The power of artificial intelligence in sports streaming

We’re all fortunate to work within a sector that never sits still. There is so much drive from operators, suppliers and bettors to keep innovating and improving customer experiences. The post-PASPA world has brought additional sources of innovation and inspiration and our world of sports content and technology continues to increase in speed.

Live streaming within sportsbooks is now very well established in major territories outside the US. It is the natural driver of the in-play betting experience. We are now not far away from it also becoming a staple part of the US sports betting fabric. Streaming’s ability to create a truly round-the-clock live ‘watch and bet’ experience is understood – it fills important gaps around prime time US sport, throughout the day, the week and the year.

But streaming is much more than a ‘filler’. It will also drive engagement with new sports and new markets. Streaming alongside betting is a very powerful combination: the visceral, the emotional and the transactional brought together in a truly unique fashion.

It is bettors being able to truly create and own their own version of sports entertainment.

The role of sports data in live streaming

When you add sports data to streaming you spawn even more ways to engage bettors and get their attention. Data also provides important factual context to on-field events, which drives the viewer’s understanding and their buy-in.

For example, we’re not far from a world where artificial intelligence (AI) can understand momentum and predict what might be coming in the next play, quarter, set or half; or predict what might be an exciting moment a fan or bettor would like to watch.

Then layer in personalised notifications to alert bettors to that specific game they can watch, bet and enjoy in real-time, from the hundreds of events unfolding simultaneously around the world in other fixtures.

The role of AI in sports data

The merger of STATS and Perform has brought together two organisations with very deep, rich datasets and an obsessive attention to detail. This data will form the bedrock of next-generation sports betting experiences and demand for granular player betting markets is already the first wave.

Quality data is also where any kind of AI-fuelled predictions and probabilities need to start.

I described this recently as a world where artificial intelligence technology pulses through a vast and ever-expanding sports data lake, learning what’s important, interesting, informative and insightful.

As well as identifying new patterns in the data, AI technologies can also assist in the collection of deeper and broader data through advanced optical tracking, including skeletal tracking, which captures the precise movement of players’ bodies. Imagine the players were all wearing a motion-capture suit. Then imagine that data for every player in every play.

So, thanks to AI, the industry will have access to data that is richer than ever before and use that data to derive insights, simulations and analysis more accurately.

This creates a virtuous circle of more data and better insights, that will keep on getting bigger. The applications to making betting more entertaining and enabling more confident trading are limitless, and we’re only scratching the surface.

Andrew Ashenden has spent over 12 years at Perform in a number of varied roles including mobile manager, managing director for betting and chief commercial officer. Since the STATS Perform merger earlier this year, he has acted as chief betting officer for the group.