Google Impacts Any Industry It Chooses to Highlight
Search engine giant Google has begun including betting odds in snippets of its search results. Internet users who want to see sports betting odds in their results need to use the word “odds” in their search query, along with specific data about the event in question. For instance, you’ll need to list the player, team, or sporting event to see the odds associated with them.
It is unclear if the changes to the search engine’s algorithm means the company is getting into the sports betting market. It is also uncertain if the search results will be different in regions which ban sports betting, but the Google odds are likely to become a source of information for mainstream, casual gamblers.
Currently Only One Source for Odds
At present, the only site which is featured in the snippets with betting odds is VegasInsider, which should be a significant advantage for that one website. The snippets are likely to become a target among the various betting sites competing for visitors by ranking in the search terms. While featured snippet SEO is not popular at this moment, it might become so in the near-future, due to Google’s inclusion.
Bing Predicts
Previously, Microsoft Bing has delved into the sports betting category with its “Bing Predicts” feature. Bing Predicts began as a weather tool, but it gained popularity by predicting winners and losers with some degree of accuracy. Bing Predicts first began by predicting winners on American Idol, the singing talent show. Then it began to predict the outcome of political elections. Finally, it was used to make picks on sports events. This would be a departure, because many verticals are pushing for content marketing, community building, data visualization, and engagement with the reader.
Apparently, Bing’s method is much different than the one Google is now set to employ. Where Google links to a source like Vegas Insider, Bing does not link to an outside source. Instead, their analyzes signals from across the Internet to get (what it believes is) an accurate idea of what the public thinks on a game, match, or event. Essentially, it is picking up the background noise about a sporting event and making a prediction based on that noise.
How “Bing Predicts” Works
The analysis of sporting events is naturally going to be much different. Instead of popularity, Bing studies a team’s history, player histories, updates on locker room events, injury news, the game’s venue, the weather conditions, and other intangibles.
Bing Predicts has had several major successes. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada. It also predicted the winner of this last year’s Super Bowl, though it took Pete Carroll’s bonehead call at the end of the game for that to happen. (Perhaps Bing Predicts analyzed Pete Carroll’s playcalling, though.)
UK Results Being Discussed
Those wanting to test out the Google snippets or Bing Predicts should note that the features are available only in certain locations at present. The information given in this article is based on results from Google UK and Bing UK.
If Google were to change its results in the United States, it would represent a huge shift in revenue for some sportsbooks. That might never happen, because Google does not like to advertise for certain types of business. It would likely view such results as a form of free advertisement for businesses, because of the high volume of web searches which are given every day.
Also, gambling is one of those subjects which few people pay attention to, unless they are planning on using the information provided. No doubt, a certain number of sports fans look at the odds of a game to see whether their team is considered a favorite and by how much. If a person is too interested in the moneyline bet and the over/under numbers, they probably want to gamble on a sporting event.
