“Crash” type games have certainly done anything but crash in the online casinos that have been rolling them out – even if “traditional” online casino players seem less interested. Except the support is coming from crypto casinos, because they certainly mimic watching your virtual coin go up and down as you hustle to buy and sell at the right time…
When Betlabs unveiled Boost Bet at SiGMA Africa, there was a lot of “Hey, is this crash for sports betting?” Maybe. But I reckon it’s more like a slot’s “bonus buy” where for some generally large multiple of your stake you get dropped right into the slots feature. While in slots that’s been a controversial innovation (see regulators banning the feature, Play ‘n Go’s survey of Swedish players who are largely against it etc), it does provide for a potentially bigger win, albeit at a premium. Personally, I tell players to avoid buying the bonus, or if they must, drop down to the lowest stake.
The patented Boost Bets algorithm delivers a higher return when the team you backed beats the other guys by a significant margin. I call it a “blowout bonus buy,” but Betlabs is actually implementing it as another market in the sportsbook; in a football match, bet on your preferred winner and if they beat their opponents by four, five or six goals, the rewards correspondingly scale. It’s perhaps a little like points betting, although here there is no downside risk for bettors; with points betting the payout increases linearly per point, but with Boost Bets the payout increases exponentially.
As an industry, we’re historically slow at embracing innovation... But when they do happen, as in-play live betting has, it does add another revenue stream for operators and a more positive experience for players
So let’s walk through Betlabs’ prototype. You have your standard 1X2 markets, but click on a tab to see Boost Bets markets and you are presented with the 1X2 odds and ‘new’ columns showing your return on taking a Boost Bet rather than standard odds. You’re still making one bet, but you can see the possible return if your team beats the other team by X goals. The “X goals” is a weighted function of the probability that team 1 will crush team 2 by two, three, four or more goals (or vice versa).
And the upside can be significant.
In a fictional match-up between Tottenham and Manchester United (see Figure 1), backing Tottenham will pay $32 on a $10 1X2 bet (regardless of the margin of victory). Placing a $10 Boost Bet on Tottenham would pay at odds of 1.70, or $17 if Tottenham were to win by one goal. That’s as far as most sportsbooks go. But with Boost Bet, if Tottenham wins by two, the payoff is 2.85. By three, 6.75. By four 18.2 and by five or more goals would pay at odds of 53 to 1. Of course, Manchester United would have to roll over for that best return to happen, but you get the idea (an idea that is similar to handicap markets). And stranger things have happened…
While surprising score differences are not impossible, Liverpool crushed Bournemouth 9-0 back in 2022; Sheffield United were smashed by Newcastle United 8-0 this season. In fact, there have been 17 games in the 2023-2024 English Premier League season with a score difference of four or greater. But Boost Bets also consider the heavily-favoured team to win against an underdog differently in its odds calculations. In those cases, the odds change for a big favourite and typically they need to win by 6+ goals before the “bonus bet” kicks in.
At first glance, this seems like a potential liability for an operator; but after testing, the maths show a significant upside margin for the book. To validate the reliability of their algorithm and its potential impact on margins, Betlabs conducted Monte Carlo simulations on virtual sports events. With outcomes determined by Random Number Generators (RNGs), they ascertained the probabilities for each event outcome. Incorporating a 7% margin into Boost Bets odds and simulating one million virtual sports events across 100 operators, the results showed an average operator profit margin of 7% across all 100 bookmakers, with a 95% confidence interval ranging from 3.0% to 10.8%.
So it looks promising from an operator’s perspective. Again, you have your handicap markets – but they are usually lower down and the shiny boost buttons at the top of the page would be far more eye-catching to a player right from the start. The Boost Bet is also dynamic, rather than only coming in if a team has won by a certain amount of goals. Johnny Coetzer, Founder of Betlabs, calls the Boost Bets concept one of dynamic payouts, which makes it “the ‘slot machine of sports betting,’ offering punters a dynamic and exhilarating betting experience where the potential for big wins is always within reach.”
For me, Boost Bets add an element of greater-than-expected rewards, the promise of maybe a much better return than a simple 1X2 bet. You don’t need to predict the score, you’re just rewarded for your picks doing better than the bookies imagined. And, of course, players are engaged longer as every additional goal means a greater “unexpected return” on their stake, enhancing their experience to the end of the match. It can apply to almost any sport: soccer, American football, basketball and tennis to niche markets like golf, virtual sports and esports.
When Betlabs unveiled Boost Bet at SiGMA Africa, there was a lot of “Hey, is this crash for sports betting?” Maybe. But I reckon it’s more like a slot’s “bonus buy” where for some generally large multiple of your stake you get dropped right into the slots feature
Additionally, Boost Bets can apply to various markets within each sport, including match winner, match total bets and player prop bets. So a player can use Boost Bets to bet on specific player performances, such as predicting whether LeBron James will exceed his projected points in an NBA game or backing an underdog golfer to finish in the top three of a major tournament.
Will Boost Bet do for sports betting what Nik Robinson’s Big Time Gaming Megaways slot mechanic did for slots? (Megaways versions of games are consistently in the top 50% of games preferred by players, smart casino sites even have filters for Megaways games in their casino lobbies). As an industry, we’re historically slow at embracing innovation (beyond perhaps payment processing)! But when they do happen, as in-play live betting has, it does add another revenue stream for operators and a more positive experience for players. And that sounds like a win-win.
