At NEXT NYC 2026, the panel “Leaders' Viewpoint: The Next Generation of Sports Bettors” made one thing clear: today’s bettor wants more than a long list of markets.

Moderated by Jeffrey Haas of Dreamcraft VC, the conversation featured Ryan Robey of Staicy.win, Scot McClintic of Fanatics Betting and Gaming, and Matthew Ferrata of Altenar. From the perspective of the average bettor, the biggest takeaway was simple: the modern user wants betting to feel easier and more personal.

That starts with friction. Scot McClintic said customers want “more and more and less friction because every other app they use does that.” That is probably the clearest explanation for how American betting behavior has shifted. Bettors are no longer judging sportsbooks only against each other. They are judging them against the smoothest apps they use every day. If something feels clunky or slow, users notice immediately.

Scot also boiled down exactly what many bettors are after: “find whatever I want, combine anything, at a fair price. Once executed, I want a cashout at a fair number.” That gets right to the heart of the user experience. Bettors need the feeling that the app is working with them, not against them.

Ryan Robey focused on another major part of the shift: betting as entertainment. He said the fun side still matters, and that features built around social interaction are often “the glue that holds the community together.” He joked about betting on soccer with friends at 8:30 in the morning and admitted that today’s apps make it easy to bet on things you might not even know much about just because it adds to the experience.

That felt especially honest. For the average bettor, not every wager is some deep analytical play. A lot of the time, it is about being in the moment, having fun with friends, and making a random game feel worth watching. That social layer is becoming a bigger part of the product.

Matthew Ferrata pointed to personalization as the next big step. Betting may be more accessible than ever, but that does not automatically make it easier to use. If there are thousands of options, many users will feel overwhelmed. Ferrata’s point was that if you are a Giants fan, Giants-related markets should find you. For the average bettor, that kind of personalization may end up mattering more than simply having infinite choices. Oftentimes, doom-scrolling a sportsbook to find what you're looking for can be a huge deterrent. If you’re wasting time searching through a mountain of choices, it's not surprising that many users will give up altogether.

That is where the industry seems to be heading. For years, growth meant more states, more markets, and more bet types. Now it may be about surfacing the right things for the right user at the right time.

The panel also touched on prediction markets and whether they serve the same kind of customer as sportsbooks. Scot said there is “a lot of overlap,” especially since so much of that activity is still sports-related. But the conversation also made it clear that prediction products still lack some of the visuals, polish, and built-in experience that bettors already expect from sportsbooks. Ferrata was direct in saying that predictions are not in Altenar’s roadmap right now.

In a lot of ways, that was the bigger theme of the session. The first wave of legal sports betting was about access. Then came product expansion, especially after the post-PASPA push into things like same-game parlays. Now the focus is shifting toward refinement.

For the average bettor, that means a better experience. Less friction. Better discovery. Smarter personalization. More community. More fun.