MarcoV

'The Locker Room' is an article series which will give you a behind the scenes look into who we are and how we're working at Unibet. Being an online bookmaker requires both the ability to follow the incredibly fast development we’re seeing in the industry by being innovative in terms of implementing new functions and providing the best gaming experience on the market. Our goal is to offer the best gaming experience out there, and as high as this goal may seem, we truly believe we’ve got the dedicated team with the necessary talent to reach it! Niam is part of that team, he started working for Unibet as a customer service agent back in 2000. Through his passion for the industry he’s worked his way up to be the current Sportsbook Project Manager after working within the sportsbook team for more than a decade. We’ve recently had a chat with him where we talked about his interesting job as well as all the changes we’ve done and will be doing in 2017 on the Unibet Sportsbook. Tell us a bit about your journey with Unibet – for how long have your worked with the company, and what was your first job? This coming November will mark my 17th Autumn with Unibet, starting out as a Customer Service agent for the Italian market back in 2000. Over the years I worked in multiple CS middle management roles covering the educational and operational parts of the department, until about 10 years ago when I joined Sportsbook. Here I was also initially responsible for the educational and operational parts of the product whilst acting as the main link between CS and Sportsbook, including external suppliers. The last few years I’ve been focusing most of my time on Product Development although still partly involved and responsible for other operational areas such as Regulatory and Sportsbook Integrity. How does a normal day look like for you as a Sportsbook project manager? I tend to firstly take a quick look at the Incident Management report to ensure any issues we might have encountered overnight are resolved or under control + respective stakeholders up to speed. The next step involves checking the Release Notes of the week/day for any updates with imminent or upcoming deliveries; this would generally lead to a series of calls and emails to align internally or with the supplier in question but also ensure expectations of respective stakeholders are managed appropriately. Prior and post any release, extensive testing is required to minimize the risks of anything else breaking once rolled out in production and carefully assess the next tracks in the communicated roadmap. Every project and track is assigned an internal priority within Sportsbook which is in turn prioritized across the whole company before we can finally (when relevant) reflect this in the priority list towards external suppliers for development. After launching the new sportsbook client, we’ve received feedback from customers, saying that they still prefer the old sportsbook client despite the changes we’ve made on the new client since the first release. Have you something in mind to change the customers’ opinion and hopefully make them feel more comfortable with the new client? Can you see a progress in getting the customers to use the new sportsbook client? Generally users don’t like change, it’s easier to stick with something they’re used to even if the change is a positive one – nonetheless we fully understand the expectations that come with such a big change. We were also equally aware such expectations would have been impossible to meet from day one; the transition that slowly led to accept and understand the change had to come in different stages. This is also partly the reason why the old sportsbook client was kept alive a bit longer than we originally planned, until later this Quarter when the old client will be switched off definitively across all markets. Each month we’ve been tracking the activity and perception of users and although there are still some loyal users of the old page, there is a clear trend and increase across the majority using and accepting the new sportsbook client as their main one as new features are implemented every quarter. Are we planning on implementing new functions/options for the cash-out system? Will the customers be able to cash out on prematch and accumulators bets in the near future? Absolutely, this has already started with Cash Out on pre-match rolled out earlier this quarter - although not on all events - together with the possibility to Cash Out from My Open bets, without having to necessarily navigate to the event in question. Still there’s a lot more to come, as explained the transition to the new client will have an ongoing development track to continuously improve the current user experience. Back to Cash Out, the full scope including accumulators has been prioritized for an end of Q2 / beginning of Q3 2017 delivery. In your opinion, what’s the most interesting current development in the sports betting industry? Not necessarily the most interesting but without a doubt the most effective, and that’s users constant need for speed. A poor performance or lack of speed will drive users away no matter how fancy or innovative the functionality in question is. How do you see the future of sports betting? When do you think we’ll be sitting with our HoloLens watching the game and placing bets with our voice? Performance and speed will personally remain a constant top priority, a solid flexible set up that lasts in time will ease the process with implementing new and innovative features going forward. Placing bets with our voice is already out there, the reason it hasn’t really kicked off yet may have something to do with the expectation that doesn’t quite match its performance..yet. Do you have any advice for the sportsbook enthusiasts we have on the community who’re interested in getting into the betting industry? Does it require an education or can you start from scratch and work your way up to a position like yours? As most things, an education is always beneficial as although not necessarily required it does in many cases set a solid base that enables you to grow within the industry. Most importantly however, I personally appreciate more an individual’s way of working/interacting over how much they already know – as such although a plus, background or experience shouldn’t be an absolute must. A sports enthusiast with a natural passion and continuous willingness to learn can take you a long way.

