Artificial Intelligence is becoming more of an entrenched tool across every industry. This includes sports. And the impact AI now has across the industry is about to expand.
To be sure, we are not about to see games and matches played by advanced robotics. At least…not yet. But according to multiple experts, AI is now having a material effect on sports betting in the United States. We are not just talking about how operators use it for cybersecurity, or to automate certain processes. This is instead something you will probably only read about in the best online sportsbook reviews: how customers are attempting to use AI to give themselves a leg up against “the house.”
A New Startup Company is Using AI to Help Sports Bettors Make Decisions
In a recent and extensive feature on how AI is being integrated into legal sports betting, Kelly Cohen of Boardroom spoke with Megan Lanham, the CEO and co-founder of Rithmm AI, a company that, by their own description, provides “Smart Sports Predictions. Backed by AI. Built for speed.” In essence, the product model offers sports betting advice to prospective gamblers.
Consider this excerpt from Cohen’s piece:
“And if you are an average, everyday sports bettor? Have no fear, AI is for you, too. ‘Bettors seem to get decision paralysis when they see too much data,’ Lanham told Boardroom. The Boston-based startup uses AI betting models to provide insights. So, a little more than asking ChatGPT who will win the game or if Lamar Jackson will be over or under 300 total yards. ‘One of the things our app does specifically is target high ROI predictions that also have high win rates – stuff that previously was impossible to do manually. This way, people know they’re making better, smarter bets. All of this is automated on the backend by our own AI,’ she explained.”
While the piece does not delve into the success rates of “high ROI predictions,” this seems like a product that sportsbooks in the USA would oppose. Yet, as it turns out, the tech is something they will be using to their advantage.
Sportsbooks May be Championing a New Consumer Experience
On its face, AI betting models could pose an existential threat to sportsbook profit margins. However, companies seem to be using this data to craft more personalized experiences.
“With AI, we now have the technical foundation necessary to scale truly personalized experiences,” Mark Antal of Staked AI tells Cohen. “[R]esearch shows that personalization drives a 25 percent revenue lift for digitally native businesses – in sports betting, where operators are spending billions on acquisition, that translates to massive growth opportunity through personalizing the fan experience.”
Through the use of AI, sportsbooks will have access to which types of wagers customers prefer, and in which they invest most frequently. They can use this information not only on a mass scale, but to tailor experiences to each individual user.
The intel may not be specific to wager types, either. They could pay for outside services that alert them to which clients have paid for AI betting prediction models. All of that information can be used to provide targeted marketing, an umbrella that will cover promotional campaigns, betting bonuses, and eventually, maybe even transaction limits.
It is here that we arrive at the future of the marketing industry in general. Because if sportsbooks are reinventing how they interact with clients, you better believe brands across other industries are doing the same.
AI is the Future of Marketing
A a piece published by Harvard’s Professional and Executive Development department gets to the heart of how AI is becoming—and will remain—ubiquitous in the marketing field:
“When marketers develop strategies to figure out what consumers want, they traditionally have examined demographic trends and surveys, plus intuition and assumptions based on past performance. AI has changed that approach dramatically. Algorithms are now analyzing customer interactions in real time, predicting consumer behavior and personalizing content. Recommendation engines analyze browsing history and purchase patterns to suggest products that specific consumers might be interested in. Marketers who once reacted to consumer behavior can now predict it and create personalized campaigns.”
There is that word again: “personalizing.” And while this predictive personalization is relatively new, it is already being deployed in mass.
Think about your day-to-day life, and you will come to realize that you are interacting with a form of AI marketing at every turn. From Spotify-generated playlists and streaming services’ “Suggested for you” to the ads you see while scrolling through web pages and apps on your phone, AI marketing is ingrained into your lifestyle.
Experts are calling this the era of “hyper-personlization.” And many anticipate that everything we do will eventually be an extension of the “for you” tab. This, of course, brings with it ethical concerns. Hyper-personalization may be okay for retail purchases, but it can box users into a silo of their own curation elsewhere, making them uniquely susceptible to deep-fakes and disinformation campaigns. This is considered hilarious when referencing memes. The takes are higher when it comes to politics, news, medicine, etc.
To what end these concerns—among others—will be addressed remain to be seen. Some predict AI will be reined in. But the dearth of restrictions in place for companies suggest otherwise. If anything, it is just the opposite: AI marketing isn’t just here to stay. It appears to be the future of how brands interact with customers and targeted demographics, period.
