Genius Sports has a new immersive NFL betting product, one that combines live game streams, statistics and bettable odds—and maybe someday, other forms of e-commerce—all on a single screen.
The new offering, called BetVision, could be a critical step in the long-held goal of moving sportsbook apps from “second screen” status into a primary way that some fans actually watch games themselves. Historically that’s been difficult to achieve in the U.S. because of technological constraints and lack of willingness from leagues like the NFL, but those two hurdles are rapidly dissolving.
The new product is debuting around live NFL games, with Caesars, BetRivers and Fanatics Sportsbook being the first three operators to pay for the ability to offer it to their customers. The live feeds, available only on mobile and tablets, will cover all nationally televised games, plus all regional games in a sportsbook’s home market.
Its most interesting feature, however, might be what comes next. Genius Sports could soon allow other transactions to occur on the platform, giving Fanatics an opportunity to sell jerseys and trading cards, or DraftKings the ability to sell NFTs or other merch– all without the user leaving the stream itself.
“Sports fans and bettors alike increasingly demand personalized interaction, greater customization and deeper insights combined with an ability to strike a bet seamlessly,” Genius Sports CEO Mark Locke said in a statement. “BetVision alone offers precisely that, while giving sports betting operators a new way to drive engagement and accelerate the growth of in-game betting.”
BetVision has been years in the making at Genius Sports (NYSE: GENI), which in 2021 became the NFL’s exclusive betting provider. Under that deal, which has since been extended, Genius pays the league hundreds of millions in cash and equity. To make that money back on the betting side, Genius must take the league’s data and package it in ways that compel sportsbooks around the globe to pay for access.
Until recently, those products centered mainly around the speed and reliability of the data. Last December, for the first time in the U.S., the NFL and Genius Sports began making select games available to stream via betting apps. Those streams, however, did not include the additional features of BetVision. For starters, gamblers had to leave the actual stream to wager on the game they were watching, which isn’t true with this new product.
Another key difference is the stream itself. Most live broadcasts previously offered via sportsbooks have limitations on screen size and resolution so as not to cannibalize a league’s billion-dollar TV deals. BetVision doesn’t have those restrictions. The NFL, which has a lot of leverage with its media partners, carved these more substantial rights out of its bigger deals. (To watch, a user much be an “active bettor” on the sportsbook, meaning the user must be wagering on the game to keep access to the screen).
The BetVision product will be available for every nationally televised game—including Thursday night, Monday night, Thanksgiving, and playoffs—plus the regional games available in a specific market.
BetVision’s debut comes a few weeks after Genius announced that long-time investor Apax Partners was selling up to 23 million shares. The stock fell on that news, but is up about 57% so far this year.