(AsiaGameHub) –   Looking ahead at how BetBuilders will evolve ahead of the World Cup, Tamazi Gambashidze, Head of the Sports Brand Experience Department at Adjarabet, shared two key factors that can help bring the product to new audiences.

Gambashidze also noted his view that slightly raising margins for BetBuilders makes sense, during his conversation with iGaming Expert about sportsbook products during this summer’s major sporting event.

iGaming Expert: Could you elaborate on how you think bet builders will change over the coming years?

Tamazi Gambashidze: Artificial intelligence and personalization will further advance BetBuilders. The more data we incorporate, the more efficient the tool will become, as every user will receive tailored suggestions based on their past betting activity.

A wider range of sports and betting markets will be added. In my part of the world, BetBuilders are still a relatively new feature, so not many users have tried them yet, but by the end of the 2020s, roughly half of all bettors could be placing wagers via BetBuilder.

I’d also love to see BetBuilders expand into in-play betting, as from our experience, most users currently place pre-match bets, but adding this functionality would ultimately boost user engagement.

iGaming Expert: Is it a given that operators must raise margins on BetBuilders to keep them appealing to users?

Tamazi Gambashidze: Slightly raising margins makes sense, given the high level of competition in the BetBuilder space. The correlations between different betting markets are stronger, and the underlying logic hinges on whether one event or action occurs, which makes the likelihood of a linked action happening far greater.

Users only see straightforward odds, and from our experience, they don’t understand why BetBuilder odds are lower than those for individual standalone markets. To avoid this negative user response, bookmakers will most often adjust margins for BetBuilder wagers.

iGaming Expert: How significant a platform will the World Cup be for BetBuilders and sportsbook user engagement?

Tamazi Gambashidze: The World Cup is the marquee event that every online gambling operator has been anticipating, with promotions like free-to-play games and tournament brackets driving activity. A huge number of products are being tailored for the World Cup, as it offers an ideal chance to trial new features and concepts.

The majority of betting markets can’t be combined in a single betslip, and matches are mostly treated as separate entities (apart from the final matchday of the group stage), so BetBuilders are the perfect option for users who enjoy multi-wager bets, letting them take part in single-game multi bets.

iGaming Expert: What kind of impact will second-screen engagement have on European football fans during the World Cup?

Tamazi Gambashidze: Game kickoff times are really inconvenient for European fans. Picture having to place bets at 2 a.m., 4 a.m., or 5 a.m. — that would be a total nightmare. But given the scale of this tournament, I think in-play betting will still remain popular.

Second-screen engagement will help drive interest in some new football betting markets, and micro-betting, which is far less common in Europe than it is in the United States, is set to gain traction during the World Cup thanks to this type of engagement.

iGaming Expert: What will the key drivers be for cross-selling sportsbook users to casino products during the World Cup?

Tamazi Gambashidze: The World Cup is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for cross-selling. I recall during Euro 2024, when my home country Georgia competed for the first time, we saw a massive jump in users who engaged with multiple of our products.

There is a clear divide between countries that are competing in the World Cup and those that are not.

For this tournament’s debutant teams: Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan. Online betting is legal in three of these nations, so this will be a massive opportunity for operators in those three countries to cross-sell sportsbook users and attract customers to their other product lines.

iGaming Expert: Are there any key steps operators can take to keep users engaged after their first bet of the tournament?

Tamazi Gambashidze: The most critical factor is to make the sportsbook as user-friendly as possible. For regular sportsbook users, things can stay largely the same, but for new users, they prefer a sportsbook that is as simple and straightforward as possible.

Another major piece of the puzzle is to keep users active from the first day of the tournament right through to the final match. If you can pull that off, you’ll turn them into loyal, long-term customers.