In this exclusive interview, iGameMedia's Chief Commercial Officer, Chris Cousin, shares insights with iGamingFuture about the company's groundbreaking approach to revolutionize the sports betting industry. With headquarters in Belfast, iGameMedia is spearheading change by adopting a streamlined ONE approach to API integration, offering operators ultra-low latency streams and data solutions aimed at maximizing return on investment (ROI).
Curtis Roach, Head of iGF's Content Department, delves into the details of iGameMedia's business with Chris Cousin, exploring the company's role in shaping the future of B2B sports betting and live betting solutions.
To kick things off, could you provide our audience with an overview of iGameMedia and the primary technical solutions you bring to the sports betting market?
Absolutely, Curtis. iGameMedia stands as a trailblazer in the sports streaming domain, boasting a rich history of delivering ultra-low latency B2B streaming solutions. Our core focus revolves around maintaining neutrality between sports rights holders and online operators while ensuring the most positive user experience for our clients and their audience.
As iGameMedia continues to innovate within the sports betting industry, the company has expanded its operations to encompass four distinct verticals:
1. Solution for Bookmaker's Office: iGameMedia's ONEPlatform API stands as the quintessential solution for sportsbooks, offering a consolidated platform for all purchased rights holder content. By unifying various content sources into a single API, this solution maximizes efficiency for bookmakers and platform providers, streamlining their operations and enhancing user experience.
2. Rights Holders: With its extensive broadcast infrastructure, iGameMedia provides sports content rights holders with a comprehensive technology service solution. This solution is specifically designed to encode and deliver real-time video exclusively over IP to major broadcasters, bookmakers, and other commercial organizations. By leveraging cutting-edge technology, iGameMedia empowers rights holders to deliver high-quality content to their audiences seamlessly.
3. Retail - ONE: iGameMedia's ONE - Retail platform serves as a leading video aggregation and distribution platform tailored for the retail betting industry. Designed to simplify content access needs and maximize customer access to content, ONE - Retail streamlines the retail betting experience, offering a wide range of sports content to enhance customer engagement.
4. Trading: In the realm of trading, iGameMedia's ONEOTT App offers a video streaming service that delivers live streams from sports rights holders worldwide to a centralized B2B platform. This platform features live HD sports streams with sub-second latency, making it ideal for managing in-game betting markets, settling bets, and accessing player details. Additionally, the platform includes data verification functionalities for real trading platforms, ensuring accuracy and reliability in betting markets.
It is now recognized that operators and providers who require access to live content need to integrate with various APIs from their respective companies. What specific benefits does your ONEPlatform solution provide to the operator to reduce this technical demand?
The unique approach that iGameMedia takes is multi-vendor API aggregation that combines all streaming access rights into one single API and low-latency player solution. Through our ONEPlatform solution, we have established integrations with all major content providers, including Front bettor, StatisticsExecution, SportsRadar, GeniusSports, IMG Arena, and more. By consolidating all streaming content into a single content API, operators benefit from simplified API management, reduced technical complexity, and streamlined integration processes.
Once an operator integrates with iGameMedia, external factors such as ownership of live TV rights become irrelevant from a technical perspective. This allows operators to focus solely on promoting live content from their chosen provider without the hassle of managing multiple APIs or navigating complex technical requirements.
Additionally, iGameMedia is developing a simplified content CMS specifically designed for sportsbook operators. This CMS provides complete transparency in content selection and assignment, eliminating the need for traditional Excel-based hardware management methods. By consolidating content and jobs from all vendors into one simple digital application, operators can efficiently manage their live content offerings and streamline their operations.
Overall, we believe our ONEPlatform API offers an effective solution for broadcasting live content, providing maximum efficiency for bookmakers and platform providers by simplifying development efforts and enabling operators to launch their content within days.
The evolution of data collection has led to customers expecting real-time experiences, yet live streams often lag behind real-time data, affecting user engagement. What role does iGameMedia play in solving this industry problem?
Over the past decade, the stagnation of live streaming on operator websites has resulted in average end-user latency ranging from seven to nine seconds. This discrepancy between live streams and real-time data collection poses a challenge to user engagement, impacting page retention time and the ability to make informed bets and wins.
Recognizing this industry-wide issue, iGameMedia has taken proactive steps to address it by pioneering ultra-low latency (ULL) streaming as a standard for sports content delivery. Through our leading ONEPlatform API solution, we empower our rights partners to deliver content with a fixed latency of just two seconds, ensuring seamless synchronization between data and video.
By offering ULL streaming, iGameMedia enhances the user experience by significantly reducing latency and aligning data with live streams. This not only improves user engagement but also boosts operator ROI by providing customers with a more immersive and responsive betting experience. As a result, iGameMedia continues to lead the way in revolutionizing live sports streaming, setting new standards for industry excellence.
In our industry, database work has traditionally been undervalued, but the impact of professional data scientists is changing the landscape. How do you foresee this impacting our sector, and how does iGameMedia utilize databases to innovate?
Traditionally, database work in our industry has been overlooked, often seen as just one of many tasks for software developers. However, the emergence of professional data scientists is reshaping our sector, bringing about significant changes and opportunities for innovation.
