Algosport were formed in 2017 and since then have established themselves as a forerunner in sports betting innovation, powering hundreds of operators with their innovative Bet Builder product, as well as other vital algorithmic sports betting services.

However, the journey has not always been smooth sailing so SBC sat down with founders Leigh Herdman and David Beacham (CEO and CTO respectfully) plus MD Marc Thomas to understand a little more about the company history, the challenges of scaling up a B2B supplier in the ever-changing betting industry, and what’s next for Algosport 

 

SBC News: Prior to setting up Algosport, how did you both get into the gambling industry?

Leigh Herdman: I’d always been interested in the mathematical side of betting, and this led me to start my career within gambling as a part time cashier for William Hill in the mid 1990s, combining this with my studies at Imperial College.

After graduating, I knew that I really enjoyed working within the industry and stayed on at William Hill for a number of years. I did then take a small break and went to run a bar, and work within modelling for an insurance company, however throughout this time I continued building models and algorithms for sports betting, which included some bespoke horse racing models that were used by a host of operators.

This led me to become part of the senior leadership team at what became Botsphere, where I built the quant team from scratch, as well as leading the creation of innovative trading solutions for the sports betting industry.

We had great success at Botsphere, and working in a fast paced start-up environment really guided me on wanting to repeat this process going forward, and be able to create products from the ground up that would generate significant value for operators, and solve some of the problems that a growing industry experiences.

Leigh Herdman, CEO of Algosport

David Beacham: I studied mathematics at Cambridge, and followed this with a post-grad at Imperial, and then in 2010 was looking for my first role. I had an interest in sport and the mathematical side of gambling, so was pleased to join Geneity in 2010, initially as a developer.

Geneity was one of the early platform and service providers, and I worked on some very interesting and innovative projects there. Following the acquisition of the company by Playtech, I switched roles to concentrate more on the Quant side of the business, working across multiple sports betting projects for both retail and digital.

David Beacham, CTO of Algosport

SBCN: Algosport was formed in 2017. What was the motivation in creating the business?

LH: following the acquisition of Botsphere by what is now BetVictor in 2012, myself and the other shareholders took different next steps. Whilst I was keen to continue working within the industry, I was also very keen to carry on focussing on innovative solutions and wasn’t really looking to become an employee again.

However, I was very impressed with what Playtech were looking to do in regards to sports betting, and was persuaded to join as Head of Quantitative Analysis. It was a great time to be at the company, and I led initiatives to build the quant function there to support all of Playtech’s sports betting products.

Throughout this time, I worked on a number of projects as almost an ‘internal consultant’ and started to get some ideas on what Algosport could be. Ultimately, the guys at Playtech were excellent and really receptive to innovation within sports betting trading, but I could see that the workstreams and products I was suggesting could have a benefit to other sportsbook operators, or B2B suppliers.

I found myself having the nagging idea that I could build a team who could create products that the industry wanted and needed, that they didn’t have the resources or expertise to complete themselves in-house, and provide these services in an efficient and cost effective manner.

DB: Leigh and I worked together on a number of projects and had lots of discussions (in the pub as well as in the office!) about doing something together, particularly to solve some of the problems that we were working on at Playtech, and how we might find other operators and suppliers who had the same issues.

We were excited about creating innovative products and solutions, but obviously a move of this scale did sometimes feel like it was a risk.

LH: as with the history of lots of start-ups, Algosport took a lot longer than planned to get going! I left Playtech in 2014 intending to spend the time building the models and products we envisioned for Algosport as well as completing consulting projects to pay the bills.

However, I had such a great relationship with Playtech, and they clearly valued my work, so they became my first client and I continued working with them throughout 2015 and 2016. As well as supporting other operators on similar projects, the time went by far too quickly and I found myself in 2016 having done very little to move Algosport forward.

The industry at this time was very different to it is now, but I looked around and saw that no-one was creating the sort of products that we wanted to build and therefore decided to push the button on Algosport and largely stop all the consulting work I was doing.

To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to having this conversation with Playtech, as we’d had a really good relationship over the years and didn’t want to ‘let them down’. However, this conversation turned into something quite different, and Playtech offered to invest in launching Algosport, kicking off a relationship that has been strong and mutually beneficial ever since.

With this investment in place, I was able to dedicate 100% of my time to setting up Algsoport, and got David to join very soon afterwards.

