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Sports betting is a popular industry, and you can build a highly profitable business around it. Let’s take a real example to prove our point. Now there are more than 197 thousand employees working at almost 31 thousand different sports betting business entities.
If so many people sustainably serve the numerous casinos, bingo, and betting shops, can you imagine the number of their regular visitors financially supporting the continued existence of these businesses?
Online sports betting is legal in many countries all over the world. According to Statista, the market size of the sports betting sector worldwide is $210.85 billion. And it keeps growing.
Why is that? Simply because now, online sports betting has now become available on desktop and mobile devices – both iOS and Android ones. Technologies weaponised casino games and turbocharged the industry’s popularity to a whole new level, helping attract and retain even more active gamblers.
So, in this blog post, we’d like to share some tips on creating your own business with a sports betting app. We will also discuss what makes a great betting platform, name some must-have features and the true cost of developing such a tech solution to fit your particular individual needs, wants and requirements.
All you need to know about sports betting website development
The development of any software solution, no matter how easy it may appear at first sight, can hardly be described as a “no-brainer”. There is far more to it than catching the eye, and that’s because there are so many processes you need to take care of.
There are so many aspects you need to consider and take into account. So, we have prepared a list of key steps and boxes you need to tick. Let’s take a closer look at them right away.
Choose your niche in online gambling
In case you’ve made a decision to invest in sports betting app development, the first thing you need to do is to select your niche.
This does not mean that you need to focus only on one type of sport – like soccer, basketball, horse riding, auto racing, cricket, or else. However, focusing on a few sports will surely be helpful at the start, especially if the initial resources (i.e. budget) at your disposal are quite limited.
By choosing several most popular games you can surely attract a wide enough audience that will start to actively place their bets on your platform.
You can then use that as the stepping stone from which to build on. On top of that, niche solutions offer a better user experience and help with better brand recognition.
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Make sure to be granted a license
The betting business is legal only if you’ve got a license from the Gambling Commission or relevant authority in your jurisdiction of operation.
Generally, the process of receiving such a license takes about half a year, so don’t delay it. There are many sources where you can find all the necessary information about laws and legislation and where gambling is altogether illegal.
Basically, you need to apply for a license in the pertinent jurisdiction and wait for the authorities to consider/process your application. While choosing a jurisdiction, make sure to pay special attention to:
- general country attitude towards rates, corruption, etc;
- overall license requirements;
- taxes or any possible annual fees;
- the typical duration of the procedure of obtaining a license;
- the ultimate cost of obtaining such a license.
To provide you with real examples of where you can get a license, how much it can cost you and what you’ll get, we have created this consolidated infographic with up-to-date summarised information on certain countries:
Altamira team has experience assisting our client with getting a betting license. It was a niche solution called Fantasy Rugger, and it took a while to get the necessary documents to start operating. But in the end, everything turned out great, and the project won the hearts and minds of many gamblers.
Take care of a payment provider
Your priority should be selecting the right payment gateway for your sports betting platform.
Finding a reliable provider in the gambling industry may be challenging because of the industry’s high turnover, risks of fraud and money laundering, heavy website traffic, and unsettled chargeback rates.
So, while choosing your payment provider, consider the following aspects and requirements that they should follow.
Fast transfers and reasonable fees
If you want to retain your users and win over their loyalty, you absolutely need to minimise the amount of time they spend dealing with payments. And the fees should not be high.
Different payment methods
While some people still prefer traditional payment methods, others may like using their digital wallets (linked cards or cryptocurrencies), account deposits, bank transfers or else. Your platform users will always appreciate the opportunity to be able to pay in different currencies.
High level of security
Needless to emphasise how important it is to take care of the security of all financial operations. So your payment provider should offer a high level of sophistication in risk and fraud management.
Good to know
Our experts explored the market to identify the most popular and trusted payment gateways that can be of use to you and your future business. Take your time to check out the entire list of the best payment providers in our blog post.
Other things to consider
Apart from the aspects we’ve named above, you need to take care of a couple of other crucial things. If your goal is not only to enter the market but also to grow your solution in the future, then think ahead of time about:
- Security measures. It is preferable for all betting websites to use 128-bit encryption, and to perform frequent remote backups of customer data and information. In this case if anything happens to your solution, you will be able to recover a lot of crucial data.
- Dedicated server. Since the number of users on your betting website is meant to be only growing, you need to ensure its stable performance and minimise risks of any glitches or lags. Therefore you have to choose a scalable server that can accommodate growing usage volumes.
- Merchant account. Gambling websites require a special merchant account for secure credit card processing and gateway. So don’t neglect this important aspect and choose wisely!
Must-have features of the sports betting platform
Generally, features of the betting platform can be divided into two groups: for the platform owner and for the visitors.
Owners get the statistics, get their profits from each bet placed (typically a certain percentage), and get a client database, the information extracted from which can then be used for marketing purposes.
End-users, or betters, on the other hand, get a place to follow/watch games online, read the latest sports news, place bets, learn new tips, and communicate with like-minded people.
And now let’s discuss the features that keep being in demand and can help your online betting website stay competitive.
Sports News
Sports fans and especially those who bet on sports, need to stay up to date.
That’s why they have to read a lot of news on the latest events and browse through numerous sources to get as much information as possible. Placing a bet with your money should be a well-thought-out decision, right?
So, why wouldn’t you keep all those fans closer to your business so that they are invested not only money-wise but emotionally vested as well?
You can provide sports news directly on your betting website so that users can learn the scores and place a bet in a few clicks without leaving the platform.
Watching games online
Going further and letting your users watch the games directly on your betting website will be a nice touch that will make your platform stickier to users as a one-stop shop.
