How has AI Disrupted the Sports Betting Industry?

AI is probably going to change most industries in one way or another, but certain industries are already seeing significant changes, and the sports betting industry is definitely one of them. 

AI has already played a part—in some ways that are more obvious and others that people may not realize have happened—as it operates behind the scenes for a lot of companies, changing their processes. 

A lot of online sports bettors have already spotted some of these changes or, at the very least, explored the ways in which the industry could be about to change as a result of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Analysis of Data

One of the key ways that AI changes industries is by making it super simple for a huge amount of data to be processed, which means that there are more detailed analyses of some of the top events. 

Across all of the hundreds, or even thousands, of sporting leagues that sports betting sites cover, there is an awful lot of data. Not analyzing it properly has meant that there have been some pricing errors historically, but this is now less likely. It is probable that bookmakers will continue to use AI analysis to explore what is likely to happen in games and try to set more accurate odds. 

For example, if there is a player who is constantly known for having shots on target, and the data shows that this happens regularly when they play games, the odds on this market will drop. Rather than having somebody specifically go through this data as an individual and set the odds, AI can now do the job and allow better insight into the data.

Analysis can also go a lot further and explore things like individual player matchups. More data almost always results in potentially more accurate predictions on what is likely to happen, and this means both bookmakers and sports bettors are trying to get on top of data analysis as an important tool.

It comes as a surprise to nobody that data analysis is key to AI, and this means that there are a lot of companies looking to evolve and grow their technologies, with plenty of funding going into this industry, too. 

Support

Something that people may have already seen a lot of is AI chatbots replacing support or providing different ways to access support. Historically, this may have been a bit frustrating, especially if they weren’t very good at providing the right answers.

AI chatbot technology is growing massively, though, and this means that there are a lot of sites now embracing this as a different way of doing things, instead of having humans on the other end of the line. 

Support services may redirect players to a knowledge base, or they may be a bit smarter than this and provide specific answers to queries. 

There is almost always a need for people to talk to humans somewhere along the line, but plenty of problems can potentially be solved by just using a chatbot that can give specific answers to a human’s question. 

Think of the way the giant language models like ChatGPT, or “Generative Pre-Trained Transformer”, work. There are now similar options for people who are looking to use this to provide support for players, and a lot of them have a superb level of detail on offer. Customers won’t be driven away by this as long as they are getting the support they actually want. And by using support chatbots, people are able to get the help they need without having to wait a long time for somebody to be available.

Personalization for Players

The role of personalization is another that we’re seeing already in a lot of gambling brands. AI makes it easier for these brands to offer individual, personalized promotions or even markets for players. 

The days of having to go with a “one size fits all” approach to gambling customers is gone, and people will find they are getting much more specific promotions due to the information that bookmakers have, and their models that can predict the most interesting aspects for players. A site is more likely to offer promotions related to a sport that somebody already bets on, for example. They may also be able to send specific emails and marketing materials to that person, or offers based on the events they tend to gamble on. 

Personalization can extend further than this. Algorithms on sites can help marketers provide a specific layout, for example, so people can access the specific markets they want much more quickly.

The gambling industry is one of a few that has really led the way in this respect as there have been personalization developments based on customer data and how they interact with sites. We’ve seen this in retail, for instance, and e-commerce, where people receive personalized promotions and emails based on the types of products they browse or what they have bought in the past. AI is clever enough to be able to predict certain behaviors and this can include personalizing offers and more. If you’ve ever got an email and wondered how it is so specific, and tailored to you, there’s a good chance that AI has been used, along with a form of customer profiling. 

Potentially Offering More Markets

This is something we’re not seeing a lot of yet, but it is possible that as time goes on, all of the data analysis will make it easier to offer markets on more leagues. For example, at the moment, some leagues may be excluded from player bets as there isn’t necessarily enough data and detail for the bookmakers to offer these markets with confidence. 

As time goes on, we definitely expect AI to have more of an impact here. AI models may be able to analyze lower-league fixtures at the same level as Premier League games or other global sporting events, which means that there will be more chances for bookmakers to confidently offer markets as they’ll know more about the players and what is likely to unfold in the game. 

Customers and gambling companies alike always want to provide more potential markets. It is their equivalent of furthering their product range!

Conclusion

AI has already come into a lot of industries and caused a lot of change and disruption, and plenty of people are very positive about the impact it has had on the gambling industry and the experience for both customers and gambling sites. For example, it has made data a much more accessible part of the process and made it easier for both the customers and the gambling sites to do more research. 

Personalization and promotions that are specific to an individual are also a big part of how the gambling industry works and how it is looking to be more appealing in its advertising. Both new and existing customers may be targeted with AI-driven ads and information that can tempt them to sign up for an account or engage with a bookmaker’s site in some other way. The AI revolution is well underway.