These days, it feels like almost anything can be improved with the use of AI. Whether that is improving customer service by identifying common problems, or creating software that can adapt and evolve as more people use it, there are lots of applications for the technology.
Something that many people are now looking into is the use of AI in betting. People have always been looking for ways to improve their odds at the bookmakers, and many are now looking towards AI to see whether they can gain an edge when they use it. Does it enable you to beat the bookies?
Why Would AI Be An Advantage In Betting?
AI or machine learning has a lot of advantages when used correctly. It allows you to bring together huge amounts of data, and use it effectively. There are several ways in which it could be a benefit in the betting scene:
Process huge amounts of data: if AI was used in betting, you would be able to process of massive amounts of data. It’s much more than you can do yourself, so you can get a more accurate picture of the current state of play, and make decisions on your next bet with it. Theoretically, this would enable you to bet more accurately on the winners.
Rational decisions: There is no denying that anyone who bets is going to be swayed by their own biases or emotions. After all, you want your team to win, so why would you not bet on them? However, this does not always lead to the best bet for you, leading to losses when they could be avoided.
If you were to use AI in choosing your next bet, you would eliminate those biases instantly. The software or AI text that you’re using would make rational decisions solely based on the data that is available to it. That way, in theory, you should be getting more accurate bet tips.
Place more bets instantly: As humans, we are very much restricted by our own limitations. We can only place one bet at a time, which some feel is stopping them from meeting their full potential. For those who would use AI for betting, they could use it to place multiple bets simultaneously, allowing you to bet on multiple games or markets at once.
Benefits for the bookies: It’s not just you who would benefit from the use of AI in betting. Some of the leading betting sites in Ireland are already looking into AI to help them improve what they offer their members too. For example, with access to data on all preceding games, they can then use that to create even more accurate odds on upcoming games.
The Challenges AI Faces In The Betting Industry
While being able to use AI in betting sounds ideal, of course the technology cannot do everything. There are several challenges that you will come up against if you start looking into using AI in your next bet. These include:
Sports betting complexity: Using AI in sports betting is not going to be as simple as processing all the data of past games, and using that to come up with the best bet for you. Sports markets are a lot more complex than this, and in some ways AI will not be able to take this into account.
Currently, odds are calculated not only using that data, but with expert opinions, calculated risk, and much more besides. This is a lot more complex than most current AI systems are able to work with.
Current data quality: There is something tempting about using AI to process all the data available, to allow you to make you the most well-informed bet. However, this would rely on all the data available being top quality and complete.
The fact is that a lot of sports data is not cut and dried, which current AI systems cannot factor in. Data can often be incomplete, biased a certain way, or not relevant to your betting needs. As well as this, past performance does not always mean that a team will perform a certain way in their next match. This is something that data itself cannot always accurately predict.
Ethical issues: As you would expect, of course there are going to be some ethical issues in using AI in sports betting. Currently, the law is not up to date with what AI can provide, and that will cause issues for anyone looking into using this technology right now. While some companies are looking into creating betting AIs, they may not be available for a while thanks to legal issues.
The idea of using AI to beat the bookie is always a tempting one, and there are theoretical ways in which it could work. Currently though, the technology is not yet there, and the law does not currently have regulations in place for it use.
