What is Microbetting? Micro Sports Betting in 2023 Explained

Live betting has been getting a lot of attention recently, with different sportsbooks coming up with more and more innovative ways of making it appear to the player. One example is micro betting, where players can bet on either smaller parts of the game for higher stakes or make bets just before something important happens in the game. It is estimated that over half of all bets placed in US nowadays are micro bets, but that number is expected to keep growing significantly.

This article will go over everything related to micro sports betting, including what it is, which sportsbooks provide it, the benefits and drawbacks, and the risks associated with it.

What are Micro Bets in 2023?

Micro betting is one of the newer forms of gambling in which people place bets on certain events during a match or game that are not related to the game’s final result. As the word “micro” hints, the bets here are placed on small moments that take place throughout the game, such as the number of goals scored in a set timeframe, the number of home runs hit, or the number of penalty kicks issued. Players can find out whether they’ve won or lost much faster with rapid results, which is what has made microbetting so appealing in recent years.

Though the term has been around for a while now, it recently got a new wave of popularity in 2022 after the famous internet star and athlete Jake Paul announced his sports betting venture, Betr, that specializes in facilitating micro betting. With more and more of the sports world going online, the rise of sportsbook apps, like the Betr app, is growing significantly quicker too!

Micro Betting vs Live Betting. What is the difference?

Now let’s compare micro sports betting with live betting. Live betting is a step up from regular wagering as it allows users to bet during the game. Live betting platforms are considered far more limited than micro betting platforms. Most live bets are allowed to happen during a specific time frame, such as between two halves of the game, after a play or during an early quarter/period. They are also placed on the outcome of the game or something closely related to it. Microbetting, on the other hand, is much more flexible as it allows the betting to take place at any time an opportunity arises. Furthermore, micro betting allows placing bets on a lot more events than live betting.

Which sportsbooks offer Micro Betting?

With the huge demand for micro sports betting, several sportsbooks have jumped on board to provide their players with an unmatched experience. We’ve compiled a short list of some of the most popular iGaming operators that offer micro betting in 2023:

The mentioned companies offer a wide selection of betting opportunities. Most of them offer a mobile app to make the betting process run a lot smoother. The operators feature quite a variety of sports to bet on, but which of them is most adapted for microbetting? Let’s find out!

What are the best sports for Micro Betting?

Micro betting is fun in all sports, but some specific ones have the perfect pace of events to maximize the player’s satisfaction. Some of those sports include:

Football

Football is one of the most popular sports in micro sports betting, with almost all bookmakers offering micro betting on it. Football’s pace of events leaves enough time for a player to analyze their options and act on them, while also being quick enough to retain players for the entirety of the match. Additionally, football also has a lot of opportunities that can appear during a game for players to wager on, such as the next player or team to score a goal, the next team or player to earn a penalty kick and many others.

Basketball

Basketball is another great sport for Micro Betting enthusiasts, as its fast-paced action can present perfect micro-wagering opportunities. However, its strength is also its weakness, as bookmakers will need to ensure the capabilities of their broadcast equipment to keep up with the action.

Hockey

Hockey is very similar to Basketball, although it’s a little slower-paced in comparison. This can be quite advantageous to newer Micro Sports Wagering enthusiasts, allowing them just enough time to make educated bets.

Golf

Golf is one of the slower sports for Micro Betting, however, it still offers plenty of unique opportunities for bettors. For players that prefer having more time to decide on their wagers, Golf could be quite a good option.

Tennis

Tennis is another great option for micro betting, as its quick pace is perfect for the pastime. The sport also offers lots of micro wagering opportunities, making it a great addition to a sportsbook. Players can bet on everything from how many times each player will hit the ball, to how many times it will go off-court, among many other events. However, its relatively longer matches may dissuade some bettors.

What are the benefits of Micro Betting?

Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals, let’s take a look at the benefits of microbetting and understand what exactly has attracted so many players to it.

• Flexibility

The biggest upside of micro betting is obviously its main feature, flexibility. As micro wagering allows players to bet during a game on a number of different opportunities, it will present them with far more options. Additionally, each opportunity will be different than the one before, making sure that players can always wager on their favorite type of event. As a result, micro sports betting provides far more excitement than any other type of wagering. Consequently, micro betting is also way more fruitful for operators, too.

