Chris Papadimitriou, Altenar: “Our focus is on ensuring a seamless and stable user journey, even during the most dynamic moments of a World Cup match”
In the third instalment of “Voices of the World Cup”, Focus Gaming News spoke with Chris Papadimitriou, Senior Product Analyst at Altenar, about adapting the Bet Builder product for in-play environments and maintaining user experience during the World Cup.
Exclusive interview.- As sports betting continues to evolve ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026, operators are increasingly focused on delivering more personalised, engaging and flexible betting experiences. Among the products driving that transformation is Bet Builder, which has become one of the industry’s most popular features by allowing bettors to create customised wagers around individual matches. Yet bringing that experience into a fast-moving live environment presents a new set of technical, trading and user-experience challenges.
In this exclusive Focus Gaming News interview, the third in the “Voices of the World Cup” series, Chris Papadimitriou, senior product analyst at Altenar, explores how Bet Builder is evolving for the next generation of live sports betting. He discusses the complexities of maintaining a seamless in-play experience, the role of personalisation during major events such as the World Cup, and how operators can balance user engagement with pricing integrity at scale. Papadimitriou also shares insights into player props, adaptive betslips and the product innovations that are shaping the future of sportsbook engagement beyond traditional promotional tools.
Bet Builder has been a staple of pre-match football for years. But in-play is a different challenge entirely. Where does the product actually break down when you move it from pre-match into a live environment?
From an Altenar perspective, the challenge is not just pricing, it’s maintaining a consistent experience under pressure. Pre-match Bet Builder operates in a controlled environment, while in-play introduces continuous change, from odds recalculations to suspensions and fast-changing match conditions. The risk is that the product becomes disjointed and loses its flow. Our focus is on ensuring a seamless and stable user journey, where users can build, adjust and place bets without interruption, even during the most dynamic moments of a World Cup match.
“From an Altenar perspective, the challenge is not just pricing, it’s maintaining a consistent experience under pressure.”
Chris Papadimitriou, senior product analyst at Altenar.
Let’s say a bettor builds a five-leg parlay during halftime—then one selection suspends or odds shift 20 per cent. What UX decisions prevent cart abandonment while protecting margin integrity?
For Altenar, this is a key moment in the player experience and one that directly impacts conversion. In-play disruption is inevitable, but the experience should never feel compromised. Our approach is to make the betslip adaptive rather than disruptive, preserving as much of the user’s intent as possible while clearly communicating any changes. By minimising disruption and keeping the flow intact, we ensure that users stay engaged even when the underlying conditions change. During the World Cup, where engagement is at its peak, these moments make a significant difference in both retention and revenue.
Personalisation is everywhere in betting. Within Bet Builder specifically, how do you balance individualised suggestions based on user behaviour with pricing integrity across millions of bettors during the World Cup?
At Altenar, personalisation is designed to enhance discovery, not distort pricing. The core pricing layer remains consistent and powered by real-time trading logic, ensuring integrity across all users. On top of that, we apply personalisation at the experience level, surfacing relevant markets, suggesting combinations, and guiding users based on behaviour and context. This allows us to deliver a more engaging and tailored experience without compromising margin control or impacting consistency. During a global event like the World Cup, where scale is critical, this separation between pricing and presentation is key to maintaining both trust and performance.
“At Altenar, personalisation is designed to enhance discovery, not distort pricing.”
Chris Papadimitriou, senior product analyst at Altenar.
Player props have transformed Bet Builder in American sports. But the World Cup brings 48 nations — and bettors who may know nothing about a Moroccan midfielder or an Albanian striker. How do you build a compelling player props product around players that most of your user base has never heard of?
This is where product design becomes a key differentiator. At Altenar, we do not rely on prior user knowledge, we create familiarity through the experience itself. By centralising content within a dedicated environment such as the World Cup Lobby, we guide users through a structured journey where players, teams and relevant markets are brought forward in a way that feels relevant and immediate. This allows users to discover betting opportunities naturally, without needing deep prior knowledge. The result is a more intuitive and engaging experience that turns a complex tournament into a clear and accessible product offering.
Altenar and others talk about Boosted Odds and Bet Cards. Beyond the promo layer, what’s the actual product innovation inside Bet Builder that operators can’t replicate with marketing alone?
The real innovation goes far beyond promotional mechanics. At Altenar, Bet Builder is designed as a deeply integrated product capability, not just a marketing layer. This includes the ability to combine related markets with accurate real-time pricing, seamless integration into the betting experience, and a flexible architecture that supports dynamic content such as Bet Cards and contextual suggestions. While promotions can drive short-term engagement, sustainable impact comes from how naturally Bet Builder fits into the overall experience, how quickly users can discover it, how easily they can use it, and how reliably it performs under live conditions. That is not something that can be replicated through marketing alone.
This is the third instalment of Voices of the World Cup, an exclusive interview series exploring how the sports betting and igaming industry is preparing for the FIFA World Cup 2026™. Over the coming weeks, Focus Gaming News will speak with the most influential leaders in the sector on AI-driven trading, platform stability, Bet Builder innovation, next-gen retention and crypto integration.
Follow the series at focusgn.com
