From Betting Slips to Chat Messages: ChatBet Launching in Africa

The trend in sports betting has veered heavily into high-tech interfaces and data-packed markets, but ChatBet is very much a step backwards. Instead of skimming through cards with betting markets, odds, game stats, and all the other information that modern betting operators cram into their UI, you get something a lot simpler and more straight to the point with ChatBet. This B2B service for operators cuts out the need for a traditional betting interface and instead allows punters to simply “chat” with betting assistants, who give them the odds, personalize parlays, and accept their wagers.

A mobile-first betting solution, ChatBet has the potential to revolutionize the African betting market. Bola Group, the operator that runs BolaBet, is the first major adopter of this new technology, and has rolled out the ChatBet function for players in Zambia. It is something entirely new to the African iGaming market, and there are plans to expand the chat-oriented betting services to other African countries soon. But what is it and how does it work?

What is ChatBet

ChatBet is a software provider for operators, not consumers, that allows them to extend their betting services to messaging apps like Discord, Telegram, WhatsApp and more. Powered by ChatLayer Media Technologies, the idea is that punters can access betting markets and place wagers all via chat. You can place a wager either by sending a text message or a recorded voice message, staking your bet and confirming it. There are no websites or apps involved, just an AI-powered chat.

Top security infrastructure is supplied to ensure the player’s safety, including end-to-end encryption, cloud security, and AI-driven safeguards against unauthorized access. The result is something that feels both very new, and perhaps pretty old-fashioned at the same time. The generations of punters today may be too young, or most likely weren’t even born, when postal and telephone betting were big in the UK. From the 1960s up until the late 1990s – and the rise of internet betting – telephone betting was hugely popular for punters. Now, in a newer and more streamlined method, it looks like non-internet remote betting may be making a comeback.

Messaging App Operated Betting

On the site, the startup boasts some pretty interesting, yet unproven, figures of proven success. It claims to increase player engagement and retention rates, bring in higher volumes of Gen Z and younger bettors (who are of legal gambling age, of course), increase the average wager size, and achieve a +30% improvement in 90-day player retention.

It may have performed well in tests and simulated player environments, but these claims will just remain hypothetical until ChatBet is launched for real players, in real betting environments. Which is what Bola Group is going to test out. On a more technical level, such a type of interface does have immediate benefits that are hugely attractive for operators.

They don’t require data-intensive and resource-consuming interfaces to run. The AI chat model can run a lot quicker, and there is arguably a better opportunity to personalize the experience for every customer. Where sports betting interfaces can cost a bomb to create, and adding features soaks up resources (for operators) and RAM (for customers), the chat is smoother. It can learn the betting preferences of players, act as a virtual personal host or broker, and help the customers find relevant bets. Instead of bombarding users with hundreds of markets on a single game, perhaps triggering sensory overload and tiring out the punter.

Psychological Differences in Betting Experiences

A software solution like ChatBet could revolutionize the way punters approach their bets. It is designed to make everything easier for the user, with direct odds for requested bets, and AI suggestions based on the player’s preferences or habits. The engines work with the existing infrastructure provided by the operator, and they handle all the technical details, so customers don’t need to manually place a bet. ChatBet claims this results in “more bets, higher retention, and increased turnover”.

The Pros

For a customer, there is an appeal in filtering down all those irrelevant markets that you weren’t going to explore anyway, highlighting the bets you are after and, given a professional virtual assistant setup, perhaps recommendations based on what you like. Depending on the extent to which the software can understand and act on behalf of the user – you can ask it to build parlays or SGPs based on the legs, risk to reward, and types of bets you want. Or, draw up a list of the highest paying player props for individual games.

The possibilities are rife, and it definitely soaks up some of the pressure that bettors face when they are browsing through endless markets, and run into difficulties making exact comparisons (if the betting UI is not customizable).  From a technical standpoint, it reduces the software and internet connection demands, allowing for more free flowing bet searching, instead of waiting for betting market pages to load.

The Cons

But at the same time, those lengthy displays are something that a lot of punters have gotten used to. Punters use these more complex interfaces to scan for betting value and compare betting odds in real time. Sure, comparing different betting markets can be quite complex when you are toggling between events, or subcategories, but having so many markets open at a time can help bettors spot very good opportunities. This would be difficult to transfer to a chat-based broker service.

Another aspect that is not considered here is the betting line movements, and how these can be transferred to chat-based interfaces. The best example is with live betting markets. With a traditional betting UI, you can see the odds updating in real time, markets suspending while the odds are recalculated, and you can snap those live betting odds as they are generated. With chat-based interfaces, this is harder to keep punters continuously updated on relevant lines.

While parlay betting could be enhanced with chat based services, potentially through suggestions and player set limits on odds or markets, it is not without issues. Bettors who have become used to adding markets to their slip, editing and reviewing these slips, and experimenting with round robins, teasers or other combination bets may find the jump a little limiting. After all, it can become repetitive to type or record voice messages asking for minor tweaks and comparisons or adjustments, where it could be managed with a few clicks on regular interfaces.

Potential Cause for Concern for Bettors

And then, we haven’t even talked about the reliability and trust issues that some may have with chat-based bet brokering. Not seeing the actual lines themselves, only the ones requested or the handful suggested by the chat engine could feel dodgy for some users. Especially if when looking at live bets or futures, or any pregame wagers with odds that are liable to change. Because you can take these bets, combine them into parlays or SGPs, and when the time comes to confirm the wager, any odds changes will stick out like sore thumbs.

The same goes for any bet placed through an intermediary or a bet broker – you don’t see the odds themselves, only what the broker/assistant passes onto you. Now ChatBet is designed to accommodate operators, so it is not an independent service used by third parties. It would be employed by operators, as a type of new betting experience for their customers, so there won’t be any commission or any added costs – unless the operator decides to make them.

But you still may feel inclined to open your bookie and have a quick runthrough the odds just to make sure the Chat is up to date and not tweaking the odds in any way. It would take time to win over bettors who are accustomed to the now universally used modern betting interfaces. Just a few months ago, in the UK a WhatsApp gambling syndicate was forced shut by the UKGC, for running an illegal bookmaker service. It shone a light on the usage of these messaging apps, including Telegram, Signal, WeChat and Discord, for illegal gambling syndicates.

So, it is safe to say, a lot of trust building campaigning and marketing would need to be used to win over the general betting public.

Zambia: The Major Testing Ground

Or, just a good precedent of ChatBet being used in a real market, with positive feedback from bettors, operators and industry insiders alike. Which is exactly what this experiment with Bola Group could offer the B2B chat betting service.

Or, just a good precedent of ChatBet being used in a real market, with positive feedback from bettors, operators and industry insiders alike. Which is exactly what this experiment that Bola Group have launched in Zambia could do. Africa is perhaps the best market to launch this service, as messaging apps are massive across the continent. Also, the high mobile data costs and varying internet penetration, and quality, make it difficult for data-consuming sportsbook apps to properly reach customers.

ChatBet cuts through all those barriers by relying on chat texts and voice messages, without the need for an extra app, demanding betting UIs, and other features that could slow down the interface for customers.

Bola Bet is confident that their product is well suited to Zambia’s betting habits, and they are positioning an expansion of the chat betting service to Zimbabwe and Malawi next. Should the rollout hit to a flying start, this could reach bigger African betting markets like Nigeria, South Africa, the Kenyan market and Uganda. These would be the real money-making markets to hit, but first thing is first. Zambia will give Bola Group a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. With enough real life experience, and potentially a few tweaks down the road, this new type of betting experience could become massive in the next few months and years.