The Future of Online Sports Betting: What to Expect? 

The world of online sports betting does not remain static. It has, from a technological standpoint, come a long way since the turn of the century when it was still in its infancy. In the last couple of decades, the number of providers and features has increased dramatically. 

One of the main drivers of online sports betting is technology. It goes hand in hand with the betting industry as it pushes the boundaries of new services, improvements to user experience, more accurate odds and security. 

Online sports betting in South Africa benefits from the rapid advancements in technology. But where is it all heading? Is AI going to take over? What innovations in the sector could be the next big thing? 

The AI Arrival 

It’s hard to ignore the talk of AI at the moment. In the last year, it has become increasingly more mainstream in the news, and anyone can jump online and test some of its features. This is going to be a huge area for online betting in the future. 

It’s already around at the moment, working away in the background for setting odds, and bringing players customised options when they visit a site. There are just so many applications for further AI in online betting. 

One of the big areas is live betting odds. These are generated on the fly as a Rugby Championship match, for example, unfolds. With AI possessing the ability to handle and process more data and provide a deeper analysis of situations than ever before, it is only likely that live betting odds are going to get sharper and more accurate. 

The prediction powers that AI has could be a massive factor moving forward. Not only for the odds but also in areas like third-party prediction tools.  

The Third-Party Factor 

Many online betting apps exist for sports betting, bringing the full trading power of a sportsbook onto a miniaturised, streamlined and lightweight platform. The convenience of betting apps far surpasses that of main online betting websites. The explosion in popularity and technological advances in mobile phones has helped drive this.  

There are more mobile phones in the world than there are people, with more than 8 billion mobile subscriptions being used globally in 2022 as reported by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). 

While better computing processing power is going to improve the functionality, security and speed of official betting apps, it also potentially gives rise to future apps that may try to beat the bookies.  

Driven by the prediction powers of AI, third-party apps that try to predict the outcome of sporting events by harnessing AI, be that a South Africa vs England Test Match or a FIFA World Cup qualifier for the Bafana Bafana could become commonplace. 

Betting Devices 

This leads us to the actual devices that punters are going to use. The most common ones in use right now in the country are mobile phones. Current models for both iOS and Android are released all the time with further upgrades like better cameras and new operating systems. 

But the sales of mobile phones actually slowed in 2022 globally. That’s understandable, as it’s rare to find anyone without one already, plus the economy has become tougher, and the buzz of clamouring for a new one has gone past its meteoric rise when everybody wanted one.  

Devices may get a bit chattier in the future due to AI integration, but it’s interesting to think that the future may potentially move away from mobile phones. It could be processing power in earbuds meaning that you can control and place bets simply by voice communication. 

Already devices like smartwatches take away some of the need to be continuously hunched over a mobile. So technology could expand outside smartphones in the future, more so than within it. 

AR and VR 

The external expansion could also include VAR and AR betting experiences. Augmented Reality does offer a lot of potential for betting. It could be pointing a smartphone at a live match on the TV for example and seeing live in-play betting opportunities pop up. Virtual Reality betting would take things further into an immersive world with endless opportunities such as watching sports events from different points of view.  

Blockchain 

The decentralised ledger offers marvellous secure payment opportunities. It’s a side of things that has yet to make its way into online sports betting, despite the security benefits that it offers to both punters and bookmakers. Bookmakers switching over to Blockchain could be a costly enterprise however which could in turn be passed on to customers via bookie margins.  

In Summary 

In the 2021/22 Financial Year, more than R34 billion was the gross turnover of gambling in South Africa. Online sports betting roughly made up about 45% of that, according to the National Gambling Board.  

A decade before that, land-based casinos took 80% of all gambling venues in the country. So there has been a huge shift towards online sports betting, and technology is only going to push it further. 

There may well be genuine pros and cons to new betting developments, like a possible reduction in sector jobs, or costs being passed on to bettors. But the demand for it is not likely to shrink. 

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