AI in Sportsbooks — Leveraging Automation and Human Touch

Kristian Gorenc Z

Aug 14, 2025

There’s hardly anything more controversial in today’s society-technology rapport than the implementation of artificial technology. From environmental concerns to failability and the effect on humanity, the development and installation of this new technology barrier have certainly created a lot of questions. 

However, not all things necessarily need to be grim and dystopian when it comes to AI. There are plenty of situations when we’re talking about a technology that expedites plenty of processes that are conducive to human development, especially in areas like medicine, engineering, and so on. 

At the same time, we’re starting to look at more entries into the various branches of the entertainment industry. We’re talking about AI-upscaling in video games, automated processes for better NPCs in narrative games, revived actors in cinema, the initiative for AI-generated extras in films (the subject of the SAG-AFTRA strike), and many more. 

Naturally, online gambling is yet another cog in this AI implementation machine. As showcased by the database of gambling brands harnessed by slotscalendar.com an increasing number of gambling platforms implement AI in things as trivial as customer support. 

In this article, we will look at this situation from the scope of online betting, trying to untangle the connection between the surge of AI and the role that human odds makers still have to play. 

Why Automatic Odds-Making Matters 

As far as we can tell from the outside, especially as consumers, online gambling has always sat in a balance between fast-paced entertainment and deliberate choices. Naturally, this activity comes in all shapes and sizes, even if the premise is, in fact, standard. 

Sports betting is a rare breed in entertainment because it can actually be both fast and slow. Bets made way in advance are, essentially, deliberate choices with slow, ideal pacing, but the rise in live (in-play) betting has greatly sped up the process. 

The variables that go into sports betting, like match circumstances, competitive edge, and other factors that can change the course of a sports event, are, at their core, modifiers with real-time consequences. As a result, the odds that shape the figures that go into winnings are subject to many details that can change their relevance. 

In this sense, automated odds-shaping that reflects the reality on the pitch, court, field, etc., is something that the world of sports betting benefits from because it brings those odds back in line with the present. 

As a result, any technology that works in the interest of a better, more accurate modifier of odds will always be relevant, and we will show some considerations regarding this detail, 

Assessing AI Data-Handling 

From what we can see across all facets of the business world, data handling is almost a scientific effort that goes into the optimization of many businesses; AI has merely become a tool of expediting this process. Even the academic world has taken notice, with a study on the impact of AI and data science in business management showcasing the clear connective tissue between them. 

For sports betting, we’re merely talking about a new frontier that has its own entry points. These are methods that showcase that not only does the AI-data science tandem work, but it can also bring benefits for both the consumer and the bookmaker. 

Real-Time Odds-Shaping for Quicker In-Play Betting 

By leveraging countless data entries into the machine-learning phase, a proper AI model can understand what decisions to make based on that data. With odds, we are talking about trained models that look at the real-time moments of a sports event, assess the data entry point, and make a decision based on the cases that have trained it as fellow data entries. 

This is how every foul, goal, point, touchdown, injury, and so forth can bring about changes in the odds.  

Since the AI model has a certain formula for calculating those odds in real-time, it knows that every variable that it receives (a new sports circumstance) will automatically compute that event as a number into the formula, providing a new result (the odds). 

As such, you are looking at extremely fast computational abilities that an AI model can certainly bring new odds on which bettors can wager. With this kind of dynamic odds-making, we are talking about a new, faster direction. 

Fraud Detection via Pattern Recognition 

This applies to all kinds of betting, not just sports. In fact, any fraudulent scheme that showcases any sign of a pattern can allow an AI model to identify it and, if it has procedural clearance from its developer, act upon it by restricting and banning, or at least flagging, the supposed perpetrator. 

The system is quite simple when you think about it. You have a case in which the AI model sees various niche bets on a single player or team. It looks at the prop betting entry points, showcasing extremely niche bets (based on its calculations of bets made for that criterion) that have extremely low odds of success. 

It identifies the fact that most, if not all, these bets have actually hit, creating a certain set of improbable events that feel more like fraud than luck. In most cases, the AI model can simply flag these circumstances as questionable, allowing a human operator to assess the situation. 

Where there is probable cause, we are talking about felony-level cases like Jontay Porter’s wire fraud indictments. In other cases, there may simply be extreme cases of luck, which the AI simply flagged as unusual. 

The idea is the same: highly unusual and extremely specific betting circumstances can become extremely visible for an AI model whose job is to identify them. It knows the odds that it calculates and can see certain aberrations on the far side of its spectrum. 

Whether it has the clearance to make intuitive decisions based on what it finds, things can vary. 

Personalized Suggestions 

Personalized content for the consumer is probably the easiest to grasp in this discussion. 

Rather than having monolithic offers and advantages for an entire consumer base, you are looking at a position in which the AI model knows which sector of the odds that it creates can be beneficial to certain customers. Each user of an online sportsbook is a data entry with fluid variables that require certain actions. 
In the simplest sense, personalized AI decision-making can be beneficial on two fronts.  

One would be the idea that it suggests betting opportunities based on the data that it collected from you, such as former bets, preferences in sports, usual betting markets, etc. Based on that, it can suggest betting occasions that fit your style.  

The other would be with advantages or even privileges. If it has certain thresholds that it recognizes as user types (high spenders, casuals, consistent bettors, etc.), it can give you deals and privileges based on your betting preferences but also based on your investment profile. 

As such, AI in sports betting can represent more than dynamic odds-making—it can represent an entirely new betting experience. 

Conclusion: Has Human Input Become Redundant? 

This is a very difficult question because it entails various ethical considerations that have a lot of variables associated with them.  

We can talk about the speed of human computation, which certainly gives the edge to AI. We can also mention the cost, which certainly gives AI the edge because, at the end of the day, it’s an investment with maintenance costs that are not as high as salaries. 

However, we are talking about humans here. Redundancy for the sake of profit is beyond problematic. Moreover, AI models prone to mistakes turn into systematic failures that can cost a bookmaker money by the second. As such, human intervention for its upgrades and clearances is still necessary, which would still require a certain level of reasoning that goes beyond computational logic. 

Regardless of how any online gambling platform chooses to provide its product, your role as a consumer is to always take care of your mental well-being. Please choose to bet responsibly!