SVG Sit-Down: SimpleBet's Chris Bevilacqua on the Need for Sports Productions To Embrace In-Game Micro-Betting He foresees a truly personalized experience' for the bettor By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Friday, February 23, 2024 - 4:02 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
This May will mark six years since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), opening the door for states to legalize sports betting. Since that moment in 2018, the sports-betting market has grown exponentially, and all expectations are this trend will only continue.
That same year, sports-media vet Chris Bevilacqua launched his own sports-betting company, Simplebet, with an eye on what many expect to become the industry's golden goose: micro-betting. Instead of betting on the final outcome of games, SimpleBet's products allow fans to wager on individual moments in a game.
SimpleBet's Chris Bevilacqua: The betting experience could be entirely different by 2030 as well. Who knows if people will even be looking at a big, old television screen by then.
As an enterprise-software B2B data and technology company, Simplebet sells its technology to consumer-facing businesses with its main vertical being in online sports betting. Simplebet's real-time betting technology allows every pitch and every at-bat in a baseball game, every play or drive in football, or every shot or possession of a basketball game to become an actionable wagering opportunity for users. The combination of data, technology, and automation delivers gamification around live, in-play wagering for the company's online sportsbook partners.
SVG sat down with Bevilacqua, who made his name launching the first 24/7 college-sports network (CSTV) and negotiating groundbreaking sports-media-rights deals, to discuss the increased popularity of micro-betting, how it can be better incorporated into live broadcasts, the impact of latency, the future of betcasts, what can be learned from Europe's sports-betting market, and what sports broadcasts will look like in 2030 as it relates to sports betting.
Have you seen the popularity of in-game micro-betting in the U.S. grow over the past year? Two years? How much do you predict micro-betting will grow over the next 12-18 months (and beyond)?
Yes. As a matter of fact, it has grown quite rapidly in the little over three years that we've been live. One of the ways that we track growth of our micro products is by observing our percentage of the live Gross Gaming Revenue handle of any of our operator partners. When we first started, there were extremely limited offerings that could be categorized as micro-betting. We were a very small percentage of the live GGR handle for any of our operator customers at that time.
Now, a few years later, as in-play [betting] overall is growing in the U.S., we've seen data [showing that], depending on the sport and customer, we're now between 15% and 20% of their live GGR; in some sports, there are cases when we are almost 40% of live GGR. This has all happened over the last 24 months, and we see that trend continuing to increase over time.
Have you seen streaming outlets and/or broadcasters make a more concerted effort to integrate betting (especially micro-betting) into their live-game presentations over the past year? If so, what is a good example?
We've seen it quite a bit. We have two innovation partnerships. One is with LIV Golf, where this year we're going to be rolling out a product which will have low-latency video together with our live, in-play micro-betting markets. This is a cool innovation that we will continue to see more of. We're doing something similar with the Indoor Football League (IFL), which we did last year and will be doing it again for them this coming season. Also, for the past two seasons, we had a very successful single-screen watch-and-bet free-to-play experience available in the YES Network app during Yankees games.
More broadly, the NFL and Genius Sports, with their new BETVision product, are offering live, low-latency video to all of their sportsbook customers in the live betting environment. It was just rolled out halfway through this season. We've seen Caesars using it, and they've been featuring our micro-markets below the live, low-latency video in the Fire Bets feature of the app, which saw solid traction this season.
Next year, you're likely to see that most of the major sportsbooks have a low-latency video in their apps with live markets underneath the video, so the user can have a true single-screen experience ; before, it has mostly been a second-screen experience where you are watching video somewhere else and have latency issues. I think we will continue to see innovation around that feature in not just football but also baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, etc., as the technology becomes more widely available.
What is your opinion of the betcasts that have been produced on both a regional and a national level over the past few years? Do you believe these types of alternative broadcasts will continue to become more popular, and, if so, how can micro-betting be more deeply integrated into them? Do you think they hinder the evolution of betting in the main broadcast by ghettoizing the betting angle?
In my opinion, this is where a lot of future innovation is going to come. Obviously, each sport is different: the cadence of a football game is different than the cadence of a soccer game. I think, over time, we're going to see a lot of innovation and a lot of experimentation. At a high level, we're moving from a mass-media world (one broadcast for all) into what I would describe as personal media (broadcasts tailored and customized to the individual).
Betting and in-play gamif
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
22/07/2026
Among other tweaks to coverage, the broadcaster added announce positions in the ...
22/07/2026
The Australian Sports Technologies Network (ASTN) has reported a sharp acceleration in Australia's sportstech sector, with revenue growth rising from 10% in...
22/07/2026
From a retrofitted broadcast bus to packed Match Day Live! events, Bennett detai...
22/07/2026
TMRW Sports has named Brendan Donohue as President, Flag Football, where he will lead the company's professional flag football business in partnership with ...
22/07/2026
Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) designed and produced soundtracks for nine projection...
