooks need to compete on the core World Cup football
business – something that Sporting Solutions offers, specialising in
growth areas like player markets and specials such as bookings and
corners – and although the bigger firms will have the World Cup
covered internally, they will need expertise on other sports with the
majority of their resources tied up. They can’t afford to miss out on
the England versus India Test series, Wimbledon and Royal Ascot,
and this is where Sporting Solutions can help.
Although it’s not really the case anymore, big events like the
World Cup and European Championships were traditionally when
sharper punters used to step in on other sports because they knew
the majority of the trading team was focused on football. Those
days are gone, but it still underlines the importance of quality
pricing during the busiest periods, or firms run the risk of getting
picked off by shrewder customers.
In recent years many companies have shed their trading expertise
and copied the market price in an attempt to reduce costs. This
'spray and pray' approach is not only flawed but unsustainable
as the subsequent commodity pricing has led to margin erosion
as firms aim to guarantee a profit rather than maximise it. The
inevitable introduction of point of consumption tax in the UK is only
going to make matters worse for these operators and they need to
act quickly or face the consequences.
Pricing, trading and modelling excellence has always been the
cornerstone of Sporting Solutions’ business. Our investment in
market-leading models means we are able to offer our partners the
widest coverage and the deepest set of markets, while maintaining
and enhancing their yield; the importance of which can’t be
overestimated during a World Cup summer.
Furthermore, this September we launched the Trading School
of Excellence, a first of its kind collaboration with the University
of Salford. The po stgraduate course enhances the professional
development of our traders and will maintain the reputation that
Sporting Solutions has for employing the highest quality traders
in the industry.
With just over six months to go until the start of the biggest
betting event on the planet there is no need to panic. Sporting
Solutions is best placed to assist with the core World Cup business
for those that need it, as well as managing the other summer sports
for the bigger operators, giving them the opportunity to focus fully
on making Brazil as successful and profitable as possible.
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