Volume 37 | April 22, 2021
WEEKLY EDITION
April 22, 2021
SPORTS DATA 101 – AN OVERVIEW OF THE TECHNOLOGY AND WAYS WE ACCESS HIGH-QUALITY, REAL-TIME SPORTS DATA
Let’s talk about how the sausage is made and distributed. Most real-time sports event data, such as scores, are collected by human beings working for a data feed service. These employees or contractors are sometimes referred to as “scouts.” These people enter this data into specialized software provided by the data feed service. Quality assurance processes manage this manual inflow of data using a combination of supervisors and systems that can flag data entries that fall outside likely norms.
Automation is also a significant part of this data collection process. Internet bots, or robots, are software applications that run scripts to perform tasks on the internet. It is estimated that half of all traffic on the internet is bot traffic. Sports data collection bots can scrape HTML from web pages containing the data. When that data isn’t available directly on a crawled webpage, the bot can use specialized requests for data, such as Ajax crawling, which causes the website to respond with the data for which the data feed service needs. There are several other different methods for pulling this data from third-party web pages. In most cases, these are just technically different methods for requesting data from a web service. These still result in a response message containing structured data or a rendered webpage that can be scraped or read using optical character recognition, also called OCR.
REQUESTING DATA FROM THE CONTENT DELIVERY NETWORK
Whether a human being or a system collects this data, the data is then standardized and saved to a massive database. The database is connected to a web service, making this data available through the internet. This web service hosts the application programming interface, better known as an API, which returns specific data as requested from a third party — the customers of the sports data firm. The API is essential as the customers of the sports data firms aren’t always looking for a massive blob of all available data associated with a game. Instead, they’re looking for a particular set of data needed for a business purpose, supported by the API rules defined in the API request. From simple requests like, “what is the current Game score?” to “How many Games did Team A lose with a score of ‘0’.” These are all examples of pull requests for data.
In addition to requests for specific API data, we have Push APIs. Push APIs don’t wait for requests for information. These Push APIs send time-sensitive information to a customer as soon as the information is available. Push APIs know to send this information to customers because customers subscribe or connect to the feed as a known client. These Push messages are essential for sportsbook operators and sports media companies who need this information immediately to resolve a bet or display an outcome to viewers.
From the database to the web service to the application programming interface, all of this technical infrastructure makes up the Content Delivery Network (CDN). The CDN enables the casino gaming, sportsbook, and iGaming industry efficiently and at a massive scale. What remains undiscussed here is the engineering required to make this system react with the shortest delays possible.
LIES, DAMN LIES, AND STATISTICS
The CDN databases normalize and store data to quickly and efficiently make data requests as fast and easy as possible for its APIs. Customers of the data feed services often need this historical data aggregated in different ways. These customers use API requests to pull just the information they need and then transform them into customized data sets to meet their business needs. Other customers have this process automated, incrementally adding these records they receive to cloud-based online analytical processing tools for nearly real-time reporting and analysis.
We hope you enjoyed this end-to-end high-level overview of the technology and processes related to data feed services. If you’re interested in talking to us about how our client partners provide best-in-class API access to the world’s most extensive sets of sports data and sports data marketing services, please reach out. We’re ready to talk!
Related Client Partners
Liked the article? Check out our Client Partners below.
WELCOME TO YOUR ROUNDUP OF EUROPEAN IGAMING NEWS
WELCOME TO YOUR ROUNDUP OF EUROPEAN IGAMING NEWS
Our European weekly iGaming feature article summarizes the thoughts of Jake Pollard, an experienced journalist and editor who has covered the online gaming and betting industry for many years. He has written for the leading media outlets as well as operators and suppliers in the igaming space. His areas of focus are wide-ranging and include regulatory developments in the US, emerging markets in South America and how European countries are adapting to a decade of igaming regulation.
EU gambling groups’ moves westwards to continue
Another European operator goes stateside. William Hill is, so far, the biggest UK operator to have been acquired by a U.S. gambling group as Caesars Entertainment completed its $4bn (£2.9bn/€3.35bn) acquisition of the UK bookmaker this week. Caesars will only take William Hill’s U.S. business and the rest of the group’s European activities will be sold.
Other European operators are eyeing up listings for their U.S.-focused brands. FanDuel parent company Flutter is considering a float for the DFS and sports betting market leader, while BetMGM joint venture partner and operator Entain is still firmly in MGM’s sights after its first $11bn bid was rebuffed by the Ladbrokes Coral and bwin owner at the end of last year. UK sports data specialist Genius Sports recently floated with dMY Technology Group and Switzerland-based Sportradar is expected to soon join the fray.
