Kristy Gale, Founder & CEO of data governance and rights management firm Hypergolic, is scheduled to speak at this month’s Betting on Sports America conference. In advance of her panel appearance she talks about all things data and the key role it plays in the sports wagering sector.
SBC Americas: What’s the story behind Hypergolic? What does the company do and who are its typical clients?
Kristy Gale: Hypergolic was created to address the risk and compliance challenges arising from monetization of real-time data, particularly athlete tracking and biometric data. We provide software solutions to all parties who participate in the sports data ecosystem. And we advise leagues, teams, unions, athletes and their data partners – in both traditional and esports – how to optimize use of their data while simultaneously managing privacy and intellectual property rights in the data. This solves the problem of collecting and using personal health information that is subject to legal constraints on its use. And it provides a way for each party to be incentivized and compensated for its contribution to the data lifecycle. We help sports industry data users get compliance done in real time.
SBC A: There is an insatiable demand for sports data. But how deep can you realistically go in the pursuit of data that will make a ‘real world’ difference to the experience of fans who bet on sport?
KG: This remains to be seen. For the past few years team sports scientists and data analysts have been working on this problem. Specifically they focused on what data will help an athlete or team perform better. They wondered what data has value? Is the data actionable, i.e. is this data telling me what I think it is and if it is, will applying it to an athlete’s training allow me to attain a certain result? Only a couple of years ago sports industry players in the US were unsure how athlete biometric and tracking data could be used in betting but now they – and sports data and betting firms – are being creative in the types of betting products this data will allow them to provide to bettors. This space will evolve rapidly over the next few years.
SBC A: Which sports yield the richest mine of data and why is that?
KG: Baseball provides a lot of statistics and a lot of games so there is a lot of data to mine there. They also utilize quite a few wearables that collect data from athletes. US football has strategically partnered with firms to collect, develop and distribute data plus fans enjoy betting on football. Even though there are fewer games, we’ll see more data come out of the NFL for sports wagering. The NBA plays a lot of games and they are collecting athlete data, but they and the union have not yet settled what data may be collected during games. This will impact how much data they will be able to put in play for betting. The Alliance of American Football has a business model that is ideal for wagering and they plan to utilize wearables to collect data from athletes to fuel wagering. Hockey, European football, golf, tennis, boxing and other sports are also collecting more data that will impact betting.
SBC A: What do you plan to talk about at the forthcoming Betting on Sports America conference and what will your key message be to delegates?
KG: I will address the value and impact of athlete biometrics and tracking data in sports wagering and integrity monitoring in both traditional and esports. The key message is that the winners in this space must understand the risks and rewards to stay relevant and beat the competition.
Betting on Sports America, held 23-25 April in New Jersey, is the largest dedicated sports betting conference & exhibition in the US. The conference boasts 175 leading industry speakers across 40 sessions, with 60 exhibitors displaying their latest products on the 61,000 sq ft exhibition floor at the Meadowlands Exposition Center.
Delegates will be treated to world class hospitality with plenty of business and networking opportunities in New Jersey (Meadowlands Racetrack) and New York (40/40 Club and Sky Room Rooftop Bar).
For more information, please visit the Betting on Sports America website.
