Artificial intelligence is the technology behind the brain of a computer. It’s the technology that makes a computer more powerful than the average human brain. With AI, computers can learn, reason, and self-correct.

The efficiency and effectiveness delivered by AI have led to the mass adoption of the technology across different industries, including the sports betting space. According to Betfair, bettors stand to benefit from the adoption of AI in the sports gambling market. 

Since the sports betting world is filled with uncertainty, AI goes a long way in dealing with this challenge by significantly lowering the error margin. 

This article looks at how Betfair utilizes AI in their betting platform. 

A Brief Overview of Betfair Sportsbook

Betfair is the place where sports betting enthusiasts get to keep their cool. This state-of-the-art online sportsbook is well-known for covering all major and minor sports betting events, offering its customers a wider market reach. 

With Betfair, you can place your wagers on the go using its user-relevant, easy-to-navigate, and mobile-friendly online bookie platform. What’s more, Betfair takes its customer financial and personal data safety and security seriously by investing in modern-day data security technologies. 

You can read more about Betfair’s sports betting platform in this review here.

Betfair Uses AI To Detect and Ban “Sharp” Punters

Savvy computer geeks have realized that sports betting present a lucrative opportunity. Ai is the perfect exploitation tool because complex algorithms can deliver impeccably accurate results. 

Provided the AI is fed accurate raw data, it will deliver accurate results. The results delivered by AI largely depend on the information fed to the artificial super brain. Below are some of the ways in which fraudulent sports bettors are utilizing AI. 

Analysis: Once the algorithm is fed with all relevant data, it will analyze the information and interpret it for outcome prediction. AI has the power to analyze billions of data points simultaneously. In a soccer match, for instance, the AI algorithm could be fed with information such as:

• All touches taken by every player
• A shot map providing expected goals stats
• Player movements on the pitch
• The odds of every sportsbook on the world 
• An analysis of how different markets react to different events such as sending off, goals, and team news

Based on his information, AI can predict the match’s outcome with ease and a high degree of accuracy. 

Computation: Having access to an ocean of data without knowing how to interpret it is as useless as not having access to it in the first place. While most people might not understand what xG stats represent, AI understands exactly what the data connotes. Using this information, AI can generate finding and recommend which bets to make, the most feasible staking method, and the best odds.

Execution: speed is vital in the sports betting space because odds can change in a fraction of a second. A specific wager can only favor you for a few seconds, after which the opportunity is gone. With AI, you can find value bets, and the technology places the wagers for you in the most suitable time. 

Detecting Betting Bots 

Savvy punters have been using the process discussed above to take advantage of sports betting platforms. This means losses for betting operators. This is what inspired Betfair to invest in AI technology to detect non-human betting activities and block the bots out of its platform. 

This is an advantage to Betfair’s customers, because they are guaranteed that their competition is fellow human beings.

AI for Odds Setting 

As bookies and punters continue to gather more detailed information, data accumulation is gradually becoming the new frontier. As we have already discussed, AI relies on being fed with the right information for accurate predictions. 

Operators using AI-powered programs to assess the value of odds rely on simulations to show patterns. If the Dallas Cowboys are meeting the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl, for instance, the operator will heavily rely on historical data and the season’s information to run millions of simulations. 

These simulations provide the bookie operator with recognition of patterns and probabilities. Based on this information, the sportsbook can set the most profitable odds. Betfair is yet to take this possibility into action, but who knows what the future holds?

AI for Punter Profiling 

Artificial intelligence can be regarded as manipulation of data, and as such, the human power behind it needs to understand what they are doing. For bookies, the information is important because it helps them predict the wager a high-roller will mostly make.

Bookmakers use proprietary programs to understand game information and punter behavior patterns. The collected punter data is then used to build lucrative prop bets for more betting options. 

“There is just much information that AI can help collect from who is making bets, to when the bets are made, and you can use this data to build a profile of different bettors,” noted VSiN CEO, Brian Musburger, when responding to SportTechie. 

There is so much data that sportsbooks can mine, and AI has made it easier to achieve that objective. Once the data is collected, the same AI technology puts it into use for match outcome prediction and predicting the punters’ actions. 

At the moment, Betfair does not use AI for punter profiling, but that could be a possibility in the near future. 

Betting on Simulated Sports Events

Covid 19 was more of a blessing in disguise for the online sports betting industry. During the onset of the pandemic, one bookmaker took to AI to help develop a betting product for sports enthusiasts yearning for sporting activities. 

Sportradar announced its AI project designed to simulate all suspended league seasons. The simulation project focused primarily on professional soccer in European countries like Germany, England, and Spain. 

The AI-powered simulation offered fans an opportunity to place live wagers on 90 min games. Sportradar’s project is a simulated reality that relies on AI to make millions of decisions throughout every game. 

“We have paid attention to our customers’ needs and the overall betting community, and it’s clear that the appetite for alternative betting solutions needs to be satisfied. The project came to fill in the void created by the mandatory cancellation of professional sports in response to Covid 19. 

Is Betfair considering taking up a similar approach? We don’t know, but it seems like a pretty innovative approach to alternative betting options.