• Speed and lack of stress

Microbetting is quick. After placing a wager, the result doesn’t take much time to arrive. Some might call that a disadvantage, but traditional betting can, in some cases, be more stressful than thrilling. Micro wagering strikes a balance between the lack of excitement and stress, as a player can divide their playing budget and bet on smaller scales. Betting more but in smaller amounts eliminates any fear of losing everything at the end. Consequently, micro wagering may end up being more lucrative on average for a user if they don’t change their budget.

• Higher entertainment value

Due to its fast-paced nature, micro betting will almost always be more entertaining and more thrilling for the players. It will deliver a memorable experience each time, which will have the side effect of increasing user retention rates for the operator. In turn, higher player retention rates increase the operator’s yield. However, due to the pastime’s demanding nature, wagering businesses are going to need that higher income to facilitate it fully. Let’s explore some of its challenges next.

What are the challenges that Micro Betting companies face?

Micro sports betting can bring a lot of advantages to the table for the player, which indicates more work to be done by the sportsbook operator to satisfy its customers. Here are some of the challenges you may face as an operator when dealing with micro bets:

• Streaming

Having access to a high-quality stream of the event being bet on is quite integral to the player experience in micro wagering. While other sports betting methods work perfectly without having a built-in display of the sports event, micro betting works best with it. The main reason for this is to synchronize wagering options with their corresponding events, as any delays can degrade the fast-paced experience. Speaking of which, latency is our next discussion point.

• Latency

Microbetting relies on a high-quality data streaming infrastructure to function. Sometimes events that present a chance to bet will come and go very quickly. It is important that the operator’s live stream of the event has a minimal amount of latency to ensure that the players are up-to-date on what is going on in the game. The process of placing bets needs to be extremely brisk as well to ensure a user won’t miss out on a bet. Both require not only a great connection offered by the operator but also a stable and low-latency connection on the client’s side, which might be a challenge in certain parts of the world.

• Delivery of betting options

Most micro betting operators utilize some sort of machine learning or artificial intelligence algorithm to identify and deliver wagering options during a game. Those algorithms take a lot of power to run and deliver the options quickly, especially as some options might only last a couple of minutes. It is also important to get the options in front of the player as quickly as possible to make sure the user has enough time to look at them and decide on their bet. If a customer can’t think about their options for long enough, they are likely to skip the opportunity altogether.

• Scale

As micro sports betting requires quite a lot of computational power and internet bandwidth to successfully facilitate, scaling a micro betting operation is certainly going to be harder than a regular sports betting business. Each time a new wagering opportunity pops up, a massive group of players are going to be betting simultaneously, submitting a lot of data in a very short amount of time. That has the potential to create too much stress on the operator’s network infrastructure, which could lead to slowdowns or outright crashes.

• Integrity

Microbetting can involve an order of magnitude more wagering transactions than any other sports betting method, which may also cause problems with fraud detection systems. With the number of bets a micro betting operation can generate during an event, fraud detection solutions will have to be working overtime to keep up with the volume of transactions. Additionally, it would be much easier for a malicious actor to slip between the cracks when there’s so much processing happening on the fraud detection servers.

That being said, with enough resources and server rentals, all of these problems are solvable. Of course, larger, more established operators will have less challenges when implementing a micro sports betting solution compared to industry newcomers. Micro betting will require a higher upfront investment to get ready for operation as well as necessitate higher ongoing costs.

Does Micro Betting come with player risks?

Lastly, let’s talk about the risks of microbetting. Due to its very fast-paced nature, the players will experience their feelings of victory and defeat instantly. If a user gets emotionally overwhelmed easily, micro sports betting may not be suitable for them. All those emotions being instantly experienced back to back may take a toll on some players, leading them to act erratically, damaging themselves financially and emotionally. Getting a gambling addiction would also be way easier with micro betting, as the instant action can make it seem like a jackpot or a big win is only a few more wagers away.

Should you give Micro Betting a go?

To sum it up, microbetting is a tried and true method of wagering that is still novel in growing markets. It is expected to surpass any other form in the near future and attain a very high market share in jurisdictions where sports wagering is still expanding. But should you give it a go? Whether you’re a player or a gambling operator, in our opinion, you should try it out (of course, taking all the risks into account). As mentioned, micro betting has the opportunity to provide a new form of entertainment at a new pace that you or your customers have never experienced before. There’s a big enough potential that if you have the resources to implement it into your business, you should at least do a trial run. Otherwise, just enjoy the fast-paced action responsibly!