How to Create a Sports Betting Website

According to the Zion Market Research report, over the next five years, the world market for sports betting expects a steady growth of 9% per year, with much of the growth being achieved "thanks to the digital revolution that changes the world every second." Therefore, if you plan to create a sports betting site, now is the time. Our article will tell you how to do it correctly and legally.

What you need to run a sports betting site:

• Choose a niche for betting (football, basketball, horse riding, eSports, etc.).


• Choose an approach to development (from scratch, get licensed software, become a licensee).


• Obtain a bookmaker's license for the target jurisdiction.


• Select a payment service provider.


• Create BackEnd infrastructure.


• Develop the design and functions of the site.


• Ensure safety.


• Select a betting system.


• Launch marketing campaign.

What niche and sport is better to choose?

Major online brokers such as betway.com, 888sport.com and bet365.com serve bets on virtually all sports. And the first time you can hardly compete with them, unless you are ready to invest a lot of money in a marketing campaign. If the budget is limited, it is better to bet on a specific category or specific sport.



Targeting a small niche will create a better user experience and make the site more recognizable. In practice, this means that you need:

• Develop a site design and interface for a specific niche.


• Develop unique game offers specific to the chosen sport. For example, if this is football, we need bets on the first out, breaking the rules, hitting the plane of the opponent's goal, on the number of yellow cards, etc. If this is Dot 2 (video game), you need bets on the time of the first blood, the number of ultra-kills in a match, etc.


• Develop a marketing strategy for a specific niche. Due to a narrower target audience, you will be able to more effectively target an advertising campaign and increase the loyalty of players.

You need to choose a niche based on which region you are planning to work in. The simplest example is that in Europe, soccer is popular and practically does not play American football, and vice versa, American football is popular in the United States and there is almost no interest in soccer. The popularity of bets on certain sports in the country can be found, for example, using Google Trends.



Using Google Trends is simple: enter keywords (“sport name” + “bets”), choose a region and a tracked period. Keywords must be entered in the local language (or languages). Tracked period must be more than a year. And the region must be chosen with a payable population.

What approach for the development to choose?

Creating software for the gambling business is not a typical development, since standardization, licensing and credibility of software developers play an important role here. That is, players must be sure that their money will not be stolen, the probability of winning will not be "tied up" and developers will provide the proper level of protection against hacking and / or unauthorized interference.

That is why we recommend using development services from well-known development companies on the market. In the case of online sports betting, custom development allows you to implement additional functions. It is also useful in terms of marketing.

Betting website development approaches:

Customized solution

The cost of this option can be found on the example of Bet365. The site is registered in Gibraltar, so the registration was paid 30 thousand dollars, 100 thousand dollars a year is spent on taxes (the site has many licenses, and not just for sports betting). Website development cost 80−100 thousand dollars (+ the same amount per mobile application). Several million dollars was spent on promotion.

Thus, the development of a site like Bet365 will cost from 300 thousand to 3 million dollars. Focusing on a small niche will reduce marketing costs, but this will have almost no impact on the cost of developing a website. As an advantage of this way, it is worth noting that you will fully control the process and will be the owner of the program code.

White Label solution

Their price ranges from 10 to 350 thousand dollars. The cost of expensive options includes the site itself (a template with a limited ability to customize the design and functionality), application, payment processing and promotion. So you will only develop a design and general guidance. In return, you will have to pay a certain percentage of gross income or profit. In general, this is the best option to run your site if you have a limited budget.

Become a Licensee Licensee. The most budgetary approach to meet the amount of from 5 to 60 thousand dollars. Speaking in essence, you will work under someone else’s license as an agent to attract customers in exchange for a certain commission on their expenses. That is, you will be engaged in marketing and traffic to another site.

No matter which path you choose, make sure the software meets the following requirements:

• secure multi-currency currency gateways;


• there is customer support and customer relationship management system (CRM);


• you understand how the betting system works;


• large coverage of various types of rates;


• software licensed.

