How to Make a Web Platform for Sports Betting

Sports betting is a popular business, and if you do it right, you can make a lot of money from it. Let’s use a real-life example to show what we mean. There are now more than 197 thousand people working at almost 31,000 different sports betting businesses.

If so many people are needed to keep the many casinos, bingo halls, and betting shops running, can you imagine how many regular customers keep these businesses going?

Many countries around the world let people bet. Statista says that the sports betting app development market is worth $210.85 billion around the world. And it keeps growing. What gives? Because now you can bet on both desktop computers and mobile devices (both iOS and Android).

Technology has turned betting into a weapon and boosted its popularity to a whole new level. This has helped attract and keep even more active gamblers.

So, in this blog post, we’ll tell you how to make your own app for sports betting. We will also talk about what makes a good betting platform, what features it must have, and how much it really costs to make a custom solution that fits your needs, wants, and requirements.

Everything you need to know about making software for betting on sports

Even if a software solution seems simple at first glance, it’s not a “no-brainer” to make it. There is a lot more to it than meets the eye. This is because there are so many things you need to do. So many things need to be seriously thought about and taken into account. So, we made a list of the most important steps you need to take and the boxes you need to check. Let’s look at them in more depth right away.

Find your niche.

If you’ve decided to put money into making a sports betting app, the first thing you need to do is choose your niche. This doesn’t mean you should only play one sport, like soccer, basketball, horseback riding, auto racing, cricket, or something else. Even though focusing on a few sports will help you get started, especially if you don’t have a lot of money or resources to start with.

By picking a few of the most popular games, you can bring in a large enough crowd that people will start to bet on your platform. Then, you can use that as a stepping stone to move forward. On top of that, niche solutions give users a better experience and help people remember the brand.

Make sure you get a permit.

You can only legally run a betting business if you have a license from the Gambling Commission or a similar body in the area where you do business. Most of the time, getting this kind of license takes about six months, so don’t put it off.

There are a lot of places where you can get all the information you need about laws, legislation, and places where gambling is illegal. Basically, you need to apply for a license in the right place and wait for the authorities to look at your application and decide what to do with it. Make sure to pay close attention to the following when choosing a jurisdiction:

• general attitude of the country about rates, corruption, etc.;
• overall license requirements;
• taxes or any possible annual fees;
• how long the process of getting a license usually takes;
• the final cost of getting a license like this.

To show you real-world examples of where you can get a license, how much it can cost, and what you’ll get, we made this infographic with summarized, up-to-date information on some countries:

Pay attention to a payment provider.

The most important thing you can do for your sports betting platform is to choose the right payment gateway. Because of high turnover, the risk of fraud and money laundering, heavy website traffic, and high chargeback rates, it may be hard for the gambling industry to find a good provider.

So, when picking a payment provider, think about the following things they should do and rules they should follow:

• Transfers are quick, and the fees are fair. If you want to keep your users and win their loyalty, you have to make sure that they don’t have to spend too much time dealing with payments. The fees shouldn’t be too high either.
• There are different ways to pay. Some people still prefer traditional ways to pay, but others may like to use their digital wallets (linked cards or cryptocurrencies), account deposits, bank transfers, or something else. People who use your platform will always be glad to be able to pay in different currencies.
• There is a lot of safety. It goes without saying how important it is to make sure that all financial transactions are safe. So your payment provider should have a high level of risk and fraud management sophistication.

Things to think about

Besides the things we’ve already talked about, there are a few other important things you need to take care of. If you want to get into the market and grow your solution in the future, you should think ahead of time about:

What the sports betting platform must have

Most of the time, the features of a betting platform can be put into two groups: those for the owner of the platform and those for the people who use it. The owners get the statistics, a share of the money made from each bet (usually a certain percentage), and a client database from which they can use the information to market their business. 

End-users, or bettors, on the other hand, get a place where they can watch or follow games online, read the latest sports news, place bets, learn new tips, and talk to other people who like the same things they do.

About Sports

People who like sports and especially people who bet on sports need to know what’s going on. So, they have to read a lot of news about what’s going on now and look through a lot of different sources to learn as much as they can. Putting your money on a bet should be a pretty well-thought-out move, right?

So, why wouldn’t you want to keep all of your fans close to your business so that they have a financial and emotional stake in it? You can put sports news right on your betting website so that people can check the scores and place bets without having to leave the site.

Online game watching

Going further and letting your users watch the games directly on your betting website will be a nice touch that will make your platform more attractive to users as a one-stop-shop. Making this kind of all-in-one platform would be appreciated by users and win you a loyal customer base made up of regular visitors, as well as a steady stream of new ones. It’s never been easier to make smart betting decisions.

By the way, you should also think about adding live-streaming, which is the latest trend and can also bring in younger viewers. For example, you can work with sports bloggers who can live-stream important events and mention your platform. Or, you can stream live videos right on your website.

Betting tips

Share some betting tips, rules, and trends with your users so that not just professional gamblers will want to check out your site. This helpful information can also bring in people who want to try their luck for the first time and bet on any sport. By showing them how to do it right, they will become loyal customers who feel safe and sure when they bet with you.

To conclude

Creating a betting platform gives you the chance to join the huge, multi-billion-dollar sports betting industry. People will always want to watch games and bet on them, because it’s in our nature to be curious and excited. But you have to keep in mind that there is a lot of competition on the market. If you want to become a star, you have to put in a lot of work.