Sportradar is adding micro betting markets for ATP tennis matches this year with an eye on bigger US sports next year.
The data provider signed an exclusive partnership with Tennis Data Innovations for the micro markets that will be added in October, according to Thursday‘s release.
Sportradar currently offers micro markets on other sports that drive international in-play betting along with tennis, like soccer and table tennis.
The company will pad out those micro markets on the big four US sports betting opportunities in the first half of next year.
Examples of tennis betting markets
Micro betting goes beyond typical live betting options. Instead of simply betting who will win a particular game or set, Sportradar will get down to finer data points including:
- When the next break point will come
- Outcome of the next serve (ace, rally, double fault)
- Outcomes on all points
- Total shots in a point
- Stroke of the last shot in a point
All told, there will be eight new markets that should generate around 1,500 new betting opportunities for each match.
Others see micro opportunities, too
Live betting was seen as the biggest potential money-maker for US sports as states began to legalize following the end of PASPA in May 2018. In-play offers better margins than pregame bets, so operators saw live betting as a way to boost the typical ~5% hold most companies used as the baseline. Parlays, specifically same-game, have evolved to boost that hold rate faster than a deeper dive into in-play.
Simplebet launched its specialized micro betting product in late 2020. The company demonstrated consistent growth over the years and was recently purchased by DraftKings.
PointsBet was one of the first US-focused companies to buy a trading tech company in Banach, which likely was a reason why Fanatics bought the US arm of PointsBet. Entain bought Angstrom, which has already had an impact on BetMGM‘s business, and Kambi continues to build out its Tzeract AI pricing product.
US micro sports betting mirror rise
No US operators have given exact targets for what they expect in-play mix will eventually be at maturity. If it looks anything like some international markets, though, they could be looking at three-quarters of handle or more coming from after the starting whistle.
The US CEO of PointsBet, a company that began its betting business in Australia, said in Sept. 2022 that the company expected in-play to account for 75% of all US bets within three years.
Growth has been a bit more gradual than that, though. Sportradar said US in-play share is around 35% to 40% during its second-quarter earnings call.