As U.S. iGaming continues to grow and spread thanks to new state regulations, it is not surprising that JV stakeholders like Caesars and MGM want to further consolidate their control over the revenue streams and technology platforms that are key to running strong operations. Newer entrants like Las Vegas Sands are also looking at iGaming options, the M&A wave is likely to continue for a while.
European operators continue to feel regulatory pressure
Sweden’s banks have withdrawn their services for licensed operators, according to the country’s online gambling trade association Branscheforenigen för Onlinespel (BOS); which has complained that its members have had to deal with account closures and the termination of agreed payment services.
In a statement, BOS said the country’s main banking groups had “actively resigned or refused to offer services to the member companies: SEB, Swedbank, Nordea, Handelsbanken, DNB Nor and Danske Bank.” The trade body has demanded that Sweden’s financial authority, Finansinspektionen, explain why licensed businesses were denied basic banking and payment services without due diligence.
BOS general secretary Gustaf Hoffstedt said: “The decision seems to have been taken based on the industry’s general reputation rather than any AML concern or similar from the bank regarding the individual client.” The banks’ measures are drastic, but they are not a complete surprise. Hoffstedt told this reporter shortly after regulation in 2019 that licensed operators were already having trouble with banks. Unfortunately, the fact that they are regulated and pay taxes doesn’t seem to make much difference.
SCCG Management: New and Upcoming Events
SCCG MANAGEMENT AND SHANK MARKETING ANNOUNCE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP FOR IGAMING AND SPORTS BETTING
SCCG Management and Shank Marketing are pleased to announce a strategic partnership to create a bridge between land-based casino marketing strategies and sports betting, online gambling, and social casino products available in the SCCG Management suite of services.
STEPHEN CRYSTAL TRAVELING TO CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
Stephen Crystal is in the process of planning and scheduling travel to Central California, where he will be meeting with clients and partners in the first week of May.
If you are interested in reaching out to Stephen Crystal regarding these trips, please contact him directly at stephen.crystal@sccgmanagement.com.
Gaming Americas Meetups
Stephen Crystal will be participating in a panel discussion for the GA2QM Virtual Conference on April 29, 2021. Be on the lookout for more information on this conference as it is released.
Three years ago, SCCG Management embarked on a journey with Betfred to facilitate “market access” for Sports Betting and iGaming across the USA.
Five states have been announced with another handful to follow in short order! In addition to market access, we coordinate brand investment strategy in sponsorships with professional sports teams and organizations and events.
The Denver Broncos Football Club and the Colorado Rockies are two such deals that have been announced with others in the pipeline to be announced soon. Yesterday, Betfred Sports showcased its new partnership with the Iowa Cubs on its corporate LinkedIn page and I am excited to share that news here and to highlight our continued strategic role in building the Betfred brand in the USA.
Not only do we have a new partnership with such an amazing team but there will also be a brand new Betfred Sports Lounge that’s located in the left field!
The Iowa Cubs is an organization that shares our family values and epitomizes our notion of “team”! We are excited to join your team!
Stephen Crystal participated in a Media Mavens podcast (https://mediamavenspodcast.com) which will be released on all major podcast platforms on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.
ABOUT MEDIA MAVENS PODCAST
Media Mavens Podcast is all about sharing the latest and greatest trends, topics and tribulations with industry leading guests to talk about innovation, technology & entertainment to include sports, music, health and how we are making a difference in the world.
Media Maven Podcast is now releasing new series on timely and topical issues and trends surrounding, Sports, Travel, Technology and Special Interests.
LINKS TO THE PODCAST BY PUBLISHER CAN BE FOUND BELOW:
- Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/media-mavens-podcast/id1532812196
- Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/4Z8IMlEI3zpKblWCnqfg20
- Google https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8xMjQ3MjE5LnJzcw==
- Amazon https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/b3a514e5-e720-4128-b7c5-bce6002ff6ee/Media-Mavens-Podcast
- iHeart – https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-media-mavens-71516304/
- Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/media-mavens-2
- Pandora https://www.pandora.com/podcast/media-mavens-podcast/PC:36387
- Tune In – https://tunein.com/podcasts/News–Politics-Podcasts/Media-Mavens-p1353360/
- Podchaser https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/media-mavens-podcast-1454944
- Deezer https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1769742
- Player FM https://player.fm/series/media-mavens-podcast
- Podcast Addict https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3112281
- Listen Notes https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/media-mavens-podcast-sarah-miller-MlTHX2OtDFJ/
