The exploding popularity of micro-betting and other approaches to last-second in-game sports gambling is pushing bookmakers and streaming services toward integrating in-game betting options with the streamed viewing experience.

The only way to do that is to deliver what’s seen on screen as close to real-time synchronicity with what’s happening on field as possible, which can’t be done relying on the one-way, high-latency streaming mode dominating the current OTT market. As things stand now, micro-betting, the in-game wagering format that allows timely betting on imminent outcomes, is a niche for enthusiasts willing to live with the disconnect that comes with tracking real-time text streams describing action for betting purposes on smart phones while trying to watch the out-of-sync rendering of competition on connected TV screens.

Given the infectious social energy attending micro-betting, the incentive for users to participate would be much higher if the activity was part of a real-time viewing experience, which is why industry attention is turning to what can be done to make that possible.

The Importance of a One-Screen Experience

As sports industry consultancy Next League notes in a 2023 report on sports betting, “The importance of properly architected backends that leverage zero latency approaches to both data and video delivery cannot be overstated, especially within the in-game and micro-betting areas…Micro-betting should play a huge role in the adoption of sports betting as real-time content delivery and the artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities required to quickly deliver smart betting opportunities [mature].”

Now, going on two years since that report was produced, the necessary level of maturation has been reached on all fronts. No one is better suited to attest to what’s been accomplished on the AI/ML side of developments than Kelly Pracht, CEO of nVenue, a leading enabler of the AI-driven data aggregation and analysis that goes into calculating odds and setting up micro-betting options delivered by sports books.

“It takes a lot of technology to turn all that data into creating odds on what’s going to happen next,” Pracht says. To a remarkable degree, the core data-processing challenges that once stood in the way of micro-betting have been surmounted, thanks to heavy investments in AI-assisted algorithms capable of real-time data aggregation and odds calculations specific to each betting opportunity with instant tabulations of personalized results conveyed to massive numbers of users.

Pracht notes the volume of information nVenue processes in real time to support its bookmaking clients’ micro-betting options with NFL, NBA and MLB games has reached 480 trillion data points annually. What’s missing is the user experience that comes with real-time streaming, she says, adding, “We’re excited about near-zero video streaming.”

But Pracht acknowledges that at this still early stage in market evolution micro-betting remains “a little disjointed.” There are formidable challenges to directly linking micro-bet bookmaking to what people are seeing on screen, she notes, especially if that entails going beyond handhelds to direct tie-ins with real-time streaming to smart TVs.

A Money-Making Foundation for Real-Time Streaming

But probably the biggest hurdle to clear is resistance to the costs of getting real-time streaming up and running as a mass-media delivery system. That raises the question, is live-sports betting a use case that has enough proven revenue fire power to justify the spend?

Judging from what researchers are saying about the results so far, it sure looks like it does.

In very short order, micro-betting has burst into prominence as the sports wagering industry’s most promising growth engine. Projections vary, but the consensus among researchers, analysts and suppliers alike is that the prospects are huge.

For example, industry tracker H2 Gambling Capital predicts the global micro-betting handle in 2025 will total upwards of $21 billion. Sports data supplier Sportradar forecasts the global micro-betting total will hit the $20-billion mark by 2027.

Globally, a $21-billion micro-betting take in 2025 would translate to 30% of the $70-billion global online sports betting total projected by Straits Research or to a more modest 18% of the $112 billion projected by Grand View Research. Pracht, in another trade press interview, predicts micro-betting in the U.S. will soon constitute a third of the U.S. online sports betting market.

Participation in the next-gen gambling format is soaring with the leading sports books in the U.S. and many elsewhere now on board. As reported by multiple outlets tracking sports betting, micro-betting is now supported by all the major pro sports operations, including the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, PGA, multiple soccer leagues, and tennis associations, and by some esports competitions as well.

The use case is low-hanging fruit for providers of massively scalable WebRTC-based real-time streaming platforms. “Online betting as a whole is typically done through sports books like FanDuel and Draft King based on data rather than what bettors are seeing on their video screens,” notes Jed Corenthal, chief marketing officer at Phenix Real Time Streaming, one of about a dozen WebRTC platform providers positioned to serve a market this big. “Delivering video so it syncs up with micro-betting options like what the next pitch is going to be in a baseball game would deliver a much better experience.”

Pracht says that with providers like Phenix available to support real-time streaming, she’s confident the industry will overcome obstacles to ‘bringing it together.” In one sign of the stakes involved in that effort, bookmaking giant DraftKings recently spent $150 million to acquire micro-betting data supplier and odds maker SimpleBet, which has created space for smaller ventures like nVenue and Huddle Tech to serve the many other sports books who were relying on SimpleBet.

Multiplying Real-Time Use Cases

Another indicator of what’s expected from just-in-time betting formats was the 2022 launch of Betr as the first bookmaker devoted exclusively to micro-betting. Notably, with an investment bankroll now totaling $100 million, Betr in 2024 expanded its play at the cutting edge of market developments with the launch of Betr Picks, which supports another fast-paced betting format known as daily fantasy sports (DFS).

DFS participants bet on whether athletes they’ve chosen to be members of their fantasy teams will meet or fall short of in-game performance metrics posted with odds on outcomes by a DFS bookmaker. This is another format that would benefit from integration with real-time viewing experiences.

It’s also important to recognize that streaming live sports in real time can benefit how traditional online sports bets are set up. For example, when it comes to tying bets on horse racing to real-time streaming. betting prompts can appear on viewers’ screens right up to when windows close at the track, eliminating disparities between the online and in-venue experiences.

It’s also true that even without the betting component, the capabilities of the AI-enabled data processing engines fueling micro-betting can be brought to bear with real-time streaming to enhance sports viewing engagement via apps that invite viewers to compete for bragging rights to predicting what’s next or accumulating points over time with in-game predictions and answers to trivia questions. One example of a non-wagering micro-betting-like result occurred with an NBA League Pass app nVenue helped to develop in partnership with the NBA Launchpad program.

As explained by Pracht, viewers of 2023 NBA Finals games were prompted at different points in the games to predict which team would be the first to score the next 15 points. nVenue applied AI-assisted analysis to troves of data to formulate odds based on game situations at each “betting” juncture. “The data that came back on the results was really telling,” Pracht says. Fans participating to the tune of a quarter of a million micro-bets with no reward other than notification they’d won or lost registered 65% longer viewing times than fans who didn’t.

Such capabilities will be crucial to keeping younger generations of users engaged with mainstream sports. And, speaking of youth-oriented use cases, it’s important to note that with micro-betting taking hold in esports, there are also major benefits to be gained with implementation of real-time streaming in that domain. According to the previously cited Grand View research into sports betting, esports betting is likely to register a 14% CAGR over the 2023-2030 forecast period, the highest rate predicted for any sports category.