22/07/2026
Harmonic has announced a $25,000 donation to Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) fo...
22/07/2026
Telemundo has announced it has acquired from UC3 exclusive U.S. Spanish-language...
22/07/2026
The Rest Is Football, hosted by Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, and Micah Richards, ...
22/07/2026
Sports Studio has announced a partnership with TheSoul Group to distribute Free ...
22/07/2026
Daktronics has concluded its 2026 High School Video Summit, a two-day hybrid event combining virtual sessions with hands-on host school visits across the countr...
22/07/2026
FOR-A America will exhibit at the MMCA Show in Pensacola, Florida (July 21-24), marking the company's first appearance at the house of worship AV event. FOR...
22/07/2026
The New York Yankees have selected Lumen Technologies (NYSE: LUMN) to connect Ya...
22/07/2026
Calrec will exhibit at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.C47) with demonstrations of its IP-native audio ecosystem built around the Argo console range, and will announce two ne...
22/07/2026
Solid State Logic has announced the appointment of Algam EKO as its distributor for SSL large format consoles in Italy, covering the Live, Broadcast, and Studio...
22/07/2026
FloSports has announced the launch of the FloSports Channel, a free ad-supported streaming channel premiering on Prime Video in the U.S. on July 21. The channel...
22/07/2026
Banana Ball TV (BTV), the broadcast operation of the Savannah Bananas, has insta...
22/07/2026
SiriusXM and Audacy have announced an agreement bringing 42 Audacy sports, news, and talk stations from 29 U.S. markets to SiriusXM. Twenty-three Audacy sports ...
22/07/2026
The collaboration produced more than 500 short-form videos across four cities th...
22/07/2026
At 2,600 sq. ft., the new home of digital content houses a main studio, podcast space, and an auxiliary control room
NFL franchises are accelerating their prod...
22/07/2026
Library now available in Engine Player
Another of Eduardo Tarilonte's popular sample libraries has just been moved over to Engine Audio's Engine Pla...
22/07/2026
All-in-one mic & DSP interface overhauled
Cloudvocal have just refreshed the design of their all-in-one mic, audio interface and DSP processor, introducing ...
22/07/2026
The final boss of the lost dual-op-amp circuit
Electro-Harmonix have just introduced the Deluxe Big Muff Pi 2, which they say offers their latest take on t...
22/07/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Proven managed IP solution helps broadcasters confidently navigate the future of broadcast distribution
LTN announces it has completed successful satellite-to-...
22/07/2026
Today, Chaos announced V-Ray 7, update 4, eliminating the need for asset conversions and tool switching, which slow down media and entertainment pipelines. Arti...
22/07/2026
An AI playground for the Project Indigo camera app
Marc Levoy July 22, 2026
0 Comments
At left is the user interface of our Playground, running on an ...
22/07/2026
Custom Consoles announces the completion of a large technical furniture project for Radio T l vision Suisse (RTS) at the networks recently inaugurated productio...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
22/07/2026
Culver City, CA, July 21, 2026 3D streaming infrastructure provider Miris today announced glTF intake, including the binary .glb form, to its spatial streamin...
22/07/2026
Documentary Lo Invisible Captured with Blackmagic PYXIS 6K
Brie Clayton July 21, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's versatile design allowed filmmakers to c...
22/07/2026
AAF Bridge converts AAF and XML Timelines to Ableton Live - and back
Jerome Gardier July 21, 2026
0 Comments
A two-way converter for macOS and Windows...
22/07/2026
From Class to Concert: Explore a Student-Led Production of David Bowies Work Thr...
22/07/2026
A poisoned spy, a secret war, and a small English city contaminated by a deadly chemical weapon. Available on Sky Documentaries from 4 AugustWednesday 22 July 2...
22/07/2026
Audio at Parity: Comscore Launches Transcript-Level Targeting and Measurement wi...
22/07/2026
Arvato Systems and Lobster Enter into a Partnership and Combine the Integration Platform and Managed Services
Flexible integration solutions for cloud, hybrid...
22/07/2026
RT REPORTS NET SURPLUS OF 22.5 MILLION IN 2025...
22/07/2026
In the Opinion of the Censor airs Monday 27 July at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player
In the Opinion of the Censor looks at how films for theatrical release wer...
22/07/2026
Before a healthcare robot can be useful in the real world, it has to learn how the physical world pushes back. Anatomy varies. Instruments bend, press, slip and...
21/07/2026
New research involving a cross-section of Mongolias independent media landscape finds enthusiasm for AI as a tool to improve efficiency, sustainability and resi...
21/07/2026
With winners Spain having already paraded the World Cup trophy through Madrid in front of millions of fans and the dust now settling on an epic tournament of th...
SVG Sit-Down: SimpleBet's Chris Bevilacqua on the Need for Sports Productions To Embrace In-Game Micro-Betting He foresees a truly personalized experience' for the bettor By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S. 
