One of the first topics to arise at this year’s Betting on Sports conference was the evolving role of the sports trader.
Jens Nielsen, Head of Sportsbook, Danske Spil revealed: “The specialist knowledge has moved into a niche, into smaller sports like, handball and Esports.”
Nielsen added: “I doubt everything will be automated in the future, the need for strong traders is still there, it’s very reassuring to have people who know what the price should be.”
Despite revealing that recently a ‘very good’ Sky Bet F1 trader had left the company, citing that there ‘was no future in trading’ Andy Wright, Head of Trading at Sky Bet agreed with the head of sportsbook at Mr Green, Enda Gaffney, who stated that ‘the role of the trader is evolving.’
Wright added that he believes: “Where the role of trader has evolved is around understanding the customers and around the content management side of things, something that is actually a turn off if you’re an old school trader, but those roles are just as important.”
Vladimir Dratsjov, head of sportsbook, Olympic Entertainment Group added that: “It seems to me that the biggest challenge to us manage a sportsbook, will be to sell to our managers that traders are still needed.”
