Technology is a crucial part of modern life and something we’ve come to rely upon heavily. The internet, of course, is the major headline grabber still and underpins so much of what happens in daily life. When you also factor in smartphones, robotic hoovers, video doorbells, and emails, it is clear why tech is so important to us all.
One sector in particular which finds technology instrumental is sports betting. In recent years, this industry has undergone a digital revolution and now uses the latest tech advancements to wow bettors. The most obvious example of this is online sportsbooks available to bet at. As well as fantastic convenience and top-class mobile betting, these sites also come with amazing bonuses for punters. Suppose you like to bet in Norway, for example. In that case, the best sports betting bonuses at Norwegian sportsbooks help you get even more from wagering on your favorite sport.
As well as sportsbooks themselves, tech has grown to play a central role in other parts of this sector. But does it have an impact when it comes to bookies setting odds?
Technology does play a massive role in modern betting
If you went back into sports betting history, bookmakers would have employed teams of people with expertise in specific sports to manually analyse data and set odds. This is no longer how top bookmakers work when deciding which odds to offer in the modern age.
Instead, sportsbooks now use complex computer algorithms and sophisticated software to set their odds. These programs and algorithms take in all the available data on an event and then review it all to come up with the odds they think are most sensible. Bookmakers will then take these odds and offer them to their customers.
Naturally, there is still a human element because any odds that look plain wrong will be picked up by sportsbook employees to review in person. In the main, though, technology powers the odds bookies give and which sports bettors can access.
Why do bookmakers use tech to set odds now?
With optimistic predictions for Blockchain in 2022 and sectors like gaming flourishing, it is clear how big tech plays in the modern world. Therefore, it is no surprise to see bookmakers use tech when setting odds – but why have they moved to this model? In essence, it comes down to speed and accuracy. To begin with, the software and algorithms involved in setting odds now simply do it all much quicker than any human could.
This also means that odds can be revised quickly if something unexpectedly changes (i.e., a key player in a team suddenly falls ill before a game and cannot play as expected).
In terms of accuracy, computer technology for sports betting eliminates room for human error when setting odds. While the odds suggested by tech will be manually checked as above if they seem very wrong, this rarely happens. The tech involved is so sophisticated and good at crunching data that this is never an issue for most sportsbooks.
What kind of data does tech use to set odds at bookies?
Although we know that things like algorithms and specific software are used to set odds now, you might wonder what data this tech uses to come up with them. The truth is that many factors will be considered and brought together to suggest odds which bookmakers then use. Head to Head results are undoubtedly important, for example. This tells the computer how each team in a match has recently got on against each other. This information can then be used to predict what will happen in the next meeting.
The technology involved in setting odds also looks at recent form. This sees it look at how each side/player has performed in the last few games and use this to predict the odds of them winning their next match. When you also think about other factors (like who is playing at home), it is easy to see what kind of data tech sports betting uses to set odds.
Tech is key to producing odds in modern sports betting
As with all other aspects of our lives, technology has positively impacted the sports betting sector. This is not just the online sportsbooks and mobile betting apps punters can use to wager with, though. As the above shows, tech has made inroads into how odds are set by bookmakers.