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Technology has been at the forefront in the advance of the betting industry. Few businesses have benefitted more from innovations involving mobile devices, allowing people all over the globe to wager on the go within legal parameters.
Now the next stage of technological progression is on the horizon with the use of artificial intelligence on the rise in the betting industry. Bettors in the United Kingdom and Ireland have access to programs such as the Beth betting tool that aid their quest for success in wagering on horse racing. Systems such as this process and evaluate all available data, and present it in a manner that is simplistic to consider. Ultimately, the days of number-crunching are behind us, as tools like this can process them without delay.
The artificial intelligence system calculates all the key factors that go into a horse race, whether it be the pedigree of a competitor, their form, the weather, and the condition of the track. All of the data is input into the tool before it determines the best option for the punter to back. Artificial intelligence removes human bias from the equation, which is a common downfall of bets. It focuses on the facts on the matter rather than sentiment or a gut feeling.
This particular AI program has specialized in horse racing, although there’s no reason that in the future tools could be developed to spread further afield to work with the major sports in the United States, such as the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Horse racing can be unpredictable at times, perhaps more so in the major races when there are several elite competitors in the field. However, on regular meets the horses with the shorter odds or the best pedigree tend to win out, making it a perfect sport for AI systems to work with, highlighting the slight nuances between the top contenders.
The NFL, NBA, and NHL all have insights that have a statistical grounding. Indeed, teams are adopting more of an analytical approach in their decision-making. However, it would be very interesting to see artificial intelligence programs used by bettors on baseball due to the reams of statistical information that is present in the game, detailing analysis on players and teams to the nth degree.
Bill James invented the term Sabermetrics, breaking down all of the key statistics in the world of baseball. It was then adapted into a team-building ethos by the Oakland Athletics and their general manager Billy Beane along with Paul DePodesta.
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Those statistics can almost predict the action on the field and are used by teams, and also betting companies to tabulate their odds. If statistics can be utilized in that setting, they could also be deployed to enable bettors to refine their selections for betting on baseball. Details on how a particular batter fares against a certain pitcher or types of pitcher could be relevant, or on the other hand how a pitcher fares against a particular batting line-up. Baseball has a lot of criteria that would be of great interest, especially to a system that relies on facts rather than bias or belief.
If it works in the realm of horse racing, there’s no reason to believe further programs could not be adapted to succeed elsewhere. The revolution could be coming towards betting on American sports sooner than we realize.
