Scientific Games Corp. and London’s Smarkets betting exchange reported that SG’s OpenSports technology delivered over 50 million bets the Grand National Horse Racing Festival, which was run behind closed doors for the first time since the inaugural race in 1839.
One OpenSports customer broke all Grand National betting records with peak bets exceeding 57,000 per minute—a 128 percent increase compared to 2019.
The 2020 event was canceled, and with retail and on-course betting postponed this year, the 2021 Grand National was widely tipped to be the ultimate test of the robustness and stability of the OpenSports technology stack.
Long-term customers Sky Betting and Gaming, Paddy Power, Betfair, Ladbrokes, Coral and William Hill all witnessed significant increases in volume and continue to rely on OpenSports as a key part of their product offerings.
During the three-day festival:
- Over 50 million bets were placed through OpenSports
- Over 19 million bets were placed on the Grand National race itself—up 60.5 percent vs 2019
- OpenSportsdelivered 100% platform stability and uptime
- One OpenSportscustomer processed over 57,000 peak bets per minute
- Total account transactions across the three days were up 55% compared to 2019
“Over the last three years, teams across SG Digital have transformed our OpenSports technology to meet the demands of the world’s leading operators,” said Jordan Levin, group CEO, digital for Scientific Games.
“Whether it’s the Grand National, the big game or the Melbourne Cup, we have a responsibility to the largest sportsbooks in every corner of the world to deliver on our promises and exceed their expectations.”
OpenSports is a full suite of sportsbook products and services that covers the account platform, the betting engine, trading and risk management, and bespoke front-end expertise.
This year also saw SG launch one of the world’s first sports content aggregation platforms called OpenArena. With over 35 third-party sports content providers signed up to the platform and available through a single integration, the company is at the forefront of the new wave of innovation in the industry.
