SECAUCUS, NJ – Although American sports bettors love using phones and kiosks, they still demand a strong personal touch from operators.
That takes many forms, from providing technology that makes the process easy to personalizing information for bettors to hiring employees who take the mystery out of what is a new experience for many fans.
Above all, it requires an emphasis on the American approach to sports as social activity.
“Sports betting really is about the sports more than it is the betting,” said Charles Cohen, vice president of sports betting for International Game Technology. “You have to ask yourself why people go into a casino to partake in an activity they could do at home. The answer has to be because they can get something at casino they can’t get at home. That is the experience of being with other people and the thrill of the entertainment.”
Cohen spoke last week at a Betting on Sports America panel discussion, “What Is the Future of Retail Betting?” at the Meadowlands Exhibition Center.
Also on the panel were Fernando Ors, president of sports betting for Intralot, whose technology handles billions of dollars in sports wagering; Ian Bradley, chief strategy officer for SBTech, which provides sports-betting expertise to more than 50 partners worldwide; Ivo Dimitrov, retail product director for Optima sports-betting and iGaming; and Jeffrey Gural, chairman of American Racing and Entertainment, which owns the Meadowlands race track and Tioga Downs Casino in upstate New York. Todd Fuhrman, gaming analyst with CBS Interactive, moderated.
Particularly in New Jersey, which launched sports betting less than a year ago after winning a Supreme Court case, players have flocked to self-serve kiosks and online books rather than placing bets in person with a cashier.
Cohen said more than half the bets in New Jersey are placed through kiosks, while in Mississippi, it’s more than 80 percent. Gural said that at Meadowlands, which has more sports betting business than all New Jersey sites combined, the addition of kiosks eliminated lines that plagued the complex during football season.
Cohen said that as legal sports betting expands across the country, the number of sports book operations will hit 1,000 within 10 years, forcing operators to make a choice in what many see as a “cost equation.”
“The tradeoff seems to be often between a lower-cost, more automated experience and the high-touch, high-price more personal experience,” he said, citing the United States’ small pool of experienced sports book employees.
Dimitrov said American operators must recognize that their bettors can be retail customers one day and online customers another.
“The unique opportunity in the U.S. is that sports is a more social experience than in (Europe),” he said. Fans can gather at many sites to watch games together, and, unlike Europe, that will include spots that can accept bets.
“That’s why retail plays an important role here,” he said.
Instead of a “silo” view of bettors as retail or online customers, he recommended an “omnichannel approach” of recognizing the bettor as an individual regardless of how the bet is placed.
“You create different kinds of messages and promotions given the environment.”
Ors said the gaming industry can improve players’ experience and increase loyalty by simplifying the betting process. He suggested emulating Amazon’s “one-click” or Apple’s “try me for free” offer.
“Create adrenalin shots with some kind of new offer that complements the commodity of sports betting,” Ors said, noting the importance of appealing to the millennial generation accustomed to easy-to-use technology that keeps them informed and in touch.
Panelists agreed that in-play betting is essential to fulfill the promise of U.S. sports betting, but technology and other issues are holding it back.
Bradley said a big problem is “the quality of pricing” and the tendency to suspend bets because of the uncertainty of the odds. European soccer went through a similar growing phase, he said.
“Users in the U.S. are not getting as good an experience as what we’re offering in Europe because we’re suspended more often. Everyone’s taking the odds down. All of us got to work to make that experience much more seamless.”
For in-play to work well, players must be able to place bets quickly without waiting in line at kiosks, panelists said.
Gural said Meadowlands customers almost always turn winning tickets into another bet.
“I think the customers we get will bet on anything,” he said. “We’re catering to people who are there to bet and who bet over and over and over again.”
Dimitrov said in-play betting multiplies the opportunities to do that.
“Instead of turning the money around two or three times around in night, with in-game play, it can get into double digits,” he said. “The profit is amazing.”