@Mynona, there'll be more information about this next week :) Shout-out to @jonny2192 for his brilliant initiative! :Jazzhands:

The prizes should be on your accounts now :Veryhappy: @MoreTBC, unfortunately you won't be able to choose poker tickets this time :(

'The Locker Room' is an article series which'll give you a behind the scenes look into who we're and how we're working at Unibet.Going through the sportsbook section looking for the next great odds on which to place a bet, you’ve probably wondered what it’s like to sit on the other side of the table, you know, being the one who decides the odds to be put on the Unibet site. The first instalment here in “The Locker Room”, our series of a behind the scenes look at the inner workings of Unibet, is an interview with the compiler Alistair who’s one of our great Unibet Group odds compilers. Alistair has been working as an odds compiler for more than 2 decades, and in this time he’s seen and worked through massive changes in the betting industry, including the change that’s made it possible for us all to be here - the internet implementation which began back in the late 90s. What does a normal day look like for a compiler? Depending on the sport you are responsible for, each and every day can be different to the last - though many tend to have a routine of sorts that runs over the course of a week, culminating at the weekend. Golf is a good example of this. On a Monday they would be using their database to assess the abilities of each player on the type of course they are due to play and price up the outright winner, plus an assortment of prop markets including Tournament Match Bets, Tournament Group betting, Make The Cut etc. On Tuesday the 1st round 3-balls are released and these are priced accordingly. Wednesday they tend to have a day off. Thursday through Sunday they will be trading the tournament in play. How do you decide the odds? Can you describe the process? Most sports are similar to each other. Generally speaking, in Football you have a goal expectancy and supremacy which determine most of the core markets. The equivalent for Tennis would be 1st Serve / 2nd Serve success rate. There are exceptions though – depending on the format, Cricket match prices can often be influenced by the weather & the pitch – and depending on where the match is played, this information might not be available until such point as the match goes in play. The final part of the process, especially when you are new to compilation, is to check off your prices against the industry. Sometimes you might find that you might not have to be 2/1 (3.00) about X to beat Y, and could be top price at 7/4 (2.75). The process for deciding an odds is basically the same today as ten years ago, though the necessity of it is reduced thanks to the many trading tools and subsequently feeds that now power many sports. Is there any difference when you decide an odds for football, tennis and general sports compared to decide a special odds for TV-shows and entertainment (Dancing with the stars, X-factor etc.)? The world of Novelty & Political betting is a different beast again. There are general trends in the extended series such as X-Factor and Britain’s Got Talent (historically participants who appear in the first televised show have a good record). There are also some nuances that can catch people out with the side markets – a good example would be for Elimination markets as some ask for you to vote for who you want to leave, some for who you want to save. It might sound similar, but can lead to vastly different outcomes. Which stats do you consider the most when you decide an odds? As there are simply hundreds of leagues now, we have a feed to provide our football prices. However the theory behind pricing football is as described earlier. There are of course some trends that, if you were pricing these matches yourself, could impact some of the expectancies. A good example was highlighted to me by a former colleague who concentrates on German football a few weeks ago, when Bayern Munich host lowly Eintracht Frankfurt. - The match was the first played after an international break, where Bayern had every fit player in their squad on duty. - Frankfurt’s league position of 17th defied their defensive shortcomings, but highlighted their inability to score. - In the first 6 matches after the German winter break Bayern been involved in only 2 matches that registered 3 or more goals. - Bayern were scheduled to play a Champions League ¼ final three days after this league match. The market internationally made Bayern 2.5 Goal favourites, with a match goal line of 3.75. Bayern won 1-0 ! What is the craziest game you have traded, where the betting did not go as expected due to unforeseen circumstances? This happens more often in cricket than any other sport I have been involved with. 1-day and, even more so, Twenty20 matches can swing very fast and very quickly. However the big swings in a Test Match can take days to evolve, but every so often things can change really quickly. One match from each format came to mind quite easily though: T20. March 21st, 2014. In the World T20 qualification group in 2014, Ireland played Netherlands in the final group match. Only one of them or Zimbabwe (who played UAE) at the same time could qualify. If Netherlands beat Ireland, this would come down to Net Run Rate - cricket's equivalent of Goal Difference. Ireland batted first and scored an impressive 189/4. At the innings break Ireland were 1/50 (1.02) to win the match. Netherlands knew they needed to chase this within 14.2 overs (86 balls) and started their reply with accordingly. Usually you would expect this attitude to lead to the loss of a few wickets along the way, but they had 91 runs on the board by the time Peter Borren went at the end of the 6th over and in the space of 36 balls had gone from 12/1 (13.00) into 1/3 (1.33) to win the match. Now needing 99 runs in 50 balls, they lost their next two batsmen in 8 balls for 9 runs. The match was now 10/11 (1,91) each but chance of qualification was surely gone. The Dutch ticked over for the next 2 overs, but Tom Cooper and Wes Barresi picked on the two spinners, Stirling and Dockrell in the 10th and 11th overs to plunder 41 runs. Going into the 14th over, the Dutch only required 13 runs to seal a win within 3 balls to spare, breaking Irish and Zimbabwean hearts in the process. They only won one match in the competition proper - against England! http://goo.gl/swkEMk One Day Internationals: March 12th, 2006. After 4 games, the 5 match series between Australia and South Africa, the two best teams in this format at the time, was in the balance at 2-2. Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. They had a reputation of going strong early with keeper-batsman Adam Gilchrist opening the batting and they didn't let anyone down with the 96/0 they scored from their 15 over powerplay. When he fell for 55 a couple of balls later, captain Ricky Ponting came to the crease and compiled one of the most impressive innings the game has seen - 164 from 105 balls. In terms of trading, it was the perfect storm. Australia had managed to put together 434 runs. To put this into perspective, no team had scored even 400 in a ODI before. There was a fair bit of blood on the trading floor...... We had lost plenty already on the innings runs market and didn't have the capability at the time to offer prices shorter than 1/100 (1.01) in the match book. We therefore just had a price available on South Africa and No Offers on Australia at the half way mark. The genuine price was probably closer to 1/250 (1.004) and, with 10 years of reflecting on the match, wish I'd allowed our big short price backers get just a little bit of value. However when South Africa lost their opening batsman for 1 off 6 balls, the game looked as dead as a dodo. Then captain Graeme Smith and the dynamic Herschelle Gibbs put on 187 runs in 20 overs to put the hosts back in the game. We had laid plenty of South Africa to momentum customers, but had at least managed to make Australia a winner in the book! With 10 overs (60 balls) left, SA needed 90 runs but, crucially had lost 5 wickets. We were certainly cheering the Aussies and patting ourselves on the back for a trading recovery job well done. Disaster arrived though when Australia called on Mick Lewis (who had so far recorded 7-0-72-0) to finish his overs. His last 3 overs went for 16, 8 & 17 to leave both the bowler and the compiler as broken men. SA won, 9 wickets down with a ball to spare. The match left a big enough impression on the world to have it's own WIkipedia page.... https://goo.gl/Wbku3B Test Match: November 2011. There have been many classic games but the one which stood out for swings was another between South Africa and Australia. This one stood out mainly as, on Day 2, I was training a new member of the team on our cricket trading tool. Opening prices for the game were SA 6/4 (2.50), Draw 7/4 (2.75), Australia 9/4 (3.25). SA had chosen to field against Australia on a damp morning and it looked like they had made the right choice. Australia closed Day 1 on on 214/8 and were eventually all out an hour before lunch on Day 2 for 284. Overnight prices: SA 4/5 (1.80), Draw 3/1 (4.00), Aus 11/4 (3.75). By lunch on, SA had made their way to 49/1 from 13 overs. However by the end of the 2nd session, Australia were batting again - and were already 3 wickets down for just 13 runs. The session stats read: 18.4 Overs - 60 runs - 12 wickets. South Africa had gone from 4/5 (1.80) overnight to 6/1 (7.00) by the time they were bowled out (very little chance of a draw by then) and back to an even money shot by the time they went to tea. Australia were bowled out for just 47 in their 2nd innings and South Africa, having conceded a 1st innings deficit of nearly 200 runs now only needed 236 to win the match and were rated at 1/2 (1.50) to get home. By the close of play, SA had reached 81/1 from 17 overs and were making it look easy again. They went on to get 236 for the loss of just 2 wickets and two batsmen getting a century. How do you see the development for the industry and your job specifically? When I started in the industry back in 1992, you could bet in a shop, and if you had a credit account, on the phone. If you wanted to bet 90m prices on football, you could only do so up until kick off and, if the match wasn’t live, your bet had to be a minimum of a treble. If you wanted to bet on other sports, good luck! The internet changed the face of betting for the better, as did TV coverage of sport in general. The process, as detailed earlier, is the same, though the necessity of it is reduced thanks to the many trading tools and subsequently feeds that now power many sports. How does live betting work, compared to pre-match? Most of my experience on live or in play betting has come in Cricket. The game has evolved greatly since I first traded a one day international between India and Sri Lanka many years ago. For a start, back then, quite often we were the only firm betting on the match so you had no point of reference if you hadn’t done any pre-match research on ground stats etc. Thankfully the live schedule wasn’t as heavy as it is now and allowed time to collect all relevant information to go in to battle well-armed. Going in to trade a match now is easier for a number of reasons: - Cricinfo has an excellent stats database to obtain a quick look up of the number of 1st Innings runs scored at each ground. From this you arrive at the average for the ground & add a team factor to determine your run line and also the number which you believe will be enough to win the match - We have a tool that, whilst still humanly operated, drives both derived markets and a scoreboard! - There are many other firms now betting on cricket. If you have to pick up a match from a few overs in, and have a basic understanding of how a match flows, you can do so quite easily without sticking up any arbs on run lines or match prices. In case some of our members are interested in a career as a compiler, do you have any tips for them? What kind of background/education do you need to become a compiler? A mathematical background is pretty useful if you want to cut it as a compiler. But you also have to be able to interpret your stats. A common sense factor, if you like. My background has been more about on-the-job numeracy. I have had three good employers who have either placed me on courses, exposed me to what it takes to be a (semi)pro-gambler and finally one who was brave enough to give me the opportunity to put these skills into practice. For anyone wanting to enter into the world of compilation, the best advice I could give them is to ask advice whenever you are not sure, and to not cut any corners.