App testing report: Bet365 comes out on top for US in-play processing times

Bet365 has been found to be the fastest sportsbook app for in-play bet processing in the US by boutique research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming (EKG).

According to EKG’s latest proprietary user testing, bet365 topped a list of 15 operators to be tested by the firm’s volunteer testers across 11 states who measured the length of time, in seconds, it took each app to process an in-play bet.

‘Processing times’ was how many seconds it took each app to successfully place an in-play bet after the ‘place bet’ button had been tapped by testers.

Of the 15 sportsbook apps, bet365 topped the average overall processing time rankings with a time of 3.35 seconds between placing and confirming an in-play bet.

This put the firm almost a full second ahead of nearest challenger FanDuel (4.15 seconds) in average processing time.

Bet365’s performance in the average overall processing time was mirrored across sports including MLB (2.72 seconds), NBA (3.87 seconds) and tennis (3.62 seconds).

“Bet365, given it’s in-play pedigree, was an unsurprising standout,” EKG MD Chris Krafcik wrote in a LinkedIn post.

US leader in terms of market share, FanDuel, while faster in placing in-running NBA bets at 2.96 seconds, took longer to accept MLB bets (5.50 seconds) and wagers on tennis matches, which averaged 3.85 seconds.

In testing, most apps achieved a successful bet placement within seven seconds, with top-performing apps placing bets within five seconds, according to EKG’s metrics.

Despite having a relatively small betting operation, the Hard Rock sportsbook also performed well, recording an average overall processing time of 4.22 seconds, putting the app in third spot ahead of Tipico, PointsBet and Barstool Sportsbook.

EKG also singled out Fox Bet for its wildly varying process times. The Flutter-owned brand, which is due to be shuttered by the end of August, took 9.52 seconds to process MLB bets compared to 5.48 seconds for tennis.

EKG noted there may have been some “technical hiccups” with its MLB in-play processing compared to other sports during the testing period.

The two worst performing sportsbook apps in EKG’s testing were 888-powered SI Sportsbook and Smarkets’ SBK sportsbook, which takes its pricing from the Smarkets exchange where markets are often priced by market makers, which could explain the delay.

The SI Sportsbook took an average of 10.46 seconds to process an in-play bet, more than seven seconds behind bet365, while SBK was the slowest overall, taking an average of 13.13 seconds.