Kirill Nekrasov, Head of Sportsbook Product at BETBY, writes for SBC News to outline exactly why chess is becoming a popular betting product, owing to its rise into the mainstream in the last few years.
Chess has surged into mainstream culture over the past few years, driven by streaming platforms, global icons, and the growth of online play. Once considered too technical for modern audiences, the game is now increasingly watched and consumed digitally all over the world. But despite this cultural renaissance, chess remained largely absent from sportsbooks. It was perceived as too slow, too complex to model, and too difficult to convert into a consistent, high-engagement betting product.
However, that narrative is now changing.
With the launch of the industry’s first 24/7 live chess content, supported by a proprietary live model, BETBY has achieved a breakthrough that will positively impact the future of chess betting. For the first time, operators can offer continuous, premium-quality chess events with full in-play coverage, something previously seen as impractical, if not impossible, for the iGaming industry.
To understand why this matters, and why this innovation arrives at a pivotal moment ahead of BETBY’s historic activation at ICE Barcelona 2026, it’s important to look at how chess evolved from an underdeveloped betting category into one of the most promising verticals in today’s iGaming industry.
Popular Game, Untapped Potential
The world has never been more engaged with chess. Chess.com surpassed 200 million members, with more than 20 million games played every day on the platform, streamers such as Levy Rozman turned chess into a high-entertainment digital format, and Magnus Carlsen, officially considered the greatest player of all time, helped position the sport within the global mainstream.
Yet despite this cultural momentum, chess remained nearly invisible within sports betting for years. Markets were limited, data was unreliable or intentionally delayed and operators did not see enough commercial value to prioritise it. Chess was often dismissed as too intellectual, too niche or simply too difficult to price dynamically.
Chess has always been seen as too complex to model properly, but that is also what makes it ideal for an innovative, highly engaging betting product. If you can solve the challenges behind it, of course.
Making Chess Engaging
Earlier this year, BETBY introduced a completely unique approach to chess betting with a new set of markets that went far beyond the typical winner or total moves lines. Instead of limiting bettors to predictable outcomes, BETBY offered event-driven selections such as first move prediction, first piece captured, number of checks, the occurrence of pawn promotions or en passant moves, castling counts, stalemate outcomes and even timing-based options such as whether a checkmate would occur before a particular move number.
This alone transformed chess from a slow, analytical category into a fast, engaging betting experience. It was the first major step in modernising chess as a betting vertical and making it accessible to audiences who expect constant action similar to what they experience in football, tennis, or esports.
Nonetheless, one fundamental challenge remained unsolved, preventing chess from becoming a fully scalable vertical: the sport simply did not have continuous live content.
Lack of Continuous Chess Events
Very early in the project, BETBY identified a critical structural barrier: there were not enough live chess events happening across the world to sustain user engagement. Traditional tournaments run on fixed schedules, often include long breaks between rounds, and apply broadcast delays to prevent cheating, making real-time betting nearly impossible.
This lack of consistency meant that operators could not position chess as a core vertical, users could not form betting patterns, and sportsbooks could not build a product around unpredictable content availability. To explore chess’s potential, BETBY needed to create a continuous, always-on content ecosystem.
24/7 Live Content With a Full Live Model
To achieve this, BETBY integrated chess engine competitions into its platform, turning an established competitive format into a betting product.
These tournaments feature the world’s strongest chess engines competing under unified hardware conditions, long and stable time controls, and a structured seasonal format that includes round-robin stages followed by playoffs. Each game is played to a decisive outcome or theoretical draw, ensuring a constant flow of high-quality contests suitable for sportsbook platforms.
Still, building the tournaments was only part of the challenge. That’s because these engines are extraordinarily precise, requiring a level of modelling sophistication far beyond typical sports. BETBY’s product, trading and AI teams collaborated to create a proprietary live modelling framework capable of supporting dynamic in-play markets — including live winners, handicaps, totals and round-based outcomes — across a 24/7 schedule.
The result is unprecedented: continuous live chess content for operators, available at any hour of the day. This transforms chess from a sporadic niche sport into a fully scalable betting vertical.
And when combined with competitions like the upcoming FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships 2025, the value becomes even clearer. During tournament off-hours, fans can continue engaging with chess through BETBY’s nonstop engine-based matches. This creates uninterrupted viewing and betting opportunities, allowing operators to extend user sessions and maintain momentum throughout one of the most important chess events of the year. For users, it means unlimited ways to stay immersed in the sport they love. For operators, it unlocks continuous engagement cycles that were previously impossible.
Why This Matters for Operators
Beyond this engagement boost, the availability of round-the-clock live chess brings several strategic advantages. First of all, continuous content eliminates the highs and lows historically associated with chess betting, allowing sportsbooks to maintain user engagement throughout the day with a predictable schedule. Secondly, the tactical depth and fast decision-making of engine-based matches also create opportunities for high-frequency in-play betting, similar to the engagement patterns seen in esports and rapid sports formats.
But that’s not all. Chess’s cross-vertical appeal, for example, is another key factor. It resonates with traditional sports bettors and esports fans, especially since it was included in the Esports World Cup, making it one of the few content types capable of bridging demographic and behavioural segments within a sportsbook environment.
As Nekrasov notes: “Continuous live content allows chess to scale in a way the industry has never seen before. It creates a stable engagement cycle that simply wasn’t possible with traditional tournament formats.”
Chess Stars at ICE Barcelona 2026
The timing of this breakthrough comes just as BETBY prepares for a major activation at ICE Barcelona 2026. The landmark showcase will feature:
- Magnus Carlsen BETBY’s global brand ambassador and the official chess GOAT
- Hikaru Nakamura World number two and five-time US Champion
- Levy Rozman (GothamChess) The world’s #1 chess streamer with more than 7 million YouTube followers
This will be the first time these three global chess personalities appear together in Europe, marking a historic moment for both the chess and betting industries.
Their involvement underscores BETBY’s long-term investment in chess betting, reinforcing the supplier’s goal of elevating the sport from a niche position to a fully established vertical.
ICE attendees will be able to experience BETBY’s new chess innovations — including its 24/7 live content ecosystem — first-hand at stand 5K20.