nVenue gets investment for microbetting venture

Microbetting has started to draw a lot of attention in the betting sector in the last month or so, due in no small part to the launch of Betr. The Jake Paul-fronted venture has gained no small amount of coverage due in large part to celebrity power, but it’s not the only microbetting service looking to launch in the near future. Statistical tech experts nVenue have achieved an investment target for a service that they hope to offer to existing betting companies in the near future, improving the breadth and quality of microbetting offered by the big sportsbooks.

For people whose interest was piqued by Paul’s disruptive arrival on the betting market, it’s worth clarifying something: microbetting isn’t a new thing. Many betting sites have allowed bets on markets such as who will win the next game in a tennis match, or who will score the next goal in a soccer game. What Betr is looking to achieve is a service built entirely on microbetting; and what nVenue hopes to bring to the market is a huge expansion on what microbetting at the big sportsbooks could mean.

nVenue has not previously been involved in betting delivery, but it has had a big hand in sports statistics, which makes it hugely relevant to bettors. Baseball fans who watch games on AppleTV will be familiar with the statistical display which shows how likely a batter is to get on base in the current at-bat. That’s provided by nVenue, and it is this statistical analysis which will form the basis of their efforts to provide a microbetting service.

Rather than the current minimal offer from sportsbooks, microbetting as imagined by nVenue would mean that anyone watching a baseball match could bet on the result of a specific at-bat. Will the batter get on base? Will they hit a home run? Will they ground out? Each of these options and more will greet the bettor. The same principles can apply to betting on soccer (will the next penalty in a shoot-out be scored?) or in football (will the offense convert this fourth down), to name a few examples.

Interestingly, nVenue believes it can crack one of the existing issues with microbetting: that of latency. This means that when we watch sports, we are often watching on a delay of approximately 30 seconds. However, nVenue is working with companies who can cut that latency to under a second; betting sites who ally with them could then display the action as an over-the-top live stream that the bettor can watch so they’re no less informed than someone watching the game in the stadium.

nVenue’s microbetting venture is not a reaction to Betr: it’s something they have been working on for close to five years. And while Betr is being offered direct to customers, nVenue’s service will be a B2B concept designed to punch up existing sportsbook microbetting. Time will tell how ready the sportsbook market is to take it up, but for nVenue, it does negate the need for licenses and establishing a brand identity.