Speaking to SBC Americas, co-founder and CEO of SharpRank, Chris Adams, detailed how the firm is seeking to remove biases when it comes to analysing the pros and cons of different betting outlets.
It’s something that has long been a challenge within the betting industry. However, Adams revealed that it has also been their ambition with the firm starting out to fill the gap in the market.
He stated: “We identified it after hearing a radio ad with somebody selling their picks and making claims about their ability. At the time, I was an investment banker and had to go through exams, background checks, compliance, all those sorts of things and still couldn’t do what was being done in this ad. But essentially, this was guaranteeing money to a consumer which is a big no no in my former industry.
“We set out to fill that gap. It has to come from the private sector, so we built some very smart ratings algorithms and proprietary metrics etc that give the public a better understanding of who this person is, as a sports bettor or as a prognosticator, or whatever the case might be.
“So a lot of times it’s simplified into ‘what’s the win / loss record for this person?’, but at SharpRank we take a much deeper dive into that. We look at multifaceted risk profiles, we look at different types of appetite, different types of patterns, techniques and more so that the consumer has a menu of options and insights.”
SharpRank is an independent cross-sport ratings agency for sports personalities, bettors, algorithms and the general public – also the winner of the inaugural First Pitch Competition, hosted at SBC Summit North America last year.
It aims to provide bettors with “transparency, clarity, validity and independence” through the information it provides so that gamblers can make informed wagering decisions.
One way in which SharpRank presents these insights is through the release of its quarterly reports, which help give an overview of sports media performance.
Adams continued: “The most recent quarterly report was fantastic, it really showcased where we position ourselves in the market. From the very early days of this company, we had always had the vision of being this ratings agency. We have a consumer facing product, we have a B2B type product and act as that research hub. So, when you think about what this quarterly report really did, it really took the bias out of what could potentially be the ability of the parent organisations of where these experts make picks from.
“Because the technology in our data science is built, cross sport functional and bet type agnostic, we have the ability to compare apples to oranges. Somebody who picks Basketball can be compared with somebody who picks horse racing or football.
“We take all of that and we bring it from the individual level to the parent level, and say ‘Okay, here’s the DNA of the team that makes up X media outlet, how do they stack up against other teams at other media outlets or other social media influencers?’
“For us, that’s a really big role to fill and it’s a huge responsibility. It allows us to showcase some of our metrics and some of the things we do. But it also serves as a huge insight into the industry for content managers to find out how they stack up against their competitors.”
