Abelson Sports
The evolution of prediction markets
As prediction markets evolve from niche forecasting tools into a multibillion-dollar mainstream asset class, the boundary between trading and high-volume iGaming infrastructure is rapidly dissolving. This Q&A feature w/ Jeevan Jeyaratnam, Chief Betting Officer at Abelson Sports examines whether prediction platforms can sustain their exponential growth independently, or if their long-term survival depends on adopting rigorous compliance, product proposition and geolocation standards of the established iGaming supply chain.
Are prediction markets a threat to the existing sports betting industry in the US and beyond, or can both coexist peacefully and profitably?
The answer to that question very much depends on where in the world you are. If I live in Birmingham, Alabama then prediction markets (PMs) are my only legal route to placing any kind of sportsbook wager. If I live in Birmingham, England then prediction markets (or as the Europeans understand them, betting exchanges) are very much playing second fiddle to the currently available, advanced sportsbook apps.
At present, prediction markets and legal sports betting firms, in the US, are operating on an uneven playing ground. Sportsbooks are state-regulated entities with tightly enforced rules, high tax rates and limited geographical scope. Prediction markets – in my opinion, because of their connection to the federal government’s coffers – have been given almost carte blanche to operate across state lines with no consideration for state legislative independence.
Governed by the federally controlled Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), prediction markets are able to offer sports contracts as well as other financial products to players in California, Georgia, New York and Texas. Sportsbooks, using this four-state example, can only offer sports betting opportunities to those in New York and that comes with a hefty 51% tax rate. The disparity here is stark and it is no wonder that investors and financiers believe that Predictions Markets have an opportunity to outperform sports betting operators. The problem of quite how PMs can fully monetise the product is beginning to be resolved with commission fees now being charged. How PMs can keep customers engaged is another concern, as there will be very few recreational winners from the pool of sharps that are seeding and trading these markets.
Given the current regulatory landscape, how can providers help platforms navigate the legal minefield of jurisdictions?
There’s a certain frontier spirit, certainly in the USA, around PMs at the moment. Platforms seem to be navigating with a “do it and apologise later” attitude, which has led to several high-profile lawsuits. Depending on where you look, the PMs or CFTC are either suing the state or vice versa.
It is a mess and as Congresswomen Dina Titus (D-NV) pointed out in an open letter recently, “Equally concerning is the allocation of agency resources to support this expanding litigation campaign.” Her point being that the CFTC is significantly understaffed and under resourced and that its efforts to support “multi-state litigation threatens to undermine the agency’s ability to fulfil its primary mandate.”
More recently, it would seem that the two biggest names, Kalshi and Polymarket, have decided that public slanging matches, where accusations around facilitating nefarious characters and criminal enterprises to trade on their platforms, fly either way.
This is hardly the type of behaviour anyone would expect from two companies operating within the auspices of the CFTC.
Until the situation settles and given the widespread support at federal level, it’s hard to imagine either of the two main players needing to take too much advice from others.
Following recent high-profile controversies around insider trading on prediction platforms, what sportsbook-grade KYC and behavioural monitoring tools are most effective at detecting the misuse of information?
One of the big concerns, currently not adequately addressed, revolves around KYC. Kalshi, for example, by way of its regulated status with the CFTC, has a strict KYC and AML code and a clear list of prohibited territories on its site.
Polymarket, on the other hand, is a crypto-native decentralised operator and as such has far fewer hurdles to jump as regards KYC. The USA site is now covered by CFTC regulation and is considered separate to the international version, which doesn’t require mandatory ID requirements to set up an account. This has led to significant and justified concerns over insider trading and AML. There are a number of tried and tested solutions that betting operators are required to use, but the same will also be true for PMs and the specific set of requirements they need to fulfil. For the sportsbooks that are also launching PMs, it would make synergistic sense for them utilise the same tools they have for the sportsbook.
What sort of retention strategies can be borrowed from the betting sector to increase engagement for prediction market operators?
The biggest hurdle for PMs is how they handle the inevitable churn as recreational players realise that they are consistently losing money to the big trading houses and sharp market makers. Only a fraction of customers can win and a small concentration of sharp clients will mop up pools, especially in sports contracts.
In other political or business markets there will be individuals or syndicates operating with the benefit of insider knowledge. Currently, the PMs product isn’t comparable in entertainment value to that of the sportsbooks. No concessions, no bonuses or many of the entertainment value add-ons that sportsbooks have adopted.
