By Genius Sports Press 
Will Westcott moderated a timely webinar discussion between Hristo Spasov (Codere), Aidan Barry (Fortuna Entertainment Group) and Sean Hulse (Genius Sports), exploring strategies to maximise the Euro 2024 betbuilder opportunity and where the product goes next.
Betbuilder is already proving a crucial turnover driver for operators at UEFA Euro 2024. But what will it take to maximise the betbuilder opportunity this summer, and how can operators be at the fore of betbuilder’s growth in the years ahead?
Throughout the webinar we explored insights into adjusting betbuilder pricing based on local activity, the rise of player markets, the expansion of pre-built betbuilders, and the product’s potential in-play potential.
Among the insights, three key themes stood out.
1) Betbuilder engages recreational football customers
While still a relatively new product for its customers in Poland and the Czech Republic, betbuilder has fast become a cornerstone of Fortuna Entertainment Group’s (FEG) multi-territory European trading strategy. When quizzed on this summer’s major football opportunity, FEG’s Head of Sportsbook, Aidan Barry, said “If you don’t have a betbuilder product, you’re going to be in trouble”.
With every game at the Euros and Copa America live on TV, the panel agreed that June and July’s schedule presents the perfect chance to engage recreational customers. Betbuilder is the ideal product because it allows users to build their own narratives around each individual fixture, allowing them to place low stakes bets for the chance to win big. Aidan added “We see a lot more penetration with the product [betbuilder] at the Euros, where three games are played a day.”
Given 39 out of the 51 games at Euro 2024 are played at different times, betbuilder drives accumulator engagement on each individual game, with punters unable to bet on cross-game accumulators in the same way they would during domestic season.
At UEFA Euro 2020, Genius Sports’ MultiBet product delivered on average 35% margin for operator partners.
2) Pre-built betbuilder is key for in-play growth
Discussing the in-play potential of betbuilder, the panel dissected the challenges posed by delays, suspensions and real-time odds changes when it comes to delivering an in-play betbuilder during live football.
The solution? Low-latency data and robust modelling. But while in-play betbuilder is still in its infancy, the panel were excited by its long-term potential.
Pre-built betbuilder markets are set to be a key growth driver at Euro 2024 and into the 2024/25 domestic football season. By surfacing relevant pre-built in-play betbuilder markets, operators can eliminate friction for punters when placing a bet, while driving increased turnover by encouraging betting activity on markets that are contextually relevant to live games.
For example, after Ryan Porteous’ red card in the opening Euro 2024 fixture between Germany and Scotland, a pre-built betbuilder with Germany to score 5+ goals, plus a combination of cards and corner markets presented to a punter allows for rapid bet placement, capitalising on the live match event and driving additional turnover for operators
Codere’s Director of Sports Betting, Hristo Spasovadded: “Having pre-built betbuilders on a central part of your page reduces the clicks requires and makes the experience better for the customers. They can place a bet in a second”.
Pre-built betbuilders are ideal for marketing, too. By including player markets and topical selections, operators can boost odds on these markets and drive turnover through real-time promotions in-app, via push messaging and across social media – directing users towards a high-margin market.
3) Live sports data will unlock betbuilder innovation
Analysing how betbuilder will evolve in the years ahead, personalisation was a common theme. Meanwhile, Codere’s Hristo Spasov predicted innovation in live sports data will lay the foundation for new betbuilder options in the form of even richer contextual bet prompts.
Genius Sports Product Manager Sean Hulse was in agreement, adding how live data will allow traders to take betbuilder experiences to a new level: “If an Everton free kick is about to be taken and Tarkowski is at the back post, we can use live data points to present an ‘Everton to win 1-0 and Tarkowski to score’ in-play betbuilder bet to a segment of customers that we know are Everton fans, providing an experience that is personalised for them.”
Sean also spoke about the exciting opportunity to integrate betbuilder within live streaming and viewing experiences, like BetVision. By surfacing relevant betbuilder markets including new player prop markets, leveraging data like player sprint speed and expected goals (xG), and interval betting combinations within the streaming interface, operators can make the growingly popular product a key pillar of the live betting UX.
Weren’t able to tune in live? Watch the webinar, Euro 2024 and beyond: How to maximise betbuilder engagement in any market, on-demand.
