TxOdds, the American betting revolution

With a wealth of experience in the sports betting industry, Einar Knobel has played a crucial role in shaping Txodds' innovative approach and expanding its footprint across global markets. As the company continues to redefine the betting landscape with cutting-edge technology and strategic partnerships, the Ceo shared his insights on the future of sports wagering, the importance of data-driven decision-making, and what’s next for Txodds as it embarks on an exciting phase of growth.

“It has been just over a year since we last connected – Einar Knobel begins - and in that time, Txodds has made significant strides in the U.S. sports data landscape. Initially eyeing New York for our expansion, we quickly pivoted to Chicago, where we’ve now built a robust team of over 80 dedicated professionals. Since launching our in-venue score collection for College Football at the end of August and gearing up for College Basketball as the season starts with an estimated 3,000 matches to cover, our growth has outpaced expectations.

Our dynamic team expertly manages a network of remote scouts, delivering real-time scores that are enriched by analysts, enabling us to provide comprehensive data—including player props and real-time odds—through our innovative Fusion platform. This powerful integration not only supports sportsbooks with ultra-low latency odds and scores but also enhances risk management advisory services, setting the stage for a new era of competition in the industry. As we look ahead, the data landscape is poised for further expansion, and we can’t wait to share our next chapter with you.”

What do these products bring to the table?

“Real time scores and rich scores data are not only product lines in themselves, but also can combine with the Tx real time odds so that an operator can use it to run all of its markets – the Txodds' co-founder continues - Txs Data Science team has developed a concept called a 'Stable Price', which can be used to drive a sportsbook's models for real time pricing. The key here is the 'Stable' element, in that the pricing sits within defined market parameters, and can be delivered both as a demarginated or marginated price.

Add to this, we are adding delivery partners for adding further layers of products and enriched data, to increase the sophistication of the offering via the Tx Fusion platform. The first of our partners here is Lacerta Sports, where Tx is delivering its end-to-end Cricket product, with full ball-by-ball odds adjustments and 'fancy' markets. Lacerta’s soccer product will be next, then we look forward to adding further partners and products to the Fusion distribution channel during 2025. All in all, these products combine to bring a highly credible Tier 1 offering to customers looking for market differentiation and intelligent pricing of markets.”

We talked about operators, why should they choose this product then?

“Everything that we are working on and offering to operators is intended to facilitate automation and scalability. This means that costs can be kept in check, while the active management of markets can become a more efficient process of monitoring and performance. Add to this the pedigree of our distribution partners, and an operator can determine a strategy which can both offer a better product to the customers (i.e lower betting margin) while also both increasing turnover and the overall gross profit hold.

Plus as mentioned earlier, Tx is adding competition to the marketplace - and competition is always a good thing! The operator can benefit from competition helping keep costs in check, thanks to a more competitive product offering with also better overall returns, while the end customer also benefits from a fairer product. Risk management does not have to mean closing down any account that the risk management team arbitrarily does not 'like'. Operators spend huge amounts of marketing for customers, why not look after them properly once they sign up?”

 

How would you compare the industry outlook for the USA versus the UK?

“As mentioned when we last spoke, the UK industry is in a sorry state. Were it not for bet-builders and same game parlays (multiple bets that can be placed on single matches – editor's note) propping up profits, the figures would be bleak. Affordability rules are contributing to pushing betting underground: the UK is no place to start a new licensed betting company, one thing is for sure!

A big fundamental difference is the prevalence of sports and access to it. In the USA, live sports has pretty much replaced live rolling news in every bar, restaurant, and public space – the txodds' Ceo tells us again - College teams get over 100,000 fans regularly filling stadiums, point spreads are a widespread topic of discussion and relayed on constant sports programmes. Compare with the UK, where even showing football on TV in a public setting will cost an establishment £20K+ per year, on top of being limited to the number of domestic matches that are allowed to broadcast live. None of this is conducive to growth, as the popularity and availability of sport will also indicate a propensity of the sport being bet on. Of course, you can watch every single UK top tier football match live in the USA - unlike here!”

What is the betting growth trend in the USA?

“The US betting market is still developing with Fanduel and DraftKings continuing to dominate, but there are other key operators getting a foothold and developing their product offerings. Following this development led to Tx backing another startup during 2024, HoldCrunch, which takes a data-driven approach to combine state by state published operator results with the competitiveness of their product offering, to come up with a unique way of predicting the direction of the growth of the US betting market. The target customers for HoldCrunch are not only at senior operator level but also at senior institutional investor level. Tom Johnson, who conceived the idea for HoldCrunch, has come up with a very innovative hybrid use for the Tx data. If you thought Americans were not price sensitive, change your mind! There are also some very interesting insights into the proposed effects of increased taxation, how operators handle uptime during in-play betting, and modelling of continued market share based on reports that are being covered.”

What’s next in the pipeline for TxOdds?

“We will use Chicago as the base to build out our expansion plans further and are already looking at committing to further office space and potentially at least doubling the head count in the next 6 months. This is an exciting time for the business, so stay tuned!”, Einar Knobel ends.