Project Idea
In 2018, the OddsCrowd team came to us with the idea to create a sports betting community with useful betting resources. Their plan was to let users make forecasts for the outcomes of events, while the service will track their success and create the leaderboard to be displayed on the main page. Other users will be able to see this rating and buy forecasts for future events from those whose predictions they trust.
OddsCrowd would charge a 5% commission from purchases of forecasts and earn on affiliate links of bookmakers, as users would bet on the sites of these bookmakers, not directly on the OddsCrowd platform.
Users, in turn, would earn money by winning in competitions — they’d make “virtual” bets on the platform, and those who take the highest places in the rating would receive a prize by the end of the competition.
Our task
We needed to create a convenient web app with high performance and adaptive design, and an admin panel to manage the content and user profiles. The main requirement, however, was to finish the app in 4 months — before the start of major sports events, specifically the Super Bowl, since it would raise the interest of potential users.
Analytics & workflow
Analytics helps us to figure out which features are needed for betting software development and to estimate the cost and timeline of the project. This way we can set realistic expectations for the client and goals for the team.
Together with OddsCrowd, we chose this functionality for the first version:
Our initial estimation for betting software development
We decided to make the first iteration that would include UI/UX design, project architecture, generation and update of the internal database, and the page with 2 feeds: the one with the future events with bets on them and another one with the results of the played games. After that, we needed to adjust the estimate since it could scale up or down. Once the UI/UX design was ready, we were able to make a precise estimate, and then, having connected third-party services, we checked all the risks and made sure there would be no troubles with creating the app’s logic.
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UI/UX design
Registration
Main page
Profiles
Game center
Odds comparison
Best picks
Competitions
Odds boosts
It’s a special offer that raises the odds for a specific bet to encourage more betting. It's often used for bets with multiple moneylines, like parlays and prop bets, but not for a single moneyline.
Sportsbooks
Here users can check reviews on the listed bookmakers
News & insight
Brand identity
OddsCrowd also provided us with a logotype and brand colors that we used for buttons and accent elements. We also chose a light gray color for the background and white for the cards in order to make the interface clean and minimalistic and avoid cluttering it up.
UI kit
Development
When the design was ready, we created the architecture, completed the first iteration, and adjusted the initial estimate for betting software development. To meet the deadline, together with the OddsCrowd team we decided to give up on some not-very-important features, since they required a lot of time for implementation. It would be unreasonable to spend time on these features due to upcoming sports events:
Tech Stack
We used PHP Laravel for the backend and Vue.js with Nuxt v2 framework for the frontend. We chose such technologies for betting software development since OddsCrowd needed search engine optimization — Vue.js supports server-side rendering which is important for SEO, and in combination with Nuxt, it improves SEO along with the overall performance.
The app’s performance was one of the main requirements of our client, and to optimize it, we used Nuxt Speedkit. As for the admin panel, we created it with WordPress.
Note: If we started the project now, we’d choose React.js instead of Vue.js. However, in 2018 Vue.js was a more stable and popular framework, hence, it was the most suitable option at the moment.
Third-party services
- To enable purchases in the app, we implemented PayPal as a payment gateway — it’s convenient for users from the USA, which are the target audience of OddsCrowd.
- Initially, we used the eOddsmaker service for generating and updating data in the app.
- We also implemented the authorization through Twitter, Google, and Apple.
Killer features
Game center
Live now
Displays data on the games currently taking place. Data is regularly updated in the background.
Odds comparison
Allows users to compare odds on the same games from different bookmakers and choose the best one. Then they can go to the bookmaker’s website and place a bet.
Best picks
Updates after the release
In the latest version, we removed the chat — it did not find the expected popularity, and the client decided to stop supporting it with betting software development services.
We also replaced eOddsmaker with a new service — an aggregator of data on games and odds. According to the NDA, we can’t disclose the name of the service. We implemented it to give users more data about teams, games, places, and more detailed game statistics. Better analytics help users make better bets and win more often.
Challenges we faced
During betting software development, there were difficulties with the integration of the aggregator service:
- it was under development and didn’t always work stably
- data structures constantly changed, and we had to adapt to the changes
- sometimes we had to wait for the necessary functionality to appear
Therefore, we had to put more effort into error handling so that the application would not fail if the external service stopped working or returned incomplete data. It took a lot of time because the data was used throughout the app.
Results
- 🏈 We finished the first version of the app in 3 months, making it before the Super Bowl
- 💪 After 2 years of collaboration, the OddsCrowd team decided to extend the business and create a mobile app with our help.
- 🔥 The web app has been working for more than 5 years, helping OddsCrowd with their business.
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