As demand grows in the US for betting content that can run alongside the core sports calendar, SIS has launched eAmerican Football as part of its Competitive Gaming portfolio. Andy Purkiss, Chief Operating Officer at SIS, discusses the operational thinking behind the product, from early testing through to launch.
eAmerican Football has launched as the latest addition to SIS’ Competitive Gaming portfolio, catering to the growing demand for short-form, event-based contests in the US. What were the biggest challenges in designing and scaling the product compared to eSoccer and eBasketball?
“The biggest difference is the structure of the sport itself. Soccer and basketball are continuous, flow-based games. American football, by contrast, is far more strategic and fragmented. A live American football game can last around three hours, even though the game clock itself runs for 60 minutes, spread across frequent stoppages and breaks.
“Even if you consider it purely as an hour of gameplay, that is still far too long for a short-form betting product. As a result, we had to rethink and condense the format while preserving the authenticity of the sport. That meant thinking carefully about how long games should last, how they should be broken into segments, and how the overall experience would translate into a player-versus-player betting product that feels familiar to fans.
“This work was also shaped by the fact that demand for an American football product was already well established, particularly in the US. Interest in the sport remains high, well beyond the live season, so there was a clear opportunity to deliver a short-form, always-on alternative rather than losing engagement entirely outside that window. Having that clarity around usage and expectations helped focus decisions on format, scale and operational investment.
“From a scaling point of view, Competitive Gaming is not just a technology product, it is, at its core, a live broadcast operation running continuously. While our CTO leads on platform architecture and software, my role focuses on how the product functions in practice, from studios and staffing models through to integrity oversight, scheduling and coordination across teams. Today, Competitive Gaming is producing over 275,000 events a year across eBasketball and eSoccer and now eAmerican Football, so reliability and repeatability are critical. In reality, Competitive Gaming only works if all of those elements are aligned and scalable.”
American football is more structurally complex than eSoccer or eBasketball. How did the team approach designing a format, rule-set and match logic that are both authentic for fans and feasible to run 24/7 in a studio environment?
“This required significant care. American football is highly tactical, and knowledgeable fans will have an in-depth understanding compared to that of the casual viewer.
“We therefore spent a great deal of time fine-tuning our events to make sure the experience feels authentic, keeping the game as realistic as possible so it is engaging for fans and bettors. This required close collaboration across operations, product design, integrity and technical teams.
“We designed and tested multiple internal concepts before aligning on a final format. That involved working through options with our internal steering group and then continually refining the approach with input from partners, ensuring the final structure could be run reliably in a studio environment and deliver at scale. At each stage, we were conscious that this needed to work operationally 24/7, not just look good on paper.”
American football data is inherently more complex, with more stoppages and a wider range of betting markets. How did SIS adapt its data capture and pricing models to ensure markets are accurate, automated and reliable for operators?
“We have been building data expertise within Competitive Gaming for some time now, going back to the early stages of the pandemic. Internally, we work closely with our own specialists, and we also collaborate with external experts who bring a deeper depth of experience in American sports betting markets.
“Running eAmerican Football extensively in test mode gave us the opportunity to capture a large amount of data before launch. That insight fed directly into our data models, market structures and competitiveness analysis. We will start with a limited number of markets and then expand them as confidence builds.
“There were also practical reasons for the extended testing phase. First, people. Even experienced gamers need time to adapt to studio environments, live officiating and integrity protocols. Second, data. Testing allowed us to analyse matchups, pricing behaviour and market performance in detail. By treating the test phase as a live operation, rather than a dry run, we were able to surface issues early and address them properly. By the time we went live, the product had already been operating as if it were live in many respects.”
With Competitive Gaming already live with major US operators, what technical or regulatory considerations did SIS need to address to ensure eAmerican Football meets US compliance, latency and localisation expectations from day one?
“The US regulatory environment is complex and requires a structured, state-by-state approach. Approval often happens in stages, first for esports as a category, and then for individual titles. We manage this through close engagement with regulators.
“Integrity is fundamental to how we operate. With eAmerican Football, that translates into referees overseeing every match, production taking place within controlled studio environments, and clear oversight of gamer behaviour. We also work closely with recognised integrity bodies, but in practice we aim to go beyond baseline requirements wherever we can.
“That approach extends into how the product is delivered operationally. The scale has been significant. We have recruited and trained large numbers of gamers in structured cohorts, alongside referees, production crews and operational staff. At the same time, we have expanded studio capacity, converting existing office space into production environments where necessary.
“One advantage has been SIS’ move towards cloud-based broadcasting and data infrastructure. By modernising our estate, we have freed up physical space internally, which has allowed us to scale studios without major disruption. In practice, that flexibility has been crucial in supporting a launch that needed to meet US regulators’ expectations from the outset.”
