Industry predictions: Women’s sport becomes ‘sport’ and more governments embrace crypto

Nick Cockerill, VP product, Stats Perform

FIFA’s Christmas World Cup will smash audience and innovation barriers

In an end-of-year party like never before, the world’s most popular sport is set to spread further in 2022 with major new regulated betting territories like Canada and the US in a position to qualify. Legal sports betting being available in these countries will provide a major shot in the arm for football’s popularity.

Media coverage of granular statistics like shots, passes and tackles that engaged fans during the Euros with every player will further fuel football’s player props revolution. Highly entertaining betting games like Ladbrokes’ 5-A-Side and BetVictor’s match-long Player Stats Totals markets will likely be taken to even greater heights, providing entertainment for every game even when their home nation has been eliminated.

Use and adoption of analytics like expected goals (xG) will bleed further into the in-play broadcast experience and less established metrics such as expected assists, possession value, sequences and win probability will help explain the action in much deeper ways, helping fuel further interest in the beautiful game.

Women’s sport becomes known as ‘sport’

2021 was the year where detailed and meaningful sports data in women’s sport made big leaps. Women sports stars exploded into the public’s consciousness when 18-year-old Emma Raducanu shocked the world with a stunning US Open victory, and Fallon Sherrock continues to break all women’s records in darts. In a major signalling of intent, DAZN and YouTube assembled the biggest on-air team ever to bring the UEFA Women’s Champions League to fans worldwide.

With an already record-breaking UEFA Women’s Euro 2022, Women’s Cricket and Rugby World Cups and the Women’s World Cup Qualifiers in 2023 on the horizon, there’s plenty to get excited about. Even before this feast of women’s sport, we had seen record engagement for women’s sport content through our Twitter channel during 2021.

Wider availability of women’s sport in the mainstream media and betting interest go hand in hand. With more data and insights available, we expect this to continue growing.

Sportsbooks will correct the bettor “information gap”

Over 90% of the millions of odds in a typical digital sportsbook lack any information for bettors, beyond the prices. Bettors worldwide have to hunt elsewhere for insight, if it exists, or are otherwise betting ‘blind’ into those markets. This is particularly true for bet-builders, player props, in-play and long tail leagues/sports.

Sportsbook UX/UI rivals other e-commerce and digital products in many areas, but I’m sure Amazon never lacked product descriptions or Netflix a fine-tuned way of choosing between its 500 new Christmas movies. More informed bettors will result in richer, more entertaining betting experiences that customers enjoy more. 2022 should be the year the sports betting experience catches up.

Mladen Vuckovic, CEO at Stake.com

Wider acceptance of cryptocurrencies

I predict that in 2022 we’ll see a wider acceptance of cryptocurrencies across different licensing regimes. Malta missed out on some potential growth by taking so long to allow crypto payments and I can’t see other jurisdictions moving as slowly as them, therefore missing out on being able to cater for the growth in customer demand which is certain to increase exponentially this year.

In short, more governments are going to start to embrace crypto, which in turn means a greater market in terms of the number of potential customers who may wish to use crypto for betting and gaming purposes. It’s no surprise that the major coins like bitcoin and ethereum look set to dominate the world of crypto betting, but I suggest it’s worth watching out for coins like litecoin which is booming in popularity with betting customers.

Another related hot topic in 2022 will be NFTs. We haven’t made our move just yet, as we’re waiting to understand how the tokens would improve the customer experience, but expect crypto gaming and in turn traditional operators to embrace the technology this year.

Blockchain: a force to be reckoned with

Governments are spending billions of dollars regulating gambling and will continue to do so next year. There are solutions born out of the crypto world that can reduce this cost significantly in 2022. Making use of blockchain and provably fair technology ensures that any customer or operator can verify games are fair, while it would make sense for more jurisdictions to get on board with this way of working as they come to realise the new technology can ensure customers are safer which is the priority, while also saving on the cost of compliance.

I also predict that blockchain technology can become a major force in improving the KYC and customer onboarding process which will give operators an opportunity to instantly verify players, therefore streamlining the entire process for both customers and operators. Traditional betting operators paid increasingly more attention to what was successful in crypto in 2021 and that should increase also, with a special focus on the social features, community element and unique approach to games.

DraftKings’ rocket casino game is an adaptation of a popular crypto crash game and I can see the traditional sector continuing to be inspired by what’s trending in the crypto world as the sector makes strides in disrupting and challenging the classic idea of gambling products that have been around for centuries.

Cryptogaming to establish more sponsorship deals

Finally, in 2022 expect to see cryptogaming step up its sponsorship activity around the world, forming partnerships with like-minded and progressive parties who appreciate the huge benefit to their own brands and audience development, thanks to the scale of the crypto audience and potential for livestreaming.

All of this and more coming to fruition as crypto marches onwards in 2022 also means that I am confident we’ll only be 12 months or so away from crypto betting volumes overtaking traditional fiat currency volumes entirely.