At the World Cup this summer, bettors around the world will be presented with more options than ever in both creating their own multi-leg betting propositions and being presented with pre-packaged selections.
Nikos Zygouris, Head of Sportsbook Product at Altenar, Jeevan Jeyaratnam, Chief Betting Officer at Abelson Sports, and Aidan O’Sullivan, Head of Commercial, Trade at OpenBet, look at the latest innovations hitting the sports betting space, with a focus on the continued surge of bet builder-style products.
SBC News: How is the way in which bettors make selections on sportsbooks changing and what trends do you expect to see coming to the fore at the World Cup?
Aidan O’Sullivan: We are seeing a fundamental shift as in-play betting continues to explode in popularity. Global gross win from in-play betting is forecasted to grow from $28 billion in 2024 to $47 billion by 2028, and we expect the World Cup to be a primary catalyst.
The modern bettor wants to craft live, multi-leg stories as the action unfolds. During major tournaments, our BetBuilder turnover often surges from 5% to over 20%. For this World Cup, our key message is the unmatched depth of our improved in-play offering.
We are shifting our philosophy toward real-time, single-match engagement. It’s about offering lightning-fast pricing for live player props and situational combinations that reflect the narrative of the game.
Nikos Zygouris: Bettors are moving away from outcome-only bets toward more narrative-driven selections. Instead of focusing only on who will win, users increasingly combine player props with regular markets to create their own story around a match.
We expect a massive surge in player performance parlays at the World Cup. Through AIS (Altenar Intelligence System), we can surface recommended events, trending bets and popular bet builders based on historical betting behaviour and jurisdictional relevance. The trend is towards personalised feeds, contextual navigation and multi-leg combinations that reflect each user’s betting path.
Jeevan Jeyaratnam: One of the most improved and possibly least flashy elements of a modern sportsbook is the search facility. Only a couple of years ago, the bet365 app search involved a rather hidden swipe left at the top of the screen.
These days, however, it is front and centre of the offer. I personally find a strong search function incredibly useful when trying to navigate a sportsbook UI. There can be a lot of noise on the front-end of a sportsbook app, with many calls to action and pre-built bet builders galore.
Being able to utilise search is brilliant for those bettors who want to bet on a certain fixture, player or market, particularly at busy times in the sporting calendar.
Player betting is increasingly important and that trend is certain to continue for the World Cup. Operators will be doing all they can to push punters to multi-leg bet builder bets, with player props a key component.
SBCN: To what extent is UI / UX evolving in sportsbooks generally, and across bet builder-style products especially?
JJ: Increasingly, punters are following individual players and some of the biggest sportsbooks now recognise this trend. bet365 is an example of a book that has developed a separate tab listing the most popular players and all their individual stats markets.
This, of course, supports the notion that player props are vitally important to the success of a sportsbook. Bet builders are predominantly high margin and recreational in nature. They also benefit from the addition of player markets. It is no wonder that operators are keen to push both bet builders and player markets.
With so much choice within a sportsbook’s menus, helping guide the bettor to interesting bets is also to the fore. For the World Cup I’d expect a narrative-driven approach to really take-off. The key is to present compelling propositions that are not difficult to understand and that don’t require added research, given that bettors are often keen to make quick decisions.
NZ: The most intuitive user interfaces are moving from complex data grids to contextual modules that reduce navigation and clicks. A successful lobby gathers relevant bets, statistics, standings and team or player content in one place.
In bet builder, the focus is on improving flow and visualisation. Rather than sorting only by market, users can sort by their favourite players and find all related bets grouped together. This makes it easier to translate their thinking into a bet. Personalised recommendations, popular bet builders and improved visuals for player props help remove ‘tab fatigue’ and create a smoother experience.
AOS: UI/UX has moved from being a utility to a primary differentiator. Bettors now expect an entertainment-grade experience comparable to top-tier streaming platforms. At OpenBet, we have moved beyond basic functionality to focus on discoverability and dynamic surfacing.
Through our partnership with Checkd Dev, we are evolving from static lists into Trending BetBuilder widgets. These are dynamic, API-driven interfaces that reflect real-time market interest, local trading priorities, and regional sentiment.
By reducing the friction between research and execution and providing instant statistical validation, such as a player’s shots-on-target record over their last five games, we bridge the gap between user intent and placement. This strategy turns the sportsbook into a proactive content hub.
By layering dynamic front-end technology onto an operator’s existing home page, we simplify the betting process from decision to execution. Ultimately, this drives higher conversion, deeper player engagement, and a measurable increase in incremental revenues.
SBCN: With so many matches taking place at the World Cup, how can operators stimulate the interest of bettors in creating bets around games that don’t directly impact their country of choice?
NZ: The key is smart curation, which we’ve achieved through our recommendation engine and a dedicated competition lobby. By gathering items relevant to specific user IDs and surfacing similar events, trending bets and popular bet builders, operators can encourage quick and easy discovery.
Highlighting star players and providing team and player-specific bet cards creates familiarity. The lobby can include standings, outright views, props and further content so users can monitor progress without extra navigation. By minimising clicks and presenting contextual prompts, operators make it easier for bettors to engage with matches beyond their own country.
JJ: With the extended format of this year’s edition, there will many matches, especially earlier in the tournament, that carry little interest for large swathes of the audience.
The narrative-driven approach, mentioned above, is perfect for engaging fans who have little to no narrative of their own for a particular game, and little previous knowledge about players from some of the smaller nations competing.
Producing engaging content with adjacent pre-canned bet builder opportunities that fit the woven narrative will be key to stimulating bettors. Alternatively, or in parallel I’m sure, operators will have plenty of bonusing to hand out during some of the less interesting games.
AOS: The key lies in automated narrative creation and the intelligent packaging of the World Cup alongside other sports. By surfacing digestible statistics as a clear call to action, operators can make any fixture commercially viable. For our Australian partners, the favourable time zones for this tournament offer a unique opportunity to maximise these off-peak matches through tailored in-play content.
However, high traffic during a World Cup puts immense pressure on the technical stack. Success requires flawless uptime to maintain stability during sharp spikes in activity, alongside rigorous scale modelling. We utilise complex simulations and stress scenarios to ensure trading, risk, and content delivery remain seamless under record loads.
Automated tools like Trending BetBuilder allow operators to localise content across multiple jurisdictions without increasing manual trading pressures. This ensures that all matches are presented with relevant, pre-packaged bets that align with local risk appetites and market trends, ensuring 24/7 engagement across the entire tournament.
SBCN: What is the key to commanding the attention of US bettors when it comes to multi-leg selections at the World Cup?
AOS: The US market features a high concentration of in-play bettors who spend nearly double that of pre-match users. With matches occurring during peak viewing hours, the World Cup is the perfect environment for our In-Play BetBuilder product. Operators are using our newer front-end integration to offer an experience with lightning-fast bet creation and real-time pricing.
Matches occur during peak US viewing hours, creating a prime environment for high-volume wagering. To capitalise on this, operators must balance aggressive engagement strategies with robust compliance and risk management. As fans move across North America and LatAm, fragmented regulations and the movement of players present unique challenges.
Our OpenBet Locator and Neccton’s AI-enhanced tools, recently rolled out with Fanatics Betting & Gaming, ensure that as engagement scales, so does player protection, AML monitoring, and geolocation accuracy.
JJ: The US is the home of the parlay, the stat and the player prop bet. This promises to form the central approach for operators and it’s hard to disagree with it.
Single game parlays are fast becoming a cornerstone for regulated sportsbooks and I don’t see many differences between US and European audiences with this approach. Building a story around the games and offering bets that support that narrative will be an effective strategy either side of the pond.
NZ: Same-game parlays are booming in the US, particularly across the NFL and NBA, so expectations around multi-leg betting are already well established. Depth of content is therefore the standard for operators who want to resonate with World Cup bettors.
The more market offerings available, especially around player props, the more meaningful and detailed combinations users can create. Our Competition Lobby View acts as a specialised, tournament-first hub where high-demand builders and props are featured front and centre.
Improved visualisation, intuitive flow and grouping bets around specific players make multi-leg creation easier. Promotions, such as insurance on one losing leg, further enhance the experience and align with what US bettors already expect.
SBCN: Finally, looking beyond the competition, how will Bet Builder-style products continue to evolve?
NZ: Bet builder will continue to evolve through balanced investment in improvements, content depth and promotional layers. Expansion into additional sports, including tennis and further advancements in soccer and US sports, will extend the offering. UX improvements will focus on better visualisation and helping users translate their story into a bet more easily.
Personalised recommendations, similar-event suggestions and popular builders will become more prominent. Promotions traditionally applied to other bet types, such as insurance and additional boosts formats, will increasingly integrate into bet builder as standard expectations.
JJ: Expect to see bet builders growing and encompassing all kinds of sports going forward. The success of packaging contingent bets shows little sign of ceasing, given their popularity for the operators and the bettor.
Maybe we’ll see more bet builders around micro markets: a five or 10-minute bet builder including granular player stats could be appealing to many. Adding further in-play options seems to be a logical route for the future of the Bet Builder.
AOS: The next frontier is the convergence of in-play and personalisation. Live wagering already accounts for over half of all online wagers globally.
Our In-Play BetBuilder is the growth engine for this future, combining proprietary pricing feeds and trading logic to enable real-time combinations. AI-driven personalisation will also help to redefine the user journey.
We are investing heavily in AI to enhance everything from automated trading and fraud detection to hyper-localised content delivery. We are ensuring that bet builders presented to customers are the most commercially prioritised and relevant to each specific user’s historical behaviour.
This move from curation to automation allows trading teams to adjust parameters in real-time without waiting on third-party updates.
Our upcoming launch with Interwetten will serve as a primary benchmark for how these dynamic, automated products can drive a dramatic uplift in performance, paving the way for a more sophisticated, responsive, and profitable global sports-betting ecosystem.
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