🎤 Bookie Q&A with Smarkets

We speak to Andrei Craciunoiu, Director of Product at Smarkets, about his thoughts on Artificial Intelligence within sports betting.

Smarkets, alongside its sister sportsbook SBK, is an award-winning, product-led, sports betting company based in London. With Smarkets as their betting exchange, and SBK as their exchange-led sportsbook app, they are at the forefront of developments within the industry.

OLBG: What has been SBK and Smarkets’ approach to AI over the last couple of years?

AC: Although AI can be a bit of a buzzword today, that shouldn’t detract from its immense potential, especially under-the-hood – product development and operational efficiency, for example. 

Let’s start by breaking down AI. For me, the major advancements in recent years have been machine learning models and, more recently, large language models (LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude etc.). As a technology-driven company operating in the sports betting space, we’ve been leveraging machine learning to enhance trading, safer gambling and fraud prevention, as well as our content personalisation engine. With large language models, we’re cautiously exploring better self-service opportunities for customers and different ways to bet and trade on our platforms.

Our focus, however, has been on internal productivity — accelerating development and optimising workflows — rather than prioritising superficial user-facing applications.

OLBG: With that in mind, what do you have planned for the future?

AC: Our strategy centres on increasing product and engineering velocity and productivity through AI, enabling us to deliver superior products faster. For customers, we aim to enhance personalisation across betting content, or customer service interactions, tailoring the offering to individual preferences and behaviours.

OLBG: Is there anything in particular that you are concerned about, or wary of, when it comes to AI?

AC: This is my personal opinion, but I think sports will be extremely resilient – some might say anti-fragile – in the face of the AI revolution. I think the commoditisation of content will actually help the industry, because it will bring real sports content to the fore, standing out even more.

However, that doesn’t mean that I’m not concerned about the potential rise of synthetic content and integrity implications, such as virtual sports or obscure table tennis tournaments. As generative models improve, maintaining the integrity of betting markets against such risks will be critical.

OLBG: Are there any specific sports, or markets, that you offer that can benefit more than others from AI developments?

AC: No, there aren’t specifics – it’s all sports and content that we offer. Think of football, with hundreds of betting contracts per event. Think about the cognitive load that comes from navigating through those. As an industry, we know that most users only care about a small percentage of them.

There is, and has been for quite a while, a huge opportunity to distill this complexity, delivering the most relevant markets to individual users at optimal times. We’ve been making strides on this challenge through our content personalisation engine, and will continue to do so.

OLBG: Does it feel like there is a sort of arms race when it comes to rival sportsbooks competing to maximise AI?

AC: We observe a broader market trend, and that’s not limited to sports betting platforms, where AI is driving competition in productivity and operational speed. The advantage lies in execution. Organisations that harness AI to deliver faster, smarter outcomes will come out ahead.

OLBG: How do you think customers’ betting experience will be improved as a result of AI?

AC: I don’t necessarily know if the customer experiences will be improved in the short term. I think there is a real CX (customer experience) risk from trying to slap an AI label to products. I’m seeing a lot of backlash in consumer applications that are trying to automate customer service flows with AI chatbots, making it harder for customers to get a positive resolution to their problem, and leading to churn.

I continue to think that the biggest unlock is operational efficiency and effectiveness that can lead to higher product velocity and better customer experiences. 

We need to abstract away “AI” when it comes to customer experiences and focus on first principles, rather than buzzwords. Sports betting consumers care about having an awesome product experience, not about the technology that powers it.

OLBG: Can Smarkets’ users expect greater personalisation of the product that they use thanks to AI?

AC: Yes, our users can expect a more tailored experience, with personalised content, relevant bet options, and customer service interactions informed by their preferences and usage patterns. Our existing personalisation capabilities will continue to evolve for greater relevancy.

OLBG: Are there any parts of your product development that are combatting, or adjusting to, customers’ use of it? (Things like Predictive Analytics etc.)

AC: Yes, that’s basically what a machine learning model does. It learns autonomously from how you interact with it. A great example here is our content personalisation engine, which gets smarter and learns more about customers through their use of our products.

OLBG: What consideration is SBK putting into ensuring that AI tools in gambling are used responsibly?

AC: We employ machine learning to monitor betting patterns and promote safer gambling practices. Our approach prioritises supporting users responsibly and continues to make betting increasingly sustainable for consumers.

OLBG: How do you see AI affecting the industry in the next five years?

AC: As we’ve seen in the last paradigm shift (mobile) with bet365 and SkyBet, I hope we will see another changing of the guard in the betting industry, with technology-first companies like Smarkets out-executing the more traditional incumbents thanks to a much higher product velocity and more efficient operations. 

From a customer perspective, I hope betting experiences will be increasingly relevant from a content perspective, with better pricing opportunities that can lead to a higher level of sustainability.