Altenar co-founder and COO Dinos Stranomitis talks high stakes and risk management.
“Which companies these days would accept a €0.5m stake in a WTA game?” Dinos Stranomitis asks. “I don’t think you can find many. Even in Las Vegas I have a doubt if this is possible.”
But Altenar can take such a bet and be confident there’s no risk. Much more than a technological provider, Altenar also offers services to manage sportsbooks, something that Stranomitis, as COO and co-founder, stresses can be very important.
I don’t care what the game is. I care who is betting.
Dinos Stranomitis, co-founder and COO, Altenar.
“We have trading and risk management policies that are a little bit different,” he says. “When the trading team calls me and says we have a big bet, I don’t care what the game is. I care who is betting. It does not really matter what you bet. It matters who you are.”
The key to managing risk with high stakes is to look at who you’re dealing with, Stranomitis says. Altenar does that by profiling players, particularly VIPs, in order to decide whether or not to accept high stakes. Every customer should have a profile and be segmented.
“A person who is a good punter will find the value,” he notes. “Someone who just wants to have entertainment and fun does not really care where the value is. He just wants to go for the thrill. So a super VIP who likes volleyball, he will obviously bet on any kind of volleyball, even Russian third division or anything, which looks extremely suspicious, but it’s not. He just likes volleyball.”
High stakes are not to be feared, Stranomitis insists. Even if the bet goes the customer’s way, a regular punter will continue betting. Hence why the key is to look for patterns to detect how selective a player is. Better segmentation means better profit in the long run.
“Usually people, even if they win, they keep betting,” he says. “And this, in the long run, allows the operators to have the profit of that match.”
Trading in sports betting is not something you can learn in a university.
Dinos Stranomitis, co-founder and COO, Altenar.
Of course, making that call – deciding if a bet is a risk or not, takes know-how. “Trading in sports betting is not something you can learn in a university. It needs experience,” Stranomitis says.
That means it’s important for sportsbooks to choose the right partners, not just for the software, but also to find someone who understands sports betting and understands the mathematics behind it.
This becomes even more important at the start of what is another peculiar season, with a lack of rest for players threatening to cause more surprises and unexpected results like those seen for Barca and Liverpool in the past season.
Having the right sportsbook management in place helps to mitigate the risk in a sector that is ultimately unpredictable. As Stranomitis says, it’s that unpredictability that gives sports betting its thrill.
Check out the full interview with Dinos Stranomitis on the Focus Gaming News YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe!