In which country to get a license?

Building a sports-based business on the Internet is not an easy task, requiring a lot of money and a corresponding license. Such a license can be obtained not everywhere, since in some countries such a business is prohibited, while there are countries where not only entrepreneurs are punished for online betting, but also players. These are mainly countries of the Middle East and Asia. In Europe, bets are completely banned only in Poland.



Learn about the relationship of a particular country to online betting on the «Simon’s Guide to Online Gambling Legal Status and Laws» page. It is periodically updated, and there is an interactive map. In the US, attitudes towards online betting are determined by individual state laws. To find out about current legislation and the latest news on this issue, please visit gamblingcompliance.com. An interactive map is also present.



As a provider of gambling services, your company must apply for a license in the selected jurisdiction. Consideration of the issue by public authorities will take from several months to a year (depending on the country).

When choosing jurisdiction, consider the following:

• state reputation (attitude to rates, corruption, stability of the regime);


• licensing requirements for legal entities and authorized capital;


• the cost and duration of the procedure for obtaining a license;


• taxes and other fiscal charges.

Most online gambling companies choose the following jurisdictions:

• Curacao. There are no divisions into types of bookmakers, casinos and game slots. All of them receive one type of license. There are no strict requirements for applicants, which simplifies and speeds up the process. The tax rate is 2%, which is lower than in other countries. In general, this is a great option, as the authorities of Curacao seek to issue permits as quickly as possible, in order to increase tax revenues.


• Costa Rica. A stable country, which is happy to hand out licenses to conduct a betting business, but with two conditions: first, local residents should not use its services, which is achieved by blocking all IP addresses of the country; the second is the physical presence of your company in the country. The cost of the license is 12 thousand dollars a year. There are no tax liabilities or exchange controls.


• Isle of Man. Registration of all types of gambling entertainment is possible. The cost of the license depends on the structure of the company and the type of the form, the minimum is 50 thousand dollars. If the company's revenue is less than $ 20 million, tax deductions are 1.5%.

It is advisable to place servers (or use the services of hosting companies) in the country of registration. So there will be fewer problems with jurisdiction and laws protecting the rights and personal information of users.

How to choose a payment service provider?

To start a betting business, you must enter into an agreement with several payment system providers so that players can easily and quickly deposit and withdraw money from your platform. For convenience, it is recommended to provide users with as many payment options as possible. At the same time, it is necessary to make a bet on payment services that understand the conditions of specific regions and adapt their services to these conditions. In the table you will find a comparison of the three most popular payment systems.


You can use these services or others. The choice should depend on the preferences of your target group and availability in the selected region. Now it is also worthwhile to connect I/O with the help of popular cryptocurrencies.

How to create BackEnd infrastructure of a betting site?

The BackEnd infrastructure of a betting site includes such components as a betting processing engine, real-time update systems and interaction with the payment gateway.

The elements of BackEnd infrastructure creation process:

• Technology stack. Select appropriate tools, including programming language, framework, and database system, such as Python, Flask, and PostgreSQL.


• Microservice architectures. The application is broken down into independent services that are developed, deployed, and scaled independently of each other.


• Containerization and orchestration. Increases the scalability of the back-end infrastructure. Containerization packages the application and its dependencies into a container, and orchestration tools manage them.


• Cloud infrastructure. Services such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure provide cheaper, more secure, and scalable BackEnd development.

There are two options for BackEnd infrastructure: outsourcing and in-house development. About 24% of small businesses use outsourcing. This approach provides favorable cost of services, no need to find a team and post-launch product support.

What features should the site have?

User panel features:

• Login. The ability to register and authorize in several ways: login and password, email and password, integration with accounts in social networks.


• Choosing a bet. Simple and quick selection of the sport, team, player, events, which you can bet on at the moment. A set of such things should differ depending on the sport. It is important to realize the ability to bet on the result of a specific player, and not just the team as a whole.


