Which Streaming Features Matter Most to Bettors and Other Sport Fans?
From the ultra-low latency that effective prop betting requires to more curated and personalised experiences, today’s sport fans bring a complex array of demands to their live sport streams, as Swerve Sports’ Christy Tanner, Transmit’s Leslie Falbo, and Elecard’s Victoria Tuzova discuss in this clip from Women in Streaming Media’s Industry Insights session at Streaming Media 2025.
Ensuring Bets Are Synced With Content
Tuzova, head of strategic partnerships and market outreach at Elecard, opens the conversation by asking, “What do you think is the biggest shift that fans are really asking for today? Maybe there is some key feature that they would like to see right now.”
Tanner, chair of Swerve Sports, points to low latency as the most important aspect of sport streaming because it affects gambling. “If your bets aren’t taking place in a timely manner, in sync with the content, then we’re going to lose Gen Z because from the research that we’ve done at Swerve, more than 35% of Gen Z is gambling while watching sports,” she notes, clarifying that Gen Z means viewers that are about 16 to 29 years old. “I think in terms of the biggest feature that has the most [opportunity] to make or break a platform or an event, it’s really latency because you’ll have a lot of upset people if their sports betting isn’t going according to plan.”
The Effectiveness of In-Stream Ads
Falbo, VP of publisher development at Transmit, agrees, noting that because people are betting as they’re watching—which is emblematic of today’s constant distractions—attention is an important aspect to think about too. “For me, I love Penn State. I want to watch every single play,” she shares. “I’m constantly looking at my TV screen, looking at my phone, looking at my kids for something, [and] back to my TV.” She says monetisation is changing to adjust to this new reality. “Because right now, when I’m being distracted and I get that two-minute ad break, that is my perfect invitation to turn my brain off from that screen and focus on everything else going on. And advertisers know this, right? They know they’re losing the viewer right when their ad starts,” Falbo notes. “So we’re seeing these in-stream ads … coming into play because it’s taking these moments and aligning with what’s happening on the screen versus taking you out of the game. And it’s giving the chance for the fans to stay more engaged, and advertisers win when [they’re] more engaged.”
She adds that Transmit is noticing that in-stream ads are outperforming traditional ad breaks in various ways—return on ad spend, better brand recall, etc. “So in a time where there are Gen Z and other generations gambling, changing their brains, all features are at their fingertips. We need to keep their attention where it starts. It starts with the game. Let’s have their eyes on glass while we’re monetising and keep that attention at the focus,” Falbo emphasises.
A New Angle on Personalisation
Tanner makes sure to clarify that she didn’t mean in her original comment that Gen Z is the only generation to gamble. She says the practice is tied to sharing big moments quickly to social media platforms. It’s all a type of personalisation, she believes. “If we assume that everyone’s using one or more additional screens besides the one that they’re watching the event on, I think that making the most of those moments—whether it’s for advertising purposes, for attention purposes—to drive discovery while a great game is being played, or a great competition is happening” is key “when there are so many other options,” Tanner says.
She acknowledges that this is “not how we tend to think about personalisation, but making sure that you’re in front of the fan, wherever that fan is, whether it is on social or on the platform where they’re watching your game, is very important. And I think we’ll see more integration there as we move forward.”
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