Promoted feature: Game Parlay – what next for Kambi’s market-leading combinability product?

Football season has always been crucial to the success of Kambi and its partners. That’s why Kambi was delighted to unveil its Game Parlay product ahead of this season, enabling players to combine multiple main and player prop bets within the same game or across different games for the first time. The results have been very encouraging, with Kambi seeing strong engagement among NFL bettors and delivering 20% of all pre-game NFL bets at higher margin than the average.

More recently, Kambi announced the latest development to the product which allows bettors to include multiple college offerings in their parlay bets. Not only can they play straight bets such as moneyline and point spreads, but they can also include derivatives and college player props for the first time.

With the professional and collegiate seasons well underway, Kambi’s SVP of trading Simon Noy, took some time out to talk about Game Parlay, its performance so far, and the direction the product is heading.

EGR: What exactly is Game Parlay and how has the product performed since going live for the NFL season?

Simon Noy (SN): Game Parlay is our enhanced American football combinability feature which gives players an almost limitless number of betting options, offering the ability to combine a wide range of outcomes including player prop bets within the same game and across multiple games and sports. While the functionality to combine bets within the same game is widely available among tier-one operators, predominantly through third-party suppliers, the ability to combine multiple selections across more than one game has yet to be offered by competitors across the US, providing our partners with a significant product and competitive edge.

The launch of this in-house developed Game Parlay product has been an instant success with take-up rising week-on-week. More than 40% of those who place a wager on NFL also place at least one bet combination using this new feature, with more than a third of Game Parlay bets involving more than one game – that’s a third of bets not available at the likes of DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM. As we have developed this combinability in-house within our technically advanced core platform, it will further strengthen Game Parlay through the addition of more markets, leagues and sports.

EGR: Why did Kambi decide to enhance its Game Parlay product with the addition of college football? Was this planned or because of the performance across NFL?

SN: The addition of college football to the Game Parlay product was always part of the plan and was considered early on when designing and building the Game Parlay capabilities so that the addition of more leagues and sports beyond NFL, like NCAAF, would be possible in a very scalable way. The performance of the Game Parlay product for NFL so far has, if anything, raised our expectations for the popularity of the expanded NCAAF Game Parlay product. Also, especially with no main competitors in the US currently offering combinable player props for NCAAF, Kambi partners will be the only place where you can get on NFL and NCAAF Game Parlays including your favourite player props.

EGR: How big is college football on the Kambi network and do you expect the college product to perform as well as it has for NFL?

SN: College football is already huge on the Kambi network and we expect this to only grow with the addition of the enhanced Game Parlay product. As we approach December with the Conference Championships, Bowl Season and the National Championship game in January, we expect the popularity of Game Parlay to grow and for the player props, especially, to become a crucial element within users’ Game Parlay bets.

EGR: Did the addition of college football present any additional regulatory challenges?

SN: College football does present some challenges, especially from a regulatory perspective, but as the Kambi Game Parlay product is fully integrated within the core platform, the already existing regulatory framework that is used for our existing NCAAF offering will also be applicable to Game Parlays without any additional work needed.

EGR: What is the current roadmap for enhancing Game Parlay even further and expanding to other leagues and sports?

SN: Our current roadmap beyond NFL and NCAAF is looking very exciting. We plan to enhance the Kambi Game Parlay product for NHL, adding player props to the main markets currently offered in January next year. We also plan to add an expanded Game Parlay offering for the start of the next MLB season, with an array of different game props and player props being included. In addition, the enhanced Game Parlay product will be added to NBA and NCAAB during 2022.

Outside of the addition of more leagues and sports, there are also plans to add even more markets and player props to the likes of NFL and plans to add cash-out for Game Parlays and the ability to place Game Parlays in-game.