Scientific Games Processes Astounding 50 Million Bets Via OpenSports

With its roots running all the way back to the 1917 manufacturing of tote boards for racetracks, Las Vegas-based Scientific Games (SG) has matured to become a respected leader in the gambling and lottery space.

They are one of the companies that have successfully managed to bridge the gap between traditional land-based products and integrating new technology to serve the online community, offering excellent games and services for land-based casinos, retail, and online gambling sites.

 And Then the World Stopped

In 2019 the company unveiled their bespoke end-to-end sports betting product, OpenSports. The new solution not only brought their existing products under one umbrella but allowed for their optimisation and the inclusion of cutting-edge technology solutions.

Not only was it a more robust system that would be of great value to bettors, but the system allowed operators to choose from among several modules such as OpenBet, OpenTrade and OpenEngage to build a solution that suited their needs and objectives.

Keith O'Loughlin, SVP Sports at Scientific Games, said:

“At the outset of our transformation process, two key paths were identified. Firstly, our 25-year reputation for stability and reliability were absolutely non-negotiable. Secondly, we set about completely modernizing our technology by shifting services to the cloud and using cutting-edge frameworks for our artificial intelligence needs.”

The real test of the OpenSports technology was meant to take place in 2020, however, with the global lockdown of sporting events the team could only work on improving the system based on its launch data… the question was how would it perform when sports betting reopened?

OpenSports Sets Record Highs

Adjusting to the worlds new normal the UK Grand National Horse Racing Festival 2021 was run behind closed doors, a first for the horseracing event which ran for the first time in 1839. However, this did allow sports betting brands such as Sky Betting and Gaming, Betfair, Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill to take bets on the event using the OpenSports platform.

During the three day event, SG’s OpenSports technology proved to be exceptional, the results speak for themselves:

• Over 50 million bets were placed through OpenSports.
• Over 19 million bets were placed on the Grand National race itself – up 60.5% vs 2019.
• OpenSports delivered 100% platform stability and uptime.
• One OpenSports customer processed over 57,000 peak bets per minute.
• Total account transactions across the three days were up 55% compared to 2019.

In one instance a betting firm recorded a peak of more than 57,000 bets per minute. This result is an astounding 128% increase versus their 2019 peak data.

Buoyed by their success Group CEO Jordan Levin said:

“Teams across SG Digital have transformed our OpenSports technology to meet the demands of the world's leading operators. Whether it's the Grand National, the Big Game or the Melbourne Cup, we have a responsibility to the largest sportsbooks in every corner of the world to deliver on our promises and exceed their expectations.”

The success of SG’s modular approach to sports betting is clear not only in the success they saw with OpenSports over the three-day horse racing festival but in the number of new clients clamouring for their product.

According to O'Loughlin, the company has seen a dramatic increase in new sports betting operators applying for their system. In 2019 the company only deployed their technology to three new clients, however, that number is on track to reach forty new deployments in 2021.