As casinos mastered emotional engagement, sports betting lagged behind. Oren Cohen Shwartz, CEO of Delasport, examines why sportsbooks must evolve beyond pure functionality. With further challenges ahead, he explains how the next wave of innovation will fuse reliability with excitement, to reshape sportsbooks into immersive, entertainment-driven experiences.

For years, the casino and sportsbook verticals evolved side by side—same audience, same sites, but very different incentives.

Casinos scaled like entertainment. It operates 24/7/365, with studios shipping fresh titles weekly. Homepage real estate is fiercely contested, pushing content providers to innovate with leaderboards, prize drops, missions, jackpots, and seasonal events. This competitive loop forces constant creativity.

Sportsbooks didn’t face the same pressure. Most operators run a single sportsbook stack, creating less vendor competition on the front line. Innovation focused on accuracy, uptime, and market depth—valuable but largely invisible to players. Faster odds don’t create a faster pulse.

The gap is clear: casinos optimized for feeling; sportsbooks optimized for function.

The paradigm shift

Delasport has demonstrated that sportsbooks can be as engaging as casinos. We’ve pioneered a shift away from sportsbooks as mere function toward a betting experience that rivals casino entertainment. In recent years, we’ve released dozens of exciting innovations that challenge the old-school paradigm and bring genuine excitement to sports betting.

Time to fuse function with feeling

Sports bettors deserve the same engagement layer casino players enjoy. That means:

Missions & progression: Clear goals tied to real sports moments (like “Weekend Derby Quest”), experience points, levels, and streaks that respect responsible limits.

Event-driven prizes: Mission-based prize drops around fixtures and derbies, plus tournament-style leaderboards across slates.

Jackpots with sports DNA: Pooled mechanics that trigger on authentic outcomes – scorelines, player milestones – not random spins.

Personalization & recommendations: Interfaces that adapt by team affinity, betting style, and risk appetite, enabling smarter discovery with less scrolling.

New ways to bet: Innovations like ifBet, Mix and Match, SuperPot, and more.

Different paths, different results

The contrast between sportsbook and casino reveals a crucial truth: innovation doesn’t always belong to the most sophisticated systems. It belongs to those that dare to make people feel something.

In the 1990s, both industries made the same digital leap. Sportsbooks brought fixed odds and card payments online; casinos digitized slot machines. Both democratized access, but their priorities immediately diverged.

Sportsbooks focused on structure—accuracy, uptime, reliability. Casinos leaned into sensation—graphics, sound effects, jackpots, bonuses. These weren’t add-ons; they were the product itself.

The psychology gap

The difference between the two industries isn’t just technological – it’s psychological.

• Sports betting innovation has traditionally been cognitive. It satisfies logic, skill, and control. Players engage their analytical mind.
• Casino innovation, however, is emotional. It taps into instinct, excitement, and anticipation – the primal thrill of uncertainty.

Bridging the gap

The next frontier isn’t choosing between casino emotion and sportsbook intelligence – it’s merging them.

Delasport has shifted focus toward building tools that merge engagement with intelligence. Features like SuperPot (a sure-win sports jackpot where players compete and share excitement) or My Era (which personalizes every user journey) point toward this convergence.

We’re rediscovering sportsbook’s entertainment DNA. After all, sport itself is the ultimate live show. The challenge is mirroring that energy digitally.

The real lesson

Casino’s biggest advantage was never its technology – it was its courage to evolve emotionally.

Every innovation, from progressive jackpots to live game shows, was built on one question: How can we make players care?

For sportsbooks, the next wave won’t come from faster odds or richer data. It will come from reconnecting the thrill of uncertainty with the joy of play.

Because innovation isn’t just what you build – it’s what players feel when they use it.

The calm before the breakthrough

But perhaps the real story hasn’t even started yet.

Behind the scenes, a new kind of sportsbook experience is taking shape – one that redefines what it means to feel a bet.

Delasport has been quietly working on something that merges emotion, timing, and live sports in a way no sportsbook has dared before – a product that doesn’t just follow trends but sets them.

It’s fast, visual, and built to bring back the rush that first made people fall in love with betting.

For now, the details stay under wraps. But one thing is certain – the next revolution in sports betting isn’t a matter of if, It’s a matter of when.