Blurring the virtual world and reality
SPORTS BETTING
VIRTUAL SPORTS: FROM NICHE ‘NICE-TO-HAVE’ TO SPORTS BETTING’S ‘MUST-HAVE’ FROM A PRIMITIVE BASEBALL GAME in
the 1960s to complex simulations designed to thrill and engage sports betting fans in highprofile environments like Germany’s Bundesliga, virtual sports is now a must have product. Sportradar’s Frank Wenzig explains.
BY CHRIS MURPHY
V
irtual Sports have come a long, long way since John Burgeson coded an early form of fantasy baseball for an IBM 1620 back in 1961. With just 20 KB of memory to play with, his game was rudimentary by today’s standards, albeit bleeding edge at the time. Fast-forward to the present day and companies like Sportradar are shining a light into whole new areas of virtual sports, using technology and relentless innovation to push the boundaries of fan engagement. Sharing his views on the subject with SBC Leaders was Frank Wenzig, the firm’s Managing Director, Gaming. “The market has changed beyond recognition in the last 10, 15 years,” he said. “Virtual sports betting solutions have gone from a niche, ‘nice-to-have’ for operators, to a critical component in a sportsbook’s always-on operation. That’s particularly true of the last two years when the reduction in live sport left many operators bereft of content
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