Want to wager on every pitch? Micro-betting trend in sports is on the upswing

Products like Simplebet, owned by former All-American Penn State wrestler Chris Bevilacqua, give fans a constant in-game betting opportunity. It also works for NFL and college football games.

When Kyle Schwarber came to bat in the sixth inning of Game 1 in San Diego, fans could place a live bet on him to hit that home run.Read moreJose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

by Christian Red, For The Inquirer

Published Oct. 26, 2022, 10:21 a.m. ET

Before Kyle Schwarber singled off Padres ace Yu Darvish in the NLCS opener, Phillies fans had to be agonizing over when the team’s $79 million slugger was going to wake up and start raking.

Schwarber entered the NLCS in a 1-for-20 slump with eight strikeouts, but broke out the lumber in a big way along with teammates Rhys Hoskins and Bryce Harper to help propel the Phillies to the World Series. Schwarber singled and homered off Darvish in Game 1 and had two more long balls during the series. He walked three times and scored a run in the clinching Game 5.

Now that Schwarber seems to have a hot bat, Philadelphia sports fans, the diehard and the casual, can add a whole new layer to the in-game experience thanks to the ever-evolving world of sports wagering.

Bettors who use the sportsbook DraftKings on their mobile devices can add a new layer to the gambling experience through Simplebet technology. When a player like Schwarber or Yankees slugger Aaron Judge or Angels two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani strolls to the plate, users can wager on what the outcome will be for any at-bat.

If Ohtani is on the mound, the technology allows users to lay down a bet on whether the right-hander’s next pitch will exceed 95 mph, or whether the pitch will be a slider or a fastball.

“Simplebet offers a much deeper level of fan engagement,” said Chris Bevilacqua, the company’s cofounder and chief executive officer. “Even though Yu Darvish is a great pitcher, a fan may think, ‘I have a feeling in this at-bat that Bryce Harper’s going to get him.’ You can now live bet the plate appearance. Simplebet’s technology enables that.”

Since the Supreme Court’s 2018 landmark ruling that lifted the federal ban on legal sports wagering and struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act , the gaming industry has been booming in states that allow it. There are several sportsbooks that bettors can access to place their wagers. But with technology like Simplebet, a whole new layer to the gaming industry exists beyond betting on the spread.

“Anybody that puts money into a game is more invested and more engaged than just watching the product,” said Bevilacqua, who was born and raised on Long Island and later was an All-American wrestler at Penn State. “In Philadelphia, I put their fans on the top of the list in terms of passionate sports cities. Real-time betting technology allows even the most casual fans to interact with their teams and have more of what I would describe as an entertainment experience.”

In the regular season, Judge and St. Louis Cardinals veteran Albert Pujols were chasing home run milestones — the American League single-season record (Judge) and 700 career homers (Pujols).

“People want to jump in and bet on that,” said Mike Mazzeo, a reporter for Legal Sports Report, which tracks the gaming industry nationally. “Everyone was hoping that Judge would hit that [62nd] home run. Simplebet got a lot of buy-in from people who may not be the sharpest bettors, but they want to wager every Judge at-bat. There was a lot of buzz around that.”

According to Simplebet data from this past year, the company’s markets accounted for $262 million in handle — the amount of money wagered by bettors — over the course of the Major League Baseball season. Not surprisingly, Judge drew the most Simplebet wagers of any player in the majors with 150,000. Judge, who had an MVP-caliber season, broke Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers.

“September revenue numbers showed a national trend of DraftKings drastically closing the gap for No. 1 in betting volume, and micro-betting markets could be a key differentiator,” said Valerie Cross, an analyst for PlayPennsylvania. “In-game or live betting has been a huge hit, and the ability to bet on ‘flash markets’ like the result of the next drive, play or at-bat is proving to be a new popular form of fan and bettor engagement that is still in its infancy.”

Bettors can also get their gambling fix on NFL games using the same technology. That means Eagles fans can wager on everything from what quarterback Jalen Hurts’ next play will be — pass, handoff or rush? — to the over/under on how many yards A.J. Brown will pick up on his next catch.

And Simplebet’s newest innovation goes even further to address one nagging hurdle in the gaming space: latency, or, the delay between the real-time action in a game and what bettors see on TV seconds later.

Through the betr app, users can wager on college football games as the action is unfolding on the field. The app shows the user on the bottom of their screen what betting options are available while at the top of the screen is an animated version of the live football action.

“The Simplebet product moves it closer to what we call a single-screen experience,” said Bevilacqua. “It’s all happening in real time.”