SBCN: Algosport are known for their premium Bet Builder product. Was this just a ‘happy accident’?

LH: I guess a little. Our original plan was to build an end to end trading solution, including what we called our ‘Advanced Trading Platform’ that was intended to make sports betting trading much more efficient, and drive product innovation and revenue for operators, and we built working prototypes for all the components

DB: Building the ‘APMS’ as we called it was very exciting as we were able to create technical solutions for what we knew were the operational and wider trading problems that sportsbooks were facing.

Alongside working on these truly innovative solutions, we were also creating some more ‘tactical’ products, including a full suite of multi-sport derivative markets with our proprietary in house modelling

LH:  We had lots of positive discussions with operators and suppliers about the wider APMS, however most operators had the usual roadmap constraints, and for such a ‘big ticket’ item, progress was slower than we’d hoped for.

However, part of the demo process involved showing our Bet Builder product (or Same Game Multiples/fully automated Request A Bet as it was called back then) and a lot of operators and suppliers were really impressed with this, and it was with this that we secured our first deals.

We were always convinced there would be a market for this type of product, but even we couldn’t have predicted how the interest in the products from both operators and end-users would explode as it did. As we had built the products from the ground up, we were uniquely well placed to capitalise and it’s our innovative Bet Builder that is now our biggest revenue driver, with over 200 operators across retail and online betting using the service, through our B2B partnerships and direct B2C agreements.

As we had full control of the development of the product, we were convinced that Bet Builder would follow the same pathway that other sports betting products had – that is, that operators would offer Bet Builders on Pre-Match soccer initially, but very soon there would be an appetite from end users to be able to place In Play Bet Builder bets, plus extension out to other sports.

With this conviction, we were one of the very first suppliers to market with these innovative features, as well as supporting cashout across all our Bet Builder products, and this allowed us to increase revenue for all our valued customers across multiple sports. As of now, whilst soccer is still generating huge Bet Builder revenues, we are seeing other sports increasing year on year.

This includes some of the existing major betting sports such as Basketball, other US Sports but also European sports such as Volleyball and Handball, plus more ‘niche’ sports such as Darts and Snooker, where Algosport are one of the very few suppliers to offer these. As we live and breathe the product, we think this puts us in a strong position to further power the next generation of Bet Builder, and wider sports betting products.

SBCN:  What challenges has Algosport faced?

LH: like many small companies, COVID and the attendant lockdowns were a huge challenge to Algosport, particularly as sports action largely disappeared and with it our revenues.

However, we were able to adapt quickly – a good example is that we noticed the rapid increase in interest and turnover on Soccer eSports products for sports betting operators,  so we created a Bet Builder to support this. This was hugely positive for both Algosport and our clients, and the product quickly generated much-needed revenue until real-world sports returned

DB: In recent years, we have developed and launched new products and features, increased our valued customer base, as well as growing revenue and maintaining ourselves as a profit generating company. However, like most start-ups aiming to scale up, we have had issues with growth, and in particular finding new people to come into the team.

This has meant that in some cases development has been slower than hoped, but we are now expanding the team as well as finding smarter ways of working together, and the next twelve months are looking really positive.

Marc Thomas: the challenges at Algosport currently are similar to those that companies in a growth phase often find themselves in. However, we have the benefit of a huge array of global customers, and an ability to grow organically without seeking additional investment. The team at Algosport are true sports betting experts, which helps as well!

Marc Thomas, Algosport MD

SBCN: What’s next for Algosport?

DB: As said, we are looking to expand the team as we have really ambitious plans for our core products, including Bet Builder, in 2025 and beyond. We have a challenging roadmap of adding features and functions, but are confident that we will be able to deliver these innovative products for our valued existing customers, as well as introducing some new products to the market

MT: 2025 is shaping up to be a consolidation period for Algosport, as we look to increase our product range for our existing customers. However, we have huge plans for 2026, including groundbreaking expansions to the Bet Builder product, plus some new sports betting products that are truly innovative and we are very excited about the next 18 months

LH: We are also looking again at some of the products we previously developed such as our APMS. Whilst the sports betting and trading landscape has changed in the intervening years, the fundamental reasons for creating such products still largely exist today, and we still see automated trading solutions as a driver for revenue for our customers and partners, and will be using some of our R&D resources on these type of products in the future

 

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