For the last decade, the sports viewing experience has been "Two-Screen": Game on the TV, betting app on the phone. The industry has been desperate to merge them, but technology stood in the way.
Specifically, the protocol known as HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) was the bottleneck. HLS is reliable but slow, often carrying a 20-30 second delay. You can't put a live betting overlay on a video that is 30 seconds behind reality; the odds would already be closed before you saw the play.
Enter WebRTC This week, we saw the beta rollout of the new "Immersion Mode" on several major platforms. The secret sauce is a shift to WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication)—the same tech that powers Zoom calls.
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Latency: WebRTC drops video delay to under 500 milliseconds.
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Synchronization: This allows the data feed (the odds) and the video feed (the game) to arrive at your device in the exact same data packet.
The "Overlay" Economy What does this look like for the consumer?
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Click-to-Bet Video: You no longer scroll a list of text. You tap the Quarterback on the video stream, and a small bubble pops up: “Pass > 15 yards (+120).”
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Unified Wallet: Your streaming subscription and your betting bankroll are becoming linked. Watch for the major pending mergers between broadcasters and operators to formalize this in Q1 2026.
The User Risk The friction of switching apps was a natural safety brake. Removing it makes betting seamless, but also mindless. When the game is the casino, the house edge is always in your field of vision.