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 got a new resurgence of popularity back in 2022, when famous internet star and athlete Jake Paul teamed up with gambling industry veteran Joey Levy to found Betr, a bookmaker that specializes in micro betting and has its real-money offerings available in Massachusetts and Ohio. With more and more of the sports betting world going online, there is an ever-increasing amount of innovative wagering operators, like Betr, entering the market.

Micro Betting vs Live Betting. What is the difference?

Now, let’s compare micro sports betting with live betting. While traditional betting only allows players to place wagers before the start of a match, the latter allows them to place their bets during the game. Live betting is considered to be a step up from traditional betting, however, it is quite limited when compared to the offerings of micro betting platforms. Most of the time, live bets are only allowed to happen during a specific time frame, such as between two halves of a game, after a play, or during an early quarter or period. They are also placed on the outcome of the game or something closely related to it, just like traditional wagers.

Microbetting, on the other hand, is much more flexible than both traditional and live wagers, as it allows betting to take place at any time throughout a game. However, the most important distinction between the two types is that micro betting allows placing bets on a lot more events than just the outcome of the match. This includes everything from betting on which team or which player will score the next point, to how many goals each team will score and in what way. Microbetting’s flexibility also helps the niche in terms of appeal, as companies offering micro wagering generally deliver a much more thrilling experience. Speaking of which, let’s quickly take a look at which operators offer micro betting to their player bases.

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:

Each of the aforementioned operators offers a wide selection of betting opportunities, with most of them having a mobile app available to make the betting process a lot smoother and accessible to a wider range of players. Most of them operate in a variety of jurisdictions, although all of them are available in the United States, where micro wagering is quickly becoming the most popular form of betting. They also feature extensive collections of sports to bet on, but which of them is best suited for micro betting? Let’s find out!

What are the best sports for Micro Betting?

While micro betting provides a high standard of entertainment in the vast majority of all sports, the pace of the events in a given match, along with the availability of microbetting opportunities, are a vital part of what enables micro-wagering to achieve unbeatable bettor engagement rates. Let’s take a look at a few microbetting sports that maximize the entertainment and satisfaction rates of betting enthusiasts, starting with one of the industry’s most popular ones, football.

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. Players will be able to bet on a number of engaging wagering options, such as who will score the next goal and what type of shot it will be. 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. Micro Betting opportunities in hockey are quite similar to that of football, as players can wager on how many goals will be scored and who will score them, among many others.

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. Bettors can place micro wagers on how many swings each player will take to get the ball in a hole, how many pars and birdies they will get, and if there will be a hole-in-one during the game.

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.

Motorsports

Motorsports of various forms can be excellent microbetting sports, as they can offer a plethora of micro wagering opportunities for bettors along with an excellent pace perfectly suited for the pastime. Players can bet on everything from which teams and which athletes will be on the podium, to which drivers will be fastest around a particular sector of the track, which ones will pit first, and many others. They are also great microbetting sports because of the diversity they offer, as motorsports events can last from a few minutes to 24 hours.

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, delivering a memorable and engaging experience each time, which will also have the side effect of enhancing user retention and churn rates for the operator. In turn, these higher player retention rates will 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 to its fullest extent. Let’s explore some of the challenges of micro wagering up 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 being bet on and micro betting can be done without it as well, having an integrated stream of the aforementioned event will deliver the best results. The main reason for this is to synchronize wagering options with their corresponding events, as any delays or significant latency can degrade micro wagering’s 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

The majority of wagering companies rely on the services of betting data providers to facilitate their operations. However, when compared to traditional wagering, there are far fewer wagering providers working in the microbetting niche, while the services of those that do offer micro wagering data are often quite a bit more expensive than their traditional counterparts. Because of this, many micro betting operators utilize in-house solutions to deliver their services, which often involve various sorts of machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms that 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.

• International betting

While microbetting offers numerous benefits for bettors, to take advantage of the opportunities it presents, users will need to be able to view the sports matches they want to bet on in real time. While this isn’t a frequent problem micro betting operators face, international ones may see lower participation rates compared to traditional bets for some championships that are popular all around the world. Gambling firms focusing on a specific country or region may also not be able to offer micro wagering on some sports championships if matches are held at less than ideal times of the day locally, such as at night.

• 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!