• Broadcasting game / matches. The ability to watch the match in real time on the site or through the application site. Increases user experience and allows you to use more business models for earnings.


• Bid Help. A simple guide with illustrative examples (screenshots + video), how to bet and how to enter and withdraw money. Also, a tooltip system should be developed to assist the user in working with the interface for the first time.


• Team / Player Information. Users should be able to find out information about each team and individual players in the chosen sport. It must be concise information about the results, achievements, weaknesses and strengths.


• Match schedule. A calendar of future events will help users plan their activity at rates. The schedule must be contextual: if the user selects football bets, then the football matches schedule must be next.


• Choice of bet type. The set should depend on the specific sport and user requests.


• Communication with other participants. Players should be able to communicate in real time to discuss bets, events, predictions, and more. It can be implemented in the form of chat, forums and groups in social networks.


• Bid Results. The amount of winning or losing on all the bets made, plus the history of bets on sports and types of bets.


• Payment system. The ability in one or two clicks to enter or withdraw money from the system. Payment gateways must be integrated with the site and mobile application.


• Multi-language support. The more of them, the greater the reach of the audience.


• Match Summary. Detailed match statistics for the team as whole and individual players. It will give users the opportunity to analyze the effectiveness of each player and make a forecast based on it for the next games.

Admin Panel Features:

• Login. You need several administrator roles - for the owner and hired employees. The latter should be limited in rights, which should be enough to maintain and moderate the site, but not enough to steal money, delete or change important settings and the like.


• User Management. The ability to monitor and manage user accounts through a dashboard that gives access to all user data: profile data, rate type, amounts, results, etc.


• Input data from bookmakers. Information about the status of matches, teams, players and bets on them. Usually bookmakers combine betting data to give more accurate data regarding the stakes and winnings.


• Management of winnings and payments. Monitoring and control of the size of winnings in manual mode is needed to detect fraud, detect failures and resolve controversial situations.

How to ensure security for a sports betting website?

According to DWG report, 50 thousand websites are hacked every day. Therefore, to secure your project from hacker attacks, you should use various tools. An effective cybersecurity strategy will not only help you fight vulnerabilities, but also increase users' trust.

Security tools for a sports betting website:

• SSL Certificate. Encrypts the data transfer between the user's browser and your website. To install an SSL certificate, obtain one from a trusted certificate authority and configure your web server to use the HTTPS protocol.


• Multi-level login security. Provide your users with security tools such as two-factor or biometric authentication.


• Regular backups. Use to restore your site in the event of data loss or security breach. Store backups off-site or in a separate environment such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3.


• Up-to-date software. Including CMS, plugins, and libraries.


• Web Application Firewall (WAF). Filters and controls incoming web traffic. Configure rules to protect against threats such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), and DDoS attacks.

There is no simple remedy that can rid you of hackers forever. Internet security is a set of measures that you can follow to reduce your vulnerabilities and increase your chances of a quick recovery.

What rate system to choose?

The calculation of the probability of winning and the amount of winnings is a key element of the betting site. The site should explain how rate ratios work and how they relate to probability and win amount.

• So, in a sports match, where one side was given 25% to win, the odds are calculated by the algorithm: one whole and N-tenths, where N = 100% / 25%. In case of winning the team with a 25% chance of winning, the amount of winnings on the bets placed on it is calculated according to the following scheme: rate * coefficient. For example, if the bet is $ 100 and the coefficient is 1.4, then in case of a win the user will receive $ 40 (100 * 1.4). This is the European system.


• In the Hong Kong system, the algorithm is similar, but not 1.4, but 0.4 is indicated. The probability and size of the gain from this does not change. In case of winning, the user will receive the same 40% of the bet (+ the amount of the bet).
  The British system uses fractional odds, for example, 5/10. The right indicates how many units you need to put, the left indicates how many units the user will win. So, if the coefficient is 5/10, then by betting $ 100, the user has a chance to win $ 80 ($ 100/10 number to the right) * 5 (the number to the left)).