Creating such an all-in-one platform would be surely appreciated by users and win you over a loyal customer base composed of regular visitors and will be sure to continuously attract new ones.
Making informed betting decisions has never been easier.
By the way, you should also think about adding the latest trend of live-streaming, adding this feature can also attract a younger audience.
For example, you can collaborate with sports bloggers who can live-stream important events and mention your platform. Or you can also broadcast live streams directly on your website.
Betting tips
Share some tips, trends, and betting rules with your users so that professional bettors are not the only ones interested in visiting your website.
This useful information can also attract those users who are willing to try their luck for the first time and place a bet on any kind of sport.
Telling them how to do it right turns them into loyal users who can feel secure and certain when betting with you.
Cryptocurrencies support
Taking into account how popular cryptocurrency payments have become (even some common stores accept them), you need to be one step ahead in your business and let your betting website users bet if they have some cryptocurrency to put up as collateral.
You can accept all the major cryptocurrencies and payment options like Ripple, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, maybe even something like Dogecoin (which the world’s richest person is a fan of but otherwise a meme crypto) or else.
Placing bets
This is the main feature of any betting website, isn’t it? Therefore, this function must be as easy and as fast as possible. How to make betting seamless?
Firstly, the payment system should be set up so that users don’t have to enter their payment information details each time (the system has to have an option whereby it will “remember” this information). Next, add as many types of bets as possible to give users a wide variety of bets and opportunities to win money and have fun.
You can also enable public betting so that people stay aware of popular trends and have a chance to join them. This feature might be very handy for newcomers who don’t know all the secrets yet. For example, they can join a popular bet to ensure victory.
You can also give a sneak peek into the potential amount of money one can win if they make a certain bet and it proves to be a winning one. For example, if the bet isn’t popular, the potential gain is higher, and so are the risks.
Community
When trying to figure out how to make a sports betting website, don’t underestimate the power of communities. Creating one on your web betting platform can bring you much more profits than you think.
For instance, users can watch games, comment, discuss, and share their reviews. By adding more social functions you can create more than a blunt betting facilitator – you can create a strong community of sports lovers.
Such people like to argue with each other, debate on games, bets, and players. Spending more time on the platform with like-minded people, they would probably stick around for their actual betting rather than search for and seek out new betting websites.
Altamira experience with betting websites development
We have developed many successful sports betting solutions and even helped our clients with the licensing process. Now, we would like to share one success story with you. It’s about a project called Fantasy Rugger.
Fantasy rugger is not a simple betting website, it is a highly functional gambling platform that collects all data about games in real time. Now all rugby fans can enjoyFantasy Rugger, and win real money for the achievements of their favorite players.
Here are some interesting options of Fantasy Rugger that are worthy of your attention:
- a unique stats engine that collects information about real players;
- great analytics and scoring system;
- integration with PayPal and Realex;
- proprietary statistics database;
- chatting and rules options;
- leagues creation and management.
Developing Fantasy Rugger was a unique experience that our team can now use to build out your betting platform. We know how to obtain a great license, what programming languages to use, what integrations to consider, and what design to create.
Our knowledge and expertise can help you achieve a highly performing solution that is also intuitive and user-friendly.
Apart from Fantasy Rugger we have developed online casinos, trading platforms, web platforms for bettors, solutions that help users devise the best betting strategies, gambling games and many more.
Development cost of a sports betting website
By now you may be wondering how much money you actually need to build a successful sports betting platform. Well, it will cost you $100,000-$140,000.
Actually, the sum can be even bulkier, everything depends on the overall platform complexity, required development hours, seniority of your developers and third-party integrations and services that will be used. In general, you need the following specialists to complete your project:
- Business Analyst;
- Project Manager;
- Designer;
- Front-end coders;
- Back-end developers;
- Manual and automated QA specialists;
- DevOps.
To develop a sports betting platform is a huge investment and yet, you should not forget that your betting platform can pay itself off and bring you a great deal of income on top of that.
Each year a growing number of millennials start betting, and if your solution is innovative, well-thought-out and user-friendly, you can catch the attention of many new users fast.
And now let’s get back to the true cost of sports betting platform development. Here are some real numbers for you to scrutinise.
To conclude
The development of a betting platform grants you the opportunity to become a part of the huge multi-billion-dollar sports betting industry.
People will always be interested in watching games and making bets, because curiosity and excitement are in our nature. However, you have to remember that the competition on the market is extremely tight. If you want to become a star, there is a lot of work that needs to be done.
Creating a betting website is no easy task. It’s not enough to have a great idea in mind and enough money to fulfil it. You need a reliable and experienced software development team to do all the technical job for you.
And that’s exactly what Altamira can help you with right away! Waste no more time, drop us a line and enter the sports betting niche with a top-notch solution really fast.
FAQ
First of all you need to choose your niche for betting, then obtain a bookmaker’s license. This can take a couple of months, sometimes even up to half a year. So while you are in the process of waiting to obtain your license, you can start looking for a development company that will build a betting platform for you. Think about key requirements, options, payment providers.
And create a development budget! Although the development is an expensive venture, you can start with the MVP and then improve that basic version to a more complete one over time.
Of course, it’s always better to cover both the web and mobile market, however, you can start with a web solution first. Once your target audience and income start growing on a regular basis, you can go mobile and build either a native or cross-platform solution to expand your audience even more.
Apart from traditional sports betting platforms, the new kinds are emerging and starting to rock the market. Among such solutions you can see crypto sports betting, e-sports betting, money line betting, teaser betting, head-to-head betting, and even parlay betting that lets you bet on multiple events. The possibilities to enter the market now are endless.