At iGameMedia, we recognize the transformative potential of leveraging professional data scientists and have made significant investments in database research as a core business support function. By harnessing the specialized skill set of data scientists, we have streamlined processes that were previously managed manually, paving the way for groundbreaking innovations in our products and solutions.
One such innovation is our ONEMAp product, which utilizes a single API instance to provide relevant data and market IDs from all third-party providers associated with live streaming. Through the implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, driven by data science, ONEMAp offers a truly automated solution with an impressive accuracy rate of 99.7%. This innovative technology, powered by advanced algorithms and machine learning capabilities, establishes precise connections between AV provider data and event creation data on our ONEPlatform.
Looking ahead, our focus on database exploration continues as we seek to address inconsistencies in real-time content consumption reporting for operators. By investing in database research to provide consistent reporting, performance trends, market insights, and relevance, iGameMedia aims to empower operators to understand the true value of streaming and justify their return on investment.
As a live streaming company, describe what critical elements should sportsbook operators consider when considering hosting live content on their sportsbook sites?
When contemplating hosting live content on their sportsbook sites, sportsbook operators must carefully consider several critical elements to ensure a seamless and engaging user experience.
First and foremost, operators should prioritize the quality and reliability of the live-streaming infrastructure. This includes investing in robust technology and network capabilities to deliver high-definition streams with minimal latency, ensuring that users can enjoy uninterrupted viewing experiences.
Additionally, operators must consider the breadth and depth of live content offerings. Providing access to a diverse range of sporting events and markets not only enhances the overall attractiveness of the sportsbook site but also caters to the varied interests of users. From popular mainstream sports to niche competitions, offering a comprehensive selection of live content can help operators attract and retain a diverse user base.
Furthermore, sportsbook operators should pay close attention to the integration of live streaming with in-play betting functionalities. Seamless integration between live streams and in-play betting markets enables users to place bets in real-time based on the action unfolding before them. This synergy between live content and betting opportunities enhances user engagement and satisfaction, driving increased participation and revenue for operators.
Finally, operators must prioritize ongoing innovation and technological advancements in live streaming. By staying abreast of the latest developments in streaming technologies and leveraging tools such as database mining, operators can continually enhance the user experience and stay ahead of competitors. From optimizing stream quality to introducing innovative features and personalized experiences, investing in technological advancements is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in the dynamic sports betting industry.
Content Delay:
Over the past decade, live streaming on operator websites has experienced a plateau in latency, with end-user delays averaging between seven and nine seconds. Despite this, advancements in data collection have progressed significantly, providing real-time performance metrics through scoreboards and markets. However, a discrepancy persists between live broadcasts and real-time data, challenging user engagement.
There's a common misconception that reducing streaming latency compromises fast data rights, but this isn't accurate. Providers generating pricing and data feeds based on unofficially acquired content collect data from operators with official fast data rights. While video content supports this feature, aligning video speed with data speed doesn't infringe on data rights. Hence, maintaining a two-second fixed latency for gaming ensures optimal synchronization without devaluing video content, particularly in fast-paced sports like tennis.
Content Selection:
Live broadcasts have become integral to bookmakers' operations, serving as a key tool to attract customers and expand market share in specific territories. Recently, there's been a notable shift in how operators perceive the value of live streaming within their offerings, prompting a reevaluation of return on investment.
The balance of live content, available through mainstream broadcasts and OTT subscriptions, significantly influences the unique selling proposition (USP) of live streaming, particularly for iconic sporting events. Consequently, live betting experiences are gaining traction, with betting sites increasingly featuring lower-tier competitions to cater to bettors' evolving demands for diversified sports participation.
Moreover, this trend benefits rights holders and federations by generating heightened interest in previously overlooked sports and tournaments. Lower-tier events and niche sports now drive increased turnover, breathing new life into matches that previously garnered minimal attention without accompanying video content.
As we continuously enhance our live streaming technologies, we advocate for operators to prioritize the following key features to optimize their success:
Technical Simplification: Operators should prioritize streamlining the technical requirements associated with streaming integration, especially considering the dynamic nature of rights movements from relevant providers. By anticipating these changes and ensuring a simplified integration process, operators can adapt more swiftly to evolving content demands.
Content Comparison: Managing third-party identifier mapping is crucial for maximizing the potential of content. Operators should carefully evaluate how they manage these mappings to ensure seamless integration and alignment with their content strategy.
Content Delay: The delay in content delivery significantly impacts user engagement and retention within the bookmaker's platform. Operators must strive to minimize content delay to enhance the live betting experience, including real-time scoreboards and streaming. Bridging the gap between user expectations and actual delivery is paramount to fostering a more immersive and interactive user experience.
Content Selection: Flexibility in selecting relevant content tailored to specific markets is essential for maximizing customer acquisition, increasing turnover, and improving profitability. Recognizing that different territories have varying content preferences; operators should strategize how to differentiate themselves from competitors by curating a diverse and compelling content portfolio. By offering a tailored selection of content that resonates with their target audience, operators can enhance their market positioning and drive sustainable growth.
