Artificial intelligence has opened the door to a completely new experience for fans and spectators who decide to participate in the changing world of sports betting.
Gone are the days when someone interested in placing a bet was forced to travel to a Las Vegas casino or frantically search for a local sportsbook. As more and more US states legalize sports betting, the way sports are consumed is likely to change dramatically.
Data from the American Gaming Association showed that Americans placed more than $23 billion in bets on Super Bowl LVIII, which featured the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. A considerable number of those bets even involved singer Taylor Swift. Other bets focused on the coin toss or the length of the national anthem.
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People place bets at Churchill Downs on Derby Day, May 6, 2023, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Albert Cesare-USA Today Sports)
While Super Bowl prop betting is always popular, millions of sports fans handicap various sporting events throughout the year. Leans.AI, the technology company focused on handicap sports betting, is at the forefront of leveraging AI in an effort to turn something that is normally unpredictable into something more reliable.
Leans.AI created a “genius” platform called Remi to quickly and accurately analyze data from some of the most popular professional sports leagues in the country, including the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB.
WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?
Remi can also do calculations for college football and basketball contests. Computer picks generated with the help of AI use specific win probabilities “to find a few games each day that lean heavily toward one side of a line or spread,” according to the company's official website.
Remi then adds up the point spreads for a given sporting event.
“So what it does is it analyzes data from each game and its thousands and thousands of data points… and it processes all those numbers into a single winning probability for the game, and then we can convert that into a cover probability based in “What betting lines are there at that moment. “We generate an exact probability based on what the algorithm tells us about exactly how likely a team is to cover a spread or not,” Leans.AI's Steve Westfeld told Fox News Digital.
Leans.AI provides accurate data to subscribers, who can then use the information however they want.
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Fans can even watch a game when they're on the go. When this is added to the rising costs associated with supporting a team, people's desire to attend games in person has been somewhat diminished. Now, more than ever, fans are looking for something that makes them feel like they are participating in an event or situation designed for them. Sports betting is no different, but AI-powered technology has begun to close that gap by creating experiences that can feel highly personalized.
A more personalized experience also tends to create a more emotional connection to the game, something that gamblers often grapple with when making decisions. Becoming too emotional and too attached to a particular team or game could affect someone's choice when placing a sports bet. But Remi is data-driven and unbiased, which creates a much more ideal environment for finding an accurate probability.
“We're trying to predict real game analytics. So our algorithm doesn't look at where the money is or isn't going in a game… it doesn't look at what other emotional bettors are doing… it doesn't look at what other emotional and biased bettors The handicappers are doing it. It's about strictly looking at the data and the AI and algorithm have allowed us to completely remove essentially human bias and emotions from the equation. When we do that, we can create a fairly accurate probability of how likely than the trend of the game.”
A customer places a sports bet at the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)
Access to television packages, streaming, and 4k television technology has allowed the average fan to watch their favorite team or player from the comfort of their home, even if they do not live in a given team's home market.
Machine learning algorithms can also be leveraged to allow multiple bookmakers to analyze the patterns and interests of a given bettor to show them personalized recommendations. As a result, users receive a variety of new tools that they would not otherwise have without the technology.
“AI will enable increasingly personal experiences for sports bettors and will personalize missions for users, based on the type of missions they tend to accept and complete,” Dan Taren, founder of sports betting platform Scrimmage, told Boardroom.
“This is powerful for the operators we integrate with to help their users make their betting experience personalized for them.”
So-called microbetting has seen a rapid rise in recent years. It gives participants the ability to place bets on outcomes as specific as whether the next play will be a run or a pass, how many yards it will gain, or whether the drive will result in a punt, a touchdown, a turnover, or something else. .
Microbetting “is a must to be a competitor in this space,” said Matt Prevost, chief revenue officer at BetMGM. Between 40% and 65% of all bets your company places on soccer are placed after kick-off.
Artificial intelligence is being used to drive personalization of popular sports betting apps to tailor experiences to user preferences. (iStock)
Johnny Avello, director of racing and sports at DraftKings, said his company will focus more on micro-betting offerings this fall.
“We're going to have more markets like betting on the next play, who's going to carry the ball, how many yards they're going to gain,” he said. “We have found that they are as popular as who is going to win the game or the total amount scored.”
When enjoyed in moderation and spending limits are set, sports betting can be a fun and exciting way to enjoy a game. However, it is important that players are aware of the importance of responsible gaming.
Bill Miller, president and CEO of the American Gaming Association, shared that a responsible gambler does not depend on gambling as a source of income.
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“When someone approaches the Super Bowl or March Madness or any other sporting event where they're thinking about making the game a little more fun or a little more interesting, it's supposed to be fun. No one should ever believe that we're going to make a living or get a second job betting on sporting events,” Miller told Fox News Digital last February.
Players should also have a specific budget in mind.
“And number two, set a budget and stick to that budget,” he advised.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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