How Bookie Software Is Developed pt. 2

Today's software for bookmakers or so-called traders is so sophisticated that it can appear as though traders themselves have little to do anymore. And in some cases, this perception is not far from the truth. The tasks of traders have decreased or changed significantly over the past 15 years. However, while automation has reduced the need for manual intervention in certain aspects of trading, human expertise remains essential. Traders in bookmaking and betting still play a crucial role in designing, implementing, and optimizing trading strategies. They are needed to interpret data, make strategic decisions, and adapt to changing market conditions.

Wider use of odds providers

One of the most significant changes in the betting industry for bookmakers themselves was the introduction of odds providers such as Sportradar, Betgenius, and others, with Sportradar emerging as the largest player in the market. This shift altered the structure of bookmaker teams and reduced the demand for odds compilers on a larger scale. Betting companies no longer required as many personnel, as they could now obtain fixtures and odds directly from the supplier. Their focus shifted towards implementing solutions to efficiently import this data and display it within their own software for end customers.

Bookmakers

Some betting companies could afford to maintain large bookmaking teams, which included fixture creators, odds compilers, live traders, risk managers, and various other roles. Conversely, smaller companies had to operate with smaller teams. The responsibilities of a bookmaker shifted from creating fixtures to settling betslips.

However, with the majority of the work handled by external providers, the need for many of these positions diminished. Bookmakers could now operate with smaller teams since much of the workload involved importing data from the odds provider, significantly reducing the need for extensive in-house personnel.

Odds Provider Services

Odds providers essentially gather data from various bookmakers to create fixtures and set odds as soon as they become available at any bookmaker worldwide. As more bookmakers release their odds, the data collected by the odds provider becomes more accurate, resulting in sharper odds.

The betting companies import this data to make their own offerings available. The role of the odds compiler no longer involves opening fixtures and setting prices; instead, they adjust settings with the odds provider. The trader's task now primarily involves selecting which betting company they want to use as a reference for each league, setting margins, and establishing bet stops in specific situations.

Monitoring tools

Some providers, such as Sportradar, offer additional monitoring tools alongside fixture creation and odds compiling. These tools assist bookies in detecting early market changes or dropping odds, which indicate potential value or sure bets. In such cases, traders can adjust their settings or manually alter their odds within their own system.

In house traders

While automation can handle repetitive tasks and execute predefined strategies with precision, human expertise brings a level of adaptability, creativity, and intuition that algorithms often lack. Traders are instrumental in designing and refining trading strategies, interpreting complex data sets, identifying patterns, and making nuanced decisions in response to market dynamics.

Moreover, human traders can assess qualitative factors that may not be easily quantifiable, such as assessing the impact of external events, understanding the psychology of market participants, and incorporating subjective insights into their decision-making process.

Traders impact in developing automated actions

In essence, while technology has undoubtedly reshaped the role of traders in bookmaking and betting, it has not rendered them obsolete. Instead, it has elevated the importance of their expertise in navigating the complexities of modern trading environments. One of the most significant changes is the amalgamation of the red flags mentioned in part 1 of this text into one comprehensive system, which automatically evaluates your customers and assigns ratings based on all the provided data.

Recognition of dangerous players

The most crucial and significant tool is to predict player behavior preemptively and automatically assign ratings to them before traders even become aware of the customer. The traders had to instruct the system on how to identify risky bets and automatically assign a lower rating to the customer, resulting in reduced limits and earlier warning alerts for future bets. One effective approach some bookies adopted to address this issue is comparing the odds at which players placed their bets with the "real value" odds, analyzing the differences customers utilized to gain an advantage.

Example
A bet is placed at 10 AM on a home team to win at odds of 2.2. The match begins at 3 PM, and shortly before kickoff, the odds drop to 1.8. The bookmaker regards the pre-match odds as the most accurate, as this is when most bets are placed and the market determines the "real value" of the odds. The system will identify any discrepancy between the placed odds and the "real" odds and adjust the customer's rating accordingly based on this variance.

This case will mean a huge 18% difference in payout which is super significant and will reduce the customers rating to a lower one which will also mean lower limits for the next bets.