The BetBuilder Race in Next-Generation Sports Betting

Abelson Sports Head of Betting Jeevan Jeyaratnam described the new competitive frontier in BetBuilder products. In his view, technology and pricing have matured enough that the differentiating factor is now user experience and how easily players can discover bets.

Jeyaratnam noted that during the 2026 World Cup, it became clear how risky complex combined bets can be for operators. According to him, two heavy individual bets wiped out player prop winnings across the entire month of June. He argues that large language models could let players type or speak a request and find the matching bet. The AlgoSport Zero product, introduced by AlgoSport at the SBC Lisbon event, was also described in this direction.

Touching on the importance of live BetBuilder, Jeyaratnam said pre-match volume is still higher, but the absence of a cash out feature reduces the product's value. He said the difficulty of live pricing comes less from the math than from matching data sources. He stated that stadium-based data feeds need to work in sync with market pricing and player statistics feeds.

Describing how the Request for Quote (RFQ) structure has grown rapidly on prediction market platforms, Jeyaratnam said market makers are competing with each other for complex bets. He also pointed to Bet365's addition of "steam indicators" to its ready-made bets, which highlight the most popular selections. These developments point to a period in which users can request a price for the combination they have in mind.