In the increasing automated and technology driven betting and gaming industry, coding and automation are key, according to Pinnacle’s Trading Director Michael Blume.

In the first of a two-part interview with Star Sports for the operator’s YouTube series of interviews with prominent gambling industry figures, Betting People, Blume discussed his career and the complexities and dynamics of coding to inform trading and pricing.

When quizzed by Star Sports as to whether markets now are primarily informed by automation and coding, the Trading Director had one simple response – yes.

“The punter is still there and the knowledge of the punter still plays a big role, but the core of the market has to be from the machines,” he explained. 

“The reason is not because punters couldn’t do it, but because they could not keep up with the sheer amount of games we offer. We offer up to the fourth and fifth divisions in Brazil, the fourth division in Thailand, the third in Vietnam – how could we possibly have that many punters working for us? We need some sort of automation to help it.

“Punters play a big role in the high-level markets, like the NFL, the NBA, the Barclays Premier League or La Liga – information there is quite good and models might not pick it up as fast.”

Discussing the intricacies of working as a trader for a betting company, Blume further detailed how – in his opinion – in order to effectively perform the responsibilities of a trader, one must not ‘dwell on the past’.

“What I don’t want traders to do is compound on mistakes,” he said. “Because something bad has happened they are now doing something even worse and going into a spiral. Treat it as an empty slate, this is the situation you are in and try to move forward from that.”