They call it “Week 0” of the college football season, but the amount of legal sports betting action is expected to be anything but zero this weekend — including in the growing microwagering markets.
Microbetting firm Simplebet said Thursday that it foresees further growth in in-game wagering on college football this year, starting with this weekend’s slate of games.
Driving that growth is the launch this year of sports betting sites in states such as Massachusetts and college football-crazy Ohio, as well as new partners for Simplebet, such as Hard Rock Bet. In-play markets will be available with Simplebet-partnered books for all Power 5 conference games and nationally televised matchups.
That means users of bet365, Caesars Sportsbook, and DraftKings will be able to wager on the outcome of the next drive or next play in marquee football games, including this weekend’s Navy-Notre Dame opener in Ireland.
"College Football micro-betting shines by valuing devoted fans and their unique team insights,” Simplebet CEO Chris Bevilacqua said in a press release. "As we head into our second full season providing markets, we're confident that our in-game micro betting product will continue to offer fans a thrilling way to engage with their favorite schools, and bring them instant gratification in addition to their schools' success."
Care to tap into your 'inner coach'?
While microbetting is a nascent part of the legal sports betting business, Simplebet suggested it is seeing solid interest. The company said in a press release that last season’s Georgia-TCU national championship drew nearly $4 million in microbetting handle and more than 150,000 micro-bets placed.
“Simplebet’s innovative offerings allow for fans and bettors to interact with unique markets such as ‘Drive Exact Result,’ which gives the bettor four options (Touchdown, FG Attempt, Turnover, or Punt) to choose from when deciding the exact drive result of a specific team,” the release noted. “Drive Result Exact was the most popular across all its College Football markets, followed by ‘Next Play Attempt Type’ which allows users to tap into their inner coach and predict whether the next play is a run or pass.”
Visualizing the next play
Simplebet currently powers microbetting markets for the NFL, NBA, MLB, and college football and basketball.
In addition, the company said Thursday that it is planning to launch a “visualizer” in the fourth quarter of 2023, which will give bettors a better picture of what’s going on during a game as they ponder their next wager.
Simplebet’s senior manager of analytics, Andrew Puopolo, told Covers it will be an “overlay” atop the betting screen, similar to what some mobile sportsbooks offer now but using the Simplebet data feed.
That will cut down the time between a play happening on the field, the graphics and microbetting odds updating at a sports betting site (say by showing a ball carrier rushed from the 20-yard line to the five-yard line, and the lines changing accordingly), and the opportunity to wager on the next play.
“It's going to be perfectly in sync,” Puopolo said. “It will be much easier to track what's happening during the game in order to make more educated bets.”
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