• In the American system, rates like “+150 and -250” are used. The number on the right indicates how much to put, on the left - the amount of the winnings. For example, in our example, you need to put $ 250 to win $ 150.


• In the Indonesian system, the algorithm is similar to the algorithm in the US, only decimal fractions are used instead of integers, for example, +1.5 and -2.5.


• The Malaysian system also uses numbers with +/-, but first indicate the amount of the bet, and then the amount of the gain, for example, -45 and +100 (you need to put $ 45 to win $ 100).

Our company conducted research on the gambling industry. Europe is the biggest market, with global revenue reaching $22.4 billion. According to our data, more than 35% of users remain the winners and mainly their age is from 18 to 24.

How to launch a marketing campaign for a sports betting website?

Creating a sports betting website does not yet guarantee the success of your project. In order for the financial model of the betting company to work effectively, take care of the inflow of new users and retention of current users.

Use marketing campaign tools such as:

• Content marketing. Distribute valuable and relevant content such as articles, videos or podcasts. Create your own blog, interview sports stars, and share betting opinions and industry news.


• SEO-optimization allows you to bring your website to the top of the search results. Use relevant keywords, internal and external links and hire an SEO specialist.


• Affiliate marketing. A cooperative principle in which affiliates receive commissions for referred users. Collaborate with affiliates that have an audience related to sports and betting.


• Bonuses and loyalty programs. Options include: deposit bonuses, free bets, risk-free bets and increased odds.

According to Exploding Topics, 20% of new businesses fail within the first two years. Incentivize punters to use and recommend your company to not only create a sports betting site, but to stay in the market after launch.

Projected income

According to our data, betting is entertainment for most users. This makes watching the competition more interesting. About 25% of all players place bets with friends, therefore sports betting sites can actively grow by attracting friends through an affiliate program. Typically, sports betting sites earn between 2% and 4%. The lower the percentage of earnings and the more interesting the software interface, the more users will use the platform your platform. According to the study, the average bet in Europe is between $50 and $70.

Given these figures, with 1,000 active users daily, you can receive from $1,000 per day:

1,000 users * $50 * 2% = $1,000 / day
or
1,000 users * $70 * 4% = $2,800 / day

So if you run an aggressive marketing campaign, you can make over $30,000 a month.

Cost of a sports betting website

The sports betting site, like other software solutions, has a wide range of prices. Let's consider the basic cost of some software products and alternative solutions that our company offers. A simple sports betting site will cost between $10,000 and $20,000. Taking into account our decisions, we will need up to 1-2 months to implement your idea. If you want to launch a more complex project that will have more than 10 categories, automatic loading of coefficients, an expanded admin panel, then the cost of such a solution will be from $20,000 to $60,000. It will take our team about 2-3 months to complete the work. If you decide to create a website that will compete with top platforms, then in this case, you will need from $60,000 to $120,000 and up to 6 months of development. In this solution, our team will collect all the necessary requirements and prepare a detailed project development plan.

Our company has experience in developing sports betting sites and offers options to use ready-made solutions that can be launched within a couple of days. Your business can start generating income for you in the near future, and expenses will be minimal. The cost of such a solution ranges from $800 for installation and from $500 to $2500 per month for using the platform. Our solution already integrates automatic loading of odds and games. Most processes are automated. You need to come up with a name, buy a domain and a project already in live mode. Write to us for more detailed information.

Our experience in betting websites

Merehead develops sports betting sites and has experience in implementing ready-made solutions. Our team can implement a project from scratch based on your design preferences and project features, taking into account scalability. In addition, we can offer a ready-made solution with minimal customization, but with maximum speed for launching your business. Below you can see an example of a sports betting site that was implemented by our team: