The modern-day US sports betting industry only dates back to May of 2018. That is when the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of a state’s right to govern and regulate sports betting within its borders.
In a very short amount of time, this fledgling industry has evolved into a major financial power. The immediate upside is tremendous with more and more states legalizing sports betting. The long-term prospects are strong as well.
By the end of this year, more than 30 states will offer legal sports betting in some form. That being said, major markets yet to join these ranks include Texas sportsbooks and California sportsbooks. In time, most of the 50 states will go live with legal sports betting. This will create a significant amount of sports betting volume.
The next big question is how will all that money be wagered each month? Traditional markets include straight bets on point spreads and total lines. Yet, that could actually be considered old school. An entirely new generation of sports bettors are going to be looking for more from their favorite sportsbook.
The idea of proposition or prop bets has gained some major traction in recent years. However, they do not go far enough. Its one thing to bet on the OVER/UNDER on total strikeouts in a baseball game. Next Gen bettors are looking to bet on the next pitch in an MLB game.
Referred to as micro sports betting, technology is already in place. This has the power to break down betting into its smallest increments. The next play in a football game or the next pitch in a baseball game becomes a betting opportunity.
Thomas Halikias is the founder of Drives Football. His company has developed an app that lets users bet on the outcome of an individual football play.
He believes that in-game micro sports betting has the capability of transforming the entire sports betting industry. Micro betting will have a strong synergy with traditional betting since one builds on the other.
Betting on binary events such as one football play or one baseball at-bat offers an appeal in of itself. Yet, it remains part of the game as a whole.
Halikias comes from an investment background. He was a managing director for UBS. He believes this synergy between micro betting and traditional sports betting resembles Wall Street’s financial markets.
He offers an analogy that “a game’s final score will start to act more like a stock’s closing price.” He adds “with the play-by-play action throughout the game building towards that price.”
In effect, micro sports betting becomes a way for bettors (traders) to hedge existing traditional betting positions. Halikias stated that “sportsbooks will look like Wall Street derivatives desks soon enough.”
Drives Football may be a bit ahead of its time in today’s legal sports betting market. However, there is some serious momentum behind the micro betting concept. Already popular in certain international regulated markets, it is coming to the US.
Case in point is DraftKings’ recent partnership with Simplebet. That company’s technology lets DraftKings offer a micro betting options through its sports betting app.
