From global spectacle to weekly action: how is the new football season reshaping sportsbook strategy?

The return of domestic football marks one of the busiest periods of the year for sportsbooks, but this season arrives with fresh insight following a landmark World Cup. From changing betting behaviours and heightened customer expectations to the growing importance of personalisation, in-play betting and operational resilience, suppliers have had plenty of opportunities to evaluate what worked on the world’s biggest stage. SBC speaks to James McKiernan, Commercial Director at Genius Sports, Aidan O’Sullivan, Head of Business Development at OpenBet, and Jeevan Jeyaratnam, Chief Betting Officer at Abelson Sports, exploring how those lessons are influencing strategies ahead of the domestic campaign, where suppliers see the biggest opportunities for innovation, and how sportsbooks can continue to differentiate in a congested market. Looking back at this summer’s World Cup, what are some of the key takeaways sportsbooks can take into the new domestic season? James McKiernan, Commercial Director at Genius Sports. James McKiernan: The World Cup reinforced just how quickly player betting, promotional markets and betbuilders are growing. With the big attacking stars firing, we saw exceptional growth in these markets , and there’s every reason to expect this trend to carry straight into the domestic season. Today’s customer expects constant betting opportunities on the big games, whether that’s an in-play betbuilder, a price boost, player shot markets, cash out or products such as Subs Play On. The bigger takeaway, though, is that simply having those markets is no longer enough. How sportsbook surface them within the context of a live game is becoming a real point of differentiation. If a player hits the post, can you immediately serve a relevant bet builder or boost around them scoring next? Delivering a relevant in-play football betting UX, without adding friction to the experience, will be a major battleground for online European operators this season. Jeevan Jeyaratnam: Don’t underestimate the draw of the favourites – recreational parlays were a key theme of the World Cup, not least, by fortune (or misfortune, depending on which side of the fence you are on) of Mbappe, Haaland and Messi all playing consecutively twice during the group stage. On June 16, with France, Norway and Argentina all playing on the same day Mbappe (2), Haaland (2) and Messi (3) proceeded to score seven goals between them. This was a damaging result on its own, but worse was to come as the trio performed the 2+ goals feat again on June 22. This time punters were primed and expectant, and at odds ranging from 91.00 to 121.00, the to score 2+ parlay was an incredibly popular and hugely damaging selection. Bet builders are still king- customers also react well to well considered pre-canned options but beware, liabilities, especially for concentrated events like a World Cup matchday, can mean keeping track of risk is becoming increasingly tricky. Even recreational play, like in the example above, can cause uncomfortable risk profiles. Aidan O’Sullivan, Head of Business Development at OpenBet. Aidan O’Sullivan: Across the $3bn in stakes that were processed on our platform during the competition, player markets was a huge growth area. Modern-day bettors are interested in creating and following their own narratives based around the performances of individual players, often within combinations through BetBuilder. Half of our top 20 bet combinations featured a player goals or stats selection, which was way up from just four in the previous World Cup. In total, 23 million player prop bets were processed across the tournament, representing a 130% increase on Qatar 2022. It’s crucial that sportsbooks prioritise depth in these markets for the 2026-27 season. If you consider the expansion of BetBuilder, new markets like ‘either player to score’ have become essential for capturing bettors’ attention and driving revenue for operators. Of course, operators also require that all these offerings are backed up by flawless platform stability, sustaining engagement even at peak times without any disruption. In-play betting continues to account for an ever-growing share of football wagering. What innovations do you believe will have the biggest impact on the in-play experience over the next 12 months? Jeevan Jeyaratnam, Chief Betting Officer at Abelson Sports. JJ: We’ll continue to see more stats metrics added to the live mix as well as more micro markets and cross game bet builders. One of the biggest topics of 2026 has been the emergence and threat of prediction markets to sportsbooks. One way that the sportsbooks can continue to dominate is via product innovation and concession allowance. The Super Sub concession has proven very popular, as has bet365’s extra time concession (your player props bet extends into ET). These concessions as well as the granularity we see in player props are certainly things that are very hard for prediction markets to replicate. Indeed, these are perfect recreational punter concessions and innovations, outside of non-regulated US states, it is hard to see a recreational player choosing to be via prediction market when the sportsbook apps are so evolved. For a great in-play experience operators and suppliers need reliable, fast data and the latest innovations in this space promise to revolutionise how data is ‘scouted’ from stadia. While still in an embryonic phase the future for data collection is being rolled out slowly by rights holders. While it is an expensive outlay, that now doubt operators and suppliers will foot the bill for, the emergence of tech to relay crucial information to a feed has to be the way to go as a next step. Faster and more accurate data will reduce latencies, something that still plagues feeds while ensuring uptime like