PMs have provided means for many who otherwise would have to use offshore books to experience wagering and they have done this at a very low transactional cost to the end user. That model will need to change if these firms are to meet their lofty valuations, but how they do that, while convincing customers that they can beat the sharps remains to be seen.
The post The evolution of prediction markets appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
Abelson Sports
Abelson Sports adds Odds Composer basketball player props to operator feed
Deal targets expanded European basketball player prop coverage delivered via Abelson’s existing feed format.
Abelson Sports has partnered with Odds Composer to distribute Odds Composer’s proprietary basketball player prop markets to Abelson’s operator partners via the Abelson feed format.
Under the agreement, Odds Composer’s coverage of professional leagues worldwide will be made available through Abelson’s established integration framework. The companies said the primary focus will be player props for European basketball, which they described as a growth area for operators.
Abelson said the integration is designed to minimise development work for sportsbook partners and speed up deployment of additional basketball player markets. Odds Composer said it develops its stack in-house, including data modelling and trading.
Jeevan Jeyaratnam, Chief Betting Officer at Abelson Sports, said: “We are delighted to welcome Odds Composer as a third-party partner. Their focus on the quality and depth of basketball player props is impressive, and they have built a solution that specifically addresses the gaps in the current market.
“While US basketball is already well-served by operators, we have seen significant interest from our partners for more comprehensive European basketball coverage. Odds Composer’s in-house modelling and trading expertise make them the perfect fit to help our clients drive new revenue streams in this area.”
Kevin Liivamägi, CEO and Co-Founder at Odds Composer, said: “Partnering with Abelson Sports provides the ideal platform to scale our basketball solutions. Our mission has always been to provide operators with the flexibility and speed they need to stand out in a crowded market.
“By leveraging Abelson’s trusted network and established feed format, we can ensure our high-quality player prop markets are instantly accessible to leading sportsbooks, helping them to expand their reach worldwide.”
The post Abelson Sports adds Odds Composer basketball player props to operator feed appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Abelson Sports
Abelson Sports Expands Football Offering with Exclusive Liga MX Femenil Coverage
Abelson Sports, a leading sports betting data provider, has expanded its women’s football portfolio with the addition of Liga MX Femenil coverage, becoming the only supplier to offer dedicated goalscorer markets for the competition.
Under the rollout, Abelson Sports will introduce pre-match goalscorer pricing for the closing stages of the 2025/26 Clausura season, before delivering full coverage throughout the playoffs.
The supplier will then provide comprehensive, game-by-game coverage from the start of the 2026/27 Apertura campaign, scheduled to begin in July.
The move comes as Liga MX Femenil continues to experience rapid growth, not only within Mexico but across the wider Americas. With favourable kick-off times and wide availability of broadcast content, the competition is becoming an increasingly attractive proposition for operators targeting audiences in the region and beyond.
Established in 2017, the league has benefitted from a unique structure that has accelerated its development. Following an agreement in 2016, the majority of clubs competing in Liga MX were required to field women’s teams, enabling Liga MX Femenil sides to build on existing fanbases and strengthen engagement from the outset.
Abelson Sports is currently the only supplier offering dedicated goalscorer markets for the competition, further enhancing its position as a market leader in women’s football betting data.
The addition of Liga MX Femenil builds on an already extensive portfolio that includes the National Women’s Soccer League, Women’s Super League, UEFA Women’s Champions League, as well as major international tournaments such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the UEFA Women’s Euro.
Jeevan Jeyaratnam, Chief Betting Officer at Abelson Sports, said: “It is a great achievement to add Liga MX Femenil to our growing women’s football offering. The league has seen impressive growth in recent years, supported by strong domestic foundations and increasing international visibility.
“By introducing goalscorer pricing for this competition, we are continuing to lead the way in providing our partners with the tools they need to engage audiences and capitalise on the growing demand for women’s football betting markets.”
The post Abelson Sports Expands Football Offering with Exclusive Liga MX Femenil Coverage appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
Abelson Sports
The fragmented sports broadcast landscape: Why accuracy is everything
Reading Time: 3 minutes
For better or worse, the modern sports fan has never had more ways to watch their favourite events.
From traditional TV broadcasts to regional streaming platforms, geo-blocked services, and pop-up channels, the landscape has become a complex mosaic that is extremely tricky to get a firm handle on.
While abundance offers choice, it presents a significant challenge for industry stakeholders – particularly sports betting content sites – who rely on pinpoint accuracy to maintain user trust and integrity.
Maintaining a clear, accurate, and consistent view of which broadcast partner is showing what, where and when, is not only difficult; it’s a mission-critical, full-time operation. This is precisely the problem the Televised & Streamed Sports (TSS) service is able to solve.
Piecing together a global puzzle
The core issue here is fragmentation. What was once a relatively simple matter of listing a game being shown on a major channel has spiralled into an intricate jigsaw puzzle in every corner of the world. A single high-profile match might be split across multiple broadcasters, even within one territory. Streaming giants like Amazon Prime might secure a selection of specific games, while other fixtures in the same competition remain on traditional pay TV.
This issue is compounded by a series of factors:
Regional rights: The same competition is often broadcast on completely different networks in different countries. A game on DAZN UK is not necessarily on every other global DAZN feed.
Tailored needs: Clients now require listings far into the future for forward scheduling, or hyper-specific coverage tailored only to one sport from one regional competition.
The rise of niche platforms: Even non-traditional players like YouTube and social media platforms are buying up niche or partial rights, adding moving parts to an already complicated system.
For an affiliate site to manually source and verify every data point across various regions and platforms would require a major, continuous investment in human capital and infrastructure. It’s a burden that few can realistically sustain to guarantee real-time accuracy while retaining operational efficiencies.
Accuracy as the foundation of trust
For any partner, going from a large betting operator to a content-focused platform like FANZO or OneFootball, accuracy is the absolute, non-negotiable foundation of their product integrity proposition. Users reasonably expect to know exactly where and how to watch a live event, and they expect that information to be correct every single time.
If a content site provides a single incorrect listing or misses a crucial stream, it directly damages its credibility and erodes user trust, which is the lifeblood of any competitive industry. Precision is paramount. This commitment to accuracy is why we have evolved the TSS solution from a basic broadcast listings tool into a comprehensive global data service.
Vigorous verification is essential. Every piece of data at TSS goes through a rigorous confirmation process, combining manual data collection from multiple official sources with expert oversight and extended validation checks. Real-time alerts within the TSS system allow our specialist team members, each with expertise in specific regions, to quickly identify and resolve broadcast changes – which might include postponements, channel swaps or late announcements of coverage – as they happen.
By accessing a client’s API, TSS can map events directly to their own event IDs, ensuring all data aligns perfectly with internal systems, thus dramatically reducing the need for time-consuming reconciliation.
Localisation is key
While sport is global, broadcasting is inherently local. An accurate data solution must be designed with this in mind. TSS localises its service for every region we cover, ensuring that listings, providers, and content are tailored to the local audience and rights holders.
This means accounting for regional broadcasters, in terms of knowing which channel has the specific rights in the UK, Italy, or Brazil, for example. It also means ensuring that start times are correct for the end-user’s geography, and adopting local naming conventions, ensuring instant recognition of a competition in that market.
It’s also crucial to offer a layer of flexibility. We work with clients to fulfil specific, ad-hoc channel requests based on their unique commercial deals with broadcasters. This ensures their end-users see the content advertised on the channels relevant to that specific partnership, all while remaining true to the underlying, verified broadcast reality. This localisation and flexibility layer makes TSS feel completely native in every market it serves, from Europe and South America to Australia and New Zealand.
Easing the burden
Without a dedicated product like TSS, clients would face major, resource-intensive challenges in sourcing, verifying, and standardising their own data. They would be forced to conduct weekly, or even daily, checks on fragmented global rights, a task that has become logistically nightmarish.
The TSS solution removes this enormous burden. By gathering verified data from trusted sources across thousands of broadcasts annually and delivering it in a consistent, easy-to-integrate format, it provides our clients with a single source of truth in an increasingly fragmented environment. In essence, Abelson Sports turns what would otherwise be a constant risk of data inaccuracy and user churn into a clear, reliable, and scalable competitive advantage.
By: Brad Gonsalves, Head of Televised & Streamed Sports (TSS) at Abelson Sports
The post The fragmented sports broadcast landscape: Why accuracy is everything appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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