As consumer demand for real-time action grows, sportsbook operators are under increasing pressure to offer a wide range of ultra-low-latency in-game markets, writes Lauren Harrison.
And with the FIFA World Cup set for June 2026, it’s never been more important to ensure everything is in order – from having the tech to handle peak traffic to ensuring your live football odds are supplied by the best in the business.
Join iGamingFuture’s Head of Content, Curtis Roach and Giovanni Bertoli, CEO & Co-Founder of WSF Odds, for an exclusive discussion exploring changing football betting behaviour, latency, pricing and real-time bets and what’s next for performance betting.
Curtis kicked off by asking:
Football betting is clearly shifting from outcomes to in-game actions and player-level engagement. How is this transition reshaping sportsbook products and product strategy?
“What we are seeing is a structural shift in how football betting products are conceived. For many years, sportsbook strategy was built around final outcomes: Match winner, totals and correct score. These markets remain relevant, but they no longer define engagement, particularly in live environments.
“Product strategy is now increasingly shaped around actions rather than results. Operators want to give users reasons to interact throughout the match, not just at kick-off or full-time.
“That naturally pushes product teams towards player-level and event-level markets. Shots, passes, tackles, fouls, cards and similar actions that happen continuously.
“This shift changes product priorities.
“It requires sportsbooks to think in terms of frequency, continuity and control. Markets need to update quickly, stay coherent across player, team and match layers, and settle in a way that users trust.
“From our perspective, this is why performance betting is no longer a niche extension – it is becoming a core pillar of modern football product strategy.”
Many operators expanded their offer with live player props but struggled with live latency and consistent pricing. How important is it to find a specialised supplier to provide the right data and technology for such markets?
“Live player props expose weaknesses very quickly. Issues such as latency, incoherent pricing or delayed and inconsistent settlement are immediately visible, not only affecting user confidence but also creating direct financial risk for operators when prices or settlements are incorrect or arrive too late.
“The challenge is that performance markets are fundamentally different from traditional football markets. They are not simply an extension of match odds. They rely on granular data, real-time processing and pricing models that understand the relationship between player actions, team dynamics and match context.
“This is where specialisation becomes critical.
“WSF Odds operates as a specialist provider focused entirely on football performance betting, with technology and trading logic designed specifically for these markets. That includes managing substitutions, maintaining dependencies between markets and keeping odds coherent throughout the match.
“For operators, working with a specialised supplier often determines whether live player props remain a tactical experiment or become a stable, scalable part of the sportsbook offering.”
There is a growing debate about depth in sportsbook offerings. From your perspective, how much of the competition is based on the depth of the offer and what drives the choice and prioritisation of a certain market type over another?
“Depth has become an important competitive factor, but it goes beyond the number of markets available. Operators increasingly prioritise market types based on performance, margin behaviour and operational complexity.
“Performance betting plays a key role here, as it allows operators to add depth where it directly enhances engagement.
“At WSF Odds, depth is approached through a football-first lens. Player, team, and match markets are designed to be connected and coherent, reflecting how the game unfolds rather than existing as isolated betting options.”
How do you see performance betting evolving and what role will scalable, reliable technology play in helping operators unlock deeper engagement and sustainable growth in football markets?
“Performance betting is expected to become an increasingly central part of football sportsbooks. Player-centric markets, live action-based betting and more granular engagement points are likely to continue expanding across competitions and regions.
“This evolution places strong demands on technology.
“Scalability and reliability directly affect product quality and user trust. Operators need systems capable of handling high-frequency pricing, complex market relationships and peak live traffic without disruption.
“From the perspective of WSF Odds, scalable and coherent technology is the foundation that allows operators to unlock deeper engagement while maintaining long-term sustainability.
“As performance betting continues to evolve, infrastructure will be a key differentiator between products that simply add markets and those that build lasting value.”
Editor’s Note:
The growth of performance betting in football has driven a product and priority shift towards full engagement, monetising every live moment of matches.
But live betting–built on granular data, real-time processing and pricing models that understand team and player dynamics–exposes operator weaknesses. Poor odds, incoherent pricing and delayed payments can all quickly erode player trust.
The solution: A specialist odds provider focused entirely on football – cue WSF Odds.
Not only does this odds provider offer the depth of markets required to retain football bettors, it also brings logic to live betting, providing coherence across markets that follows the natural progression of games.
This is an organic flow that’s likely to resonate strongly with the influx of first-time football bettors that June’s FIFA World Cup will bring.