never before. AOS: Live wagering grew significantly during the World Cup, accounting for one in every six bets during the knockout stages. These slips were also of a higher average value than pre-match. To really hone in on the trend, we will see a shift towards dynamic automation. Impactful innovations will also be seen within UI/UX. Our Trending BetBuilder widgets are a case in point, delivering API-driven interfaces that reflect real-time market interest and local trading priorities while the AI-driven trading recommendations support traders with speed and efficiency. As in-play betting continues to grow, we expect the biggest innovations over the next 12 months to centre on making live betting faster, more relevant and easier to navigate. Operators are increasingly looking for smarter ways to surface the right markets at the right time, whether through trending bet displays, more intuitive BetBuilder experiences or personalised recommendations based on the state of the game. AI and automation are already playing a supporting role by helping customers discover relevant markets and insights more efficiently. However, the greatest impact is likely to come from improving the overall user experience, ensuring bettors can quickly find and engage with the opportunities that matter most during live events. JMK: Data and automation are already driving sizeable shifts in football pricing and UX. The next 12 months? The big advantage for operators and their customers will lie in a further reduction in downtime, delays and friction within the in-play experience. We’re at a point where essentially 100% market and cash out availability is possible, because the underlying data, pricing and models are so strong. That includes cash out offers served during stoppage time, or after a goal-kick or corner, without any need to suspend, or perhaps pre-populated in-play betbuilders served seconds after an attacker hits the post. Personally, I’m very excited about what AI can unlock next. We’re capturing even richer, faster datasets via our computer vision camera systems in some of the biggest stadiums in world football, which have the potential to add another dimension to how we trade. Imagine Haaland is through on goal and your sportsbook is able to adjust the likelihood of him scoring, Man City winning, and over 2.5 goals, based on where he takes the shot from, his xG and the goalkeeper he’s facing, all with remarkable latency? The football calendar has never been busier, with domestic campaigns taking place around increased European fixtures and international breaks, creating almost year-round action. How should sportsbooks adapt to keep customers engaged throughout such a demanding schedule? JMK: Every online sportsbook today needs an engaging 24/7 football offering, whether it’s always-on live streaming in the evening and during the day, or large betbuilder coverage at off-peak hours and during international breaks. Competitions from Sweden or Iceland can suddenly find themselves at the top of a sportsbook’s football page, whilst leagues in Argentina and Mexico become much more prominent for European customers overnight. This is where BetVision is playing an important role. Now live with over 100 operators, the interactive in-play experience is bringing hundreds of global football competitions to life. It allows customers to watch the action, explore live statistics and bet within the same experience, where otherwise they might lack context or be unfamiliar with the players involved. AOS: With football now delivering a near year-round schedule, the real challenge is no longer creating more content, but making the right content easier to discover. Operators should focus on surfacing relevant matches, markets and betting opportunities through intuitive experiences such as pre-packaged BetBuilders, trending bets and contextual stats. At the same time, greater automation behind the scenes such as OpenBet’s AI-powered customer and risk profiling can help sportsbooks efficiently manage their trading around an increasingly busy fixture list while maintaining a consistent customer experience. Sustained engagement also requires balancing high-volume wagering with robust player protection. By integrating AI-enhanced tools like Neccton and OpenBet Locator, which go above and beyond in terms of offering a robust, future-proofed defence against regulatory exposure, operators ensure that responsible gaming and geolocation accuracy technology will protect both them and their customers. This sort of automated compliance means that operators are free to focus on maintaining round-the-clock engagement, without overwhelming their internal teams. JJ: The long-term value of a customer is often led by their experiences. Sportsbooks offering fantastic concessions and bonuses are a great way to ensure that punters’ balances aren’t wiped out too quickly; nothing engages a player more than the odd successful wager. We saw a great example during the World Cup of how early punter success led to record and over-predicted turnover size in the later stages of the competition, even where home nations had been knocked out. It was a perfect storm for props layers, though it was a sweat in June! The top players all scoring well in excess of their lofty predictions meant customer engagement at a peak, and as such the money kept coming for the top players even as the tournament became attritional. The World Cup final, with Argentina (and Messi, more importantly) not registering a shot in normal time, will go down as one of the greatest prop results in modern times. I’m a big believer in portraying a narrative, more firms have started to do this but by storyboarding certain rivalries, interesting angles or relevant stats it is possible to engage even a casual audience into the story. Being able to build a bet around a narrative is a very strong method of maintaining engagement.