Who really controls sportsbook pricing in the data-driven era?
The modern sportsbook no longer operates on instinct alone. Automated trading systems, predictive models and real-time data feeds now sit at the centre of how odds are created, adjusted and managed across global betting markets. As operators expand their live betting offerings and introduce increasingly complex products such as player props, micro-markets and personalised betting experiences, pricing has become both more sophisticated and more dependent on technology.
Artificial Intelligence-driven trading systems are increasingly being used across the sports betting industry. Earlier this year, Kambi reported that nearly half of all bets across its network were traded by AI systems in 2025. At the same time, player prop betting continues to feature across major sporting events and betting products.
Yet the growth of automation has raised a broader question across the industry: as more operators rely on specialist suppliers, external models and automated trading infrastructure, who actually controls sportsbook pricing?
For Andy Phillips, Chief Business Development Officer (CBDO) at Sporting Risk, a sports analytics and pricing technology provider, control of sportsbook pricing is no longer a question of operators versus technology. Speaking exclusively to SiGMA News, Phillips said that while models are driving more of the execution, competitive advantage still depends on where operators choose to retain strategic control.
Not every market needs differentiation
One of the biggest misconceptions in sportsbook trading is the belief that every market requires a unique pricing strategy. According to Phillips, the importance of control depends largely on an operator’s size, customer base and commercial objectives.
Smaller operators, he argues, are often better served focusing on product, marketing and customer acquisition while relying on specialist suppliers for trading capabilities. However, as operators scale, outsourced trading functions can begin affecting profitability through customer churn and margin leakage.
“The key is identifying the 10 per cent of content that drives 90 per cent of the revenue,” Phillips says.
“That is where operators should be paying very close attention, because those are the markets where sharper pricing, better risk management and stronger strategic control can have a meaningful commercial impact.”
Phillips argues that operators do not need to differentiate across every market. Instead, resources can be focused on the areas that have the greatest impact on revenue, pricing performance and risk management.
The challenge of standing out in a supplier-driven market
The sportsbook ecosystem has become increasingly reliant on external providers for data, pricing, risk management and trading infrastructure. That dependency has created concerns that operators using similar suppliers may eventually struggle to differentiate themselves.
Phillips acknowledges the challenge. “Achieving real differentiation is hard if you are relying solely on established suppliers,” he says.
However, he believes differentiation is still possible when operators work closely with emerging technology providers capable of adapting products to specific business needs.
Rather than viewing supplier relationships as a limitation, Phillips sees agility as a competitive advantage. Smaller technology companies, he argues, can often move faster, introduce new features more quickly and provide operators with greater influence over product development.
According to Phillips, operators can still create differentiation, but doing so becomes more difficult when multiple brands rely on similar data and pricing solutions from established suppliers.
Why player props are exposing pricing weaknesses
The expansion of player prop betting has been accompanied by increased use of bet builders and personalised wagering products. Data from Kambi’s 2025 Sports Betting Trends Report showed that 88 per cent of pre-match Bet Builder bets placed during Super Bowl LIX contained a player prop selection.
Yet Phillips believes many operators are still struggling to price these markets effectively. “Our biggest focus is player markets,” he says.
“Despite the growth of data-driven models, this remains a relatively immature area across much of the industry.”
According to Phillips, many sportsbooks still fail to account adequately for variables such as player availability, expected formations, tactical setups and likely starting line-ups. As a result, player markets are often priced defensively, limiting value for customers.
He also argues that bettor behaviour has changed. Rather than focusing purely on marginal price advantages, customers increasingly respond to visible incentives such as price boosts and promotional offers.
“In practice, highly visible price boosts or settlement boosts tend to deliver far more impact because they provide customers with a very clear and tangible benefit,” Phillips says.
Automation may be inevitable, but humans remain in the loop
The growing number of betting markets and real-time pricing decisions has increased the role of automation in sportsbook trading operations. The volume of real-time pricing updates means that monitoring every market manually is often impractical.
Phillips points to the scale involved. “On a Saturday afternoon alone, we can have around 500,000 prices live, so it is not realistic to proactively monitor every market with a human trader in the loop.”
That volume makes automation essential. Sporting Risk increasingly relies on microservices, automated data feeds and model-driven pricing systems capable of reacting dynamically to changing inputs.
However, Phillips rejects the idea that human traders are becoming obsolete. “The role of human traders is therefore less about manually pricing every market and more about oversight and intervention.”
Instead of building every market manually, traders are increasingly responsible for monitoring anomalies, responding to unexpected developments and managing edge cases where models may struggle.
The limits of a fully automated sportsbook
The industry’s growing interest in AI has intensified speculation that sportsbook trading could eventually become fully automated. Phillips believes that future is still some distance away.
“Operators still want to feel there is a human ‘flying the plane’, even if much of the system is effectively running on autopilot underneath.”
While Phillips expects automation to become more prevalent in lower-liquidity markets and smaller sports, he believes human oversight will remain an important part of sportsbook trading. “While trading workflows are somewhat in autopilot, I think the idea of fully removing human oversight altogether is still overstated, at least for the foreseeable future.”
Phillips does not expect human oversight to disappear entirely, even as automated systems take on a larger role in sportsbook trading.
The fragility behind player props and micro-markets
While player props have become a major growth driver, they have also introduced new trading challenges. Compared with major betting markets, player props and micro-markets generally have lower liquidity and fewer meaningful limits, increasing reliance on underlying pricing models.
“These markets are naturally more fragmented,” Phillips says.
“There is less liquidity, fewer meaningful limits and far less opportunity for sharp bettors to deploy serious capital at scale.”
As a result, operators increasingly depend on the assumptions built into their models. “That makes the markets, in some ways, more fragile,” he says.
“The precision of the models may improve, but the market itself is often less efficient because there is not enough liquidity or informed money flowing through it to properly stress-test the price.”
The issue has attracted growing regulatory attention. In the United States, concerns surrounding prop betting integrity have already led to tighter restrictions on certain player-focused markets and lower betting limits in specific cases.
The future belongs to stronger models
The debate around sportsbook pricing is often framed as a choice between operators, suppliers and technology. Phillips sees the future differently.
“Realistically, it will be a mix of all three.” While operators will continue controlling strategy and suppliers will continue providing specialist infrastructure, he believes increasingly sophisticated models will play a larger role in pricing execution, particularly in highly fragmented and personalised betting environments.
“In five years, the operators and suppliers building the strongest models will ultimately be the ones that win out.”
That prediction reflects the direction the industry is already heading. As sportsbooks process larger volumes of data, expand live betting inventories and develop more personalised products, competitive advantage may depend less on who owns the odds and more on who builds the systems capable of pricing them most effectively.
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