New York-listed supplier Scientific Games recorded a 34 per cent increase in bets on its platform during the UK’s Grand National horse racing festival.
Scientific Games processed 50m bets over the three-day event as on-course and retail betting remained closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the supplier’s OpenSports technology processing over 19m bets on the Grand National race itself, which was won by Minella Times.
The 2021 event was held behind closed doors for the first time due to the pandemic, which also led to the cancellation of the 2020 event.
One OpenSports platform partner broke all Grand National betting records with peak bets exceeding 57,000 per minute, a 128 per cent increase compared to the previous race in 2019, while long-term customers Sky Betting and Gaming, Paddy Power, Betfair, Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill all recorded significant increases in betting volume.
Overall, a record 115,000 peak bets per minute were processed across the UK’s most established operators.
“Over the last three years, teams across SG Digital have transformed our OpenSports technology to meet the demands of the world’s leading operators,” said Jordan Levin, group CEO of digital for Scientific Games.
“Whether it’s the Grand National, the Big Game or the Melbourne Cup, we have a responsibility to the largest sportsbooks in every corner of the world to deliver on our promises and exceed their expectations.”
This year also saw Scientific Games launch its OpenArena sports content aggregation platform, with over 35 third-party sports content providers signed up to the platform and available through a single integration.
“At the outset of our transformation process, two key paths were identified,” said Keith O’Loughlin, senior vice president of sports at Scientific Games. “Firstly, our 25-year reputation for stability and reliability were absolutely non-negotiable. Secondly, we set about completely modernizing our technology by shifting services to the cloud and using cutting-edge frameworks like React and Python for our artificial intelligence needs.
“Combining these ingredients with over 900 dedicated sports technologists, our customer deployment pipeline is now second to none. That’s what makes this Grand National performance even more outstanding.
“The sheer volume of new deployments our teams are delivering in parallel. Three years ago, we were integrating one or two new customers a year. This year, we’re on track to deploy forty across some of the world’s most profitable markets. A huge credit to our global team and the long-term partnership approach we continue to build with market leaders.”
Shares in Scientific Games Corporation (NSQ:SGMS) closed 3.71 per cent lower at $42.70 per share in New York Monday.