## The Organic Progression of Player Props in Sports Wagering – iGB
The expanding availability of player prop wagers and the tendency towards incorporating knowledge into betting makes sense from a pure trading and market viewpoint. Daniel O’Boyle conversed with Sporting Risk CEO Henry Newman regarding their company’s combined pricing and factual tools for player props.
**Home > Sports Wagering > The Natural Progression of Player Props**
The Natural Progression of Player Props
Recently, two growing forces have emerged in sports wagering – an attempt to incorporate more player prop bets, which makes sense from a pure trading and market viewpoint; and a greater attempt to integrate insights into the product, which makes sense from a user experience viewpoint.
Thus, it makes sense that these two products are merging.
However, it might be surprising to see who is first to market with a consumer product that combines player prop trading and facts. It’s not from a data giant or a well-known sports wagering provider, but from a group that has long served betting companies.
Sporting Risk CEO Henry Newman highlights that the company’s history of operating successful betting groups has played a role in helping to deliver the supplier’s Prop Futures product.
“The way we gather data is that every action can be recorded as an ID,” he stated. “So all our models are based on the smallest common denominator in a football match, which is any action from a single player.”
This has been the main motivator behind alliance pricing for a long time, it’s been around, and now it has the opportunity to truly take off in the business-to-business world.
**Pricing and Information**
Prop Futures products combine player proposition betting prices with bettor insights.
“Essentially, Prop Futures is the first product on the market that combines pricing for player proposition markets with key proposition information, so both pricing and information are front and center for the player experience,” Newman said.
He continued, stating that the product’s launch is all about integration.
“One of the biggest challenges operators face is their integration plan for existing or new products. So, when you can offer a solution that integrates seamlessly, it gets to market faster than one with multiple integrations.
“If the trade and information are provided separately, it might require connecting multiple application programming interfaces, which means coordinating teams, markets, and player IDs, and mapping all that out. Plus, you might be integrating into an iframe, and then you have to integrate the information into that iframe.
“As the industry knows, whenever there are two providers, there are usually two agreements, so departments like legal take longer.”
**Competing on Depth**
Nevertheless, while it’s simpler to introduce a singular product like a player props tool and insights than integrating it into existing sports wagering platforms, how do you compete with companies already providing fundamental sports betting functionality?
Newman clarified that the key is providing a diverse range of markets that general sports betting providers might find difficult to keep pace with.
“Our main advantage isn’t just supplying odds and data,” he stated. “The other crucial factor is the extent and depth of our coverage. We cover over 100 leagues. Every game we offer, if a player is on the field, he will have odds in every market we provide, and we provide over 20 markets.
“So whether you’re watching the Premier League, the German Bundesliga or the Japanese J-League, you’ll receive the same user experience, which doesn’t exist in the current marketplace. We have the in-depth data and detailed data to do that.”
But that does come with difficulties. While some aspects of the product are automated, there’s still a significant amount of manual functionality. The more markets offered, the more effort it takes to staff those manual functions.
“The scale of the markets has increased, not exponentially, but considerably,” Newman said. “Being able to handle pricing is definitely a challenge.”
Weve dedicated significant resources to leveraging our expertise in forecasting to ensure our pricing is accurate.
The World Cup is fast approaching.
It’s difficult to overlook the timing of the product launch, which coincides with the commencement of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. International football matches often differ from club games, and tournaments are even more distinct. With that in mind, Newman expressed his belief that prop futures could gain significant traction during the event, as finding reliable information about them is challenging.
“It’s often difficult to locate sufficient data for international tournaments,” he remarked. “Therefore, if we can expand coverage to encompass more games and incorporate propositional facts, it will provide bettors with a wealth of information.”
Thus, preparing for the event is undoubtedly the next major objective for sports risk. Looking further ahead, Newman expressed his aspiration to witness the product’s expansion into a wider range of sports, particularly American sports – where prop betting enjoys immense popularity – and esports.
“We’ve already invested substantial funds in developing models for American sports and esports. However, we also aim to be innovative in creating new markets. We can readily introduce new products in the propositional space, and we anticipate these products will be entertaining and foster greater engagement among bettors.”
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