In 2020, the global sports betting market was valued at 203 billion U.S dollars. No doubt the market is on a significant rise and will continue to be. Therefore, many operators and entrepreneurs are in a quest to invest in this sector or start their own gambling business. Sports betting exchange being a lucrative part of this vast market is attracting the attention of many entrepreneurs. Sports betting exchange software offers more opportunities and better value to the bettors compared to traditional bookmaker systems. Thus, bettors are more inclined to the betting exchange system. Therefore, investing in this gambling area can be an intelligent decision.
However, as this is a competitive market, you must come up with an impactful and innovative platform that can give a competitive advantage to your business and help you stand ahead. Here we have created a detailed guide to develop a successful betting exchange software to make things a little easier for you. Before getting to the guide, let’s get some basic know-how of sports betting exchange.
What is a Sports Betting Exchange?
Opposite to the traditional bookmakers’ system or sportsbook, the betting exchange platform enables players to place bets against each other rather than the bookmakers, at lower fees. There is one backing and one laying scenario. Bettors can also create their own odds. As the betting exchange is a peer-to-peer platform, it generates better and more competitive odds compared to bookmakers’ systems. Let’s see some detailed perks of this marketplace that fetch the attention of bettors worldwide.
Perks of Betting Exchange
Lower Fees
In this marketplace, there are no sportsbooks to take a large portion of the share. Bettors pay a few cents per dollar as the winning bettor instead of 10 cents. The betting exchanges are quite player-friendly.
No Banning or Limitations
In a betting exchange, bettors can’t be limited or banned (not by the operator at least ). A professional bettor who has been limited to many traditional betting platforms may have more opportunity at an exchange. However, there must be someone to take the other side of the betting action.
Two-way Market
Traditional sportsbooks offer one side of a wager only. However, in betting exchange everything is a two-way market.
Now you have enough idea about how betting exchange works and the scope of this marketplace. Let’s get to the process of building robust, and engaging sports betting exchange software.
Steps to Build a Sports Betting Exchange Software
Decide the Sports
Most of the popular sports are legitimate for gambling, such as Cricket, Soccer, Table Tennis, Basketball, Hockey, horse racing, greyhound racing software, and more. Your first step is to choose a sport/s from this list that you want to offer to your audience for betting. Identify which sports can get you a huge audience response and maximum ROI. If you want to reach maximum bettors across the world, it’s better to offer multiple sports on your exchange software.
Also Read – A Complete Guide to Start Your Fantasy Sports Business
Research
In order to get a competitive advantage with your betting exchange platform, you must do thorough market research. You have to research the scope, target audience, competition, and market trends for your chosen sports. Also, identify the countries where your selected sports are loved the most for betting. This research will act as a robust foundation for your betting exchange software.
Choose Jurisdiction and Get a License
Licensing is a compulsory aspect when starting any online betting business and sports betting exchange is no exception. Your next step is to choose a jurisdiction and apply for the license. When choosing a jurisdiction for a gambling license you must check several factors such as licensing requirements, reputation, duration and complexity of the application procedure, taxes applied, initial and annual costs, and more. Choose the jurisdiction that is convenient from your budget and time perspective and business needs. You can also choose one of the popular jurisdictions such as Malta, Gibraltar, the UK, and Africa.
If you want to avoid the long licensing process, then the white label is the best alternative you can consider. White label sports betting software company will provide you with a feature-pact platform along with a license.
Decide the Geography
Besides choosing sports and jurisdiction, you also need to decide the geography where you want to operate your betting exchange platform. Choose the country where your platform gets immense popularity and can grow exponentially.
Find a Reliable Payment Gateway Provider
Once you have completed the licensing requirements and all the legalities, you have to start finding a trusted payment gateway provider. You must integrate a reliable payment system so that users can do seamless money transactions without worrying about security.
Find a Reliable Betting Exchange Software Company
In order to build high-performing and advanced sports betting software, you must look for one of the best betting exchange software providers. This can be a challenging task, as there is an abundance of options to choose from. By checking several aspects such as experience, a team of professionals, support policy, reviews, and cost, you can find a reliable sports betting exchange company.
Make sure the company has an adequate set of expertise and resources to work on different aspects of your betting exchanges software project. Also, there should be a good support and maintenance policy. The choice of software provider will also depend on whether you want a custom software or white label solution.
Design and Development
Now you have selected the best provider, it is time to focus on the design and development part of your software. Though you have professionals to look after this, you must pay close attention to each and every detail. Make sure the UI/UX design is simple yet attractive enough so that you can get maximum user retention and engagement rate. A complicated design may confuse users and force them to abandon your platform. Thus, emphasize using user-friendly design components.
When working on the development part, make sure all the important features and functionality are covered. Also, focus on writing scalable code. Let’s discuss some crucial features you must cover in the betting exchange software.
Crucial Features of Sports Betting Exchange Software
Cash-out
Bettors can cash out their bets during the match. You can also add a real-time calculator that calculates real values of users’ wagers.
Back & Lay Odds
Your betting exchange platform must support both backs and lay odd formats. The bettors should get equal opportunities for backing and laying a particular outcome.
Live Streaming
You can offer live streaming so that users can watch the match and place wagers simultaneously. This helps players to make quick and accurate decisions and boosts engagement.
Betting History
Offer betting history feature to let the bettors analyze detailed reports of their betting history. This results in easy management and tracking.
Matching Engine
Integrate a matching engine to ensure appropriate matching of odds and bet types.
Multilingual Support
You must offer multiple language options so that bettors from different countries can access your software easily in their respective languages. This also helps you reach more bettors across the world.
Advanced Admin Dashboard
Your software must have a detailed admin dashboard for seamless management and tracking of various aspects of the betting exchange platform including players, transactions, loyalty points, and more.
Additional Features
- Player’s Identity Cards
- Multiple Payment Gateways
- Risk Management
- Announcement Boards
- Admin Dashboard
- Liquidity and Bet Limit Management
- Multiple Sports and Popular Markets
- Commission Rates Module Customization
- Social Media Sharing
- Liability Reporting and Tracking
- Cryptocurrency Support
QA/Testing
Once you think all the required features and functionality are integrated, and your software is ready, focus on the testing part. You must test your betting exchange software with different methods, including manual and automated testing. Perform all the functional and non-functional testing such as performance, usability, acceptance, design, compliance, compatibility, reliability, and more.
Launch
Now you have done thorough QA testing, your software is ready to launch. To get an adequate response on its launch, you must run pre-launch promotion and marketing campaigns.
Marketing Campaigns
Now your software is in the market. You have to pay attention to the marketing and promotion part as well to make your platform successful. Create and run impactful marketing campaigns to reach the target audience and get traffic and leads for your platform. From SEO to social media marketing and advertisements, you have to implement all the effective digital marketing strategies. You can also reach out to a