• How do esports bettors differ from traditional sports bettors in terms of the size of stakes they place, volume of bets, type of bets, etc?

Imagine if a vast majority of football bettors weren’t just watching matches religiously, but if they spent hours and hours playing football as well. That’s the reality of esports betting, there is almost a complete overlap between esports viewers and gamers, and for gamers, experience is everything. This translates into a different betting patterns than an average sports bettor. One of the key differences being esports betting having a smaller average bet size, but higher bet volume per bettor. With each market, the storytelling aspect is richer – it’s not just who scores a goal, it’s about the adventure, for example, who will kill the first Baron Nashor in a game of League of Legend.

• Why do they bet in this way? Are their motivations for betting different? If so, how?

The esports bettors are fully immersed in the game. Games offer high level of interaction and custom experiences and this is what they look for when it comes to betting on esports as well – so the more markets the operator is able to offer in a single betslip, the more they will improve the experience for bettors, and pragmatically speaking, increase the volume of bets per bettor. Rather than splitting money across several individual stakes, punters can roll their stakes on a match into a single bet, offering a greater return on a win. It’s important to offer bets on a personal level too – this means markets oriented on the player props – for instance, how many kills will Team Vitaly’s ZyWoo have? More than 10? More than 20?

• You recently launched a dedicated esports BetBuilder product. Can you tell us more about it?

Enriching the bettor experience is the prime reason we decided to launch esports BetBuilder. The product has been in use in sports betting, but when it comes to esports, it hadn’t been done before. Our clients have already integrated and seeing impressive initial results. We’re already in production offering real BetBuilder product. This means not simply multiplying the odds, but robust data models to ensure the best odds on the combination of the markets from the same matches. PandaScore being one of the few to offer esports BetBuilder gives our partners an advantage against their competitors – the possibility to bet on multiple markets within one map is hugely sought after in the esports betting community and now with PandaScore BetBuilder, they can already do that. Combibets, the simpler version of BetBuilder was already showing the power of combining multiple bets – with margins hitting double digits, but BetBuilder takes this opportunity to a next level – now punters can combine markets from the same esports matches. Want to guess the correct round score in Evil Geniuses VS Fluxo match, but also if HexT will have more than 17 kills, and of his teammate NeaLan will have less than 16.

• Does it help improve the viewing experience? How does it add to their entertainment value?

With more engaging betting opportunities available to punters through BetBuilder, operators can better engage with esports fans through the means that work best for them: becoming a value add embedded within the whole entertainment experience of watching professional esports. Payers can combine Player Props with other big markets, build a story of their own – for instance, who will win and who will get more kills than the other player. The storytelling opportunities are rich with BetBuilder. You might be fully invested and supporting one team but might want to bet that the player from the opposite team will have the most kills – this is possible with PandaScore BetBuilder. For example, there is a big anticipation around the semifinals of the League of Legends World Championship, where Chinese team, JD Gaming is going against the Korean T1. Not only that, the community is excited to see JD’s 369 versus Zeus, who plays for T1. With an esports dedicated BetBuilder, the operators can build a campaign around the story – offer the users a possibility to bet on JD’s win if they support the team, and in the same betslip, go for Zeus having more kills than 369, because they think the opposite team’s player will score more kills.

• Genius Sports and DraftKings strike multi-year sports data supplier agreement
• DraftKings will gain access to Genius Sports’ full portfolio of global sports data and content, including official NFL data and content 
• Genius Sports’ data-driven advertising tech to be used by DraftKings for customer acquisition and retention

Genius Sports Limited  announced a new supplier agreement with DraftKings Inc., a leading sports betting and gaming operator in the U.S., to provide its full range of official sportsbook data and content and fan engagement solutions, including a complete suite of NFL-related products.

The agreement with DraftKings signifies the international adoption of official sports data across the sports ecosystem. As part of the agreement, DraftKings will leverage Genius Sports’ unique technology to help power immersive and personalized live experiences for millions of fans. DraftKings will also gain access to Genius Sports’ proprietary, official data and live video feeds from over 170,000 events per year, including its official NFL data products, dynamic content and player acquisition and retention solutions.

In April 2021, DraftKings was selected as one of the NFL’s tri-exclusive official sports betting partners. In the same period, Genius Sports became the league’s exclusive distributor of real-time official play-by-play statistics, proprietary Next Gen Stats (NGS) data, and official sports betting data feed. DraftKings will also become one of the first betting operators to implement a full Genius Sports NFL offering, including NGS, that powers the full player lifecycle, from new acquisition to pre-and in-game engagement, as well as long-term retention.

With this collaboration, DraftKings will expand its official sports data portfolio, allowing customers access to secure, authorized, and official data from top-tier leagues beyond the NFL such as the English Premier League, Liga MX and NASCAR. Through these official live streams, DraftKings users will be able to wager on hundreds of new competitions, including Argentine and Colombian soccer, and the American Hockey League, further reinforcing the business’ position as a provider of world-leading live betting products.

As part of this partnership, DraftKings will also deploy BetBuilder, Genius Sports and Sportcast’s fully automated single-game parlay solution for the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB and major soccer competitions.

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“Our customers are at the forefront of all we do and we are always working to better their experience and our products,” said Ezra Kucharz, Chief Business Officer, DraftKings. “The mutually beneficial terms of this agreement allow us to leverage Genius’ technology for years to come. We are excited to expand on the capabilities of our products and provide new and exciting features for our customers like single-game parlays, while having confidence in the integrity of the data we utilize to fuel our offerings.”

“Being selected by DraftKings, one of the most prolific sportsbook brands in the U.S., is another historic achievement for Genius Sports,” said Mark Locke, CEO at Genius Sports. “This partnership reinforces our commitment to official sports data and demonstrates its intrinsic value in helping our sportsbook partners stand out from the competition. Our data, trading, streaming and marketing services deliver a complete set of sportsbook solutions that are backed by the largest leagues in world sports, including the NFL.”

“We have invested heavily to ensure that our official data is the fastest, richest and most accurate available, and are committed to continued innovation,” said Christopher Halpin, NFL Chief Strategy & Growth Officer. “With Genius, DraftKings and the NFL working together on official sports data, we will help create a highly engaging, secure and sustainable sports betting environment for fans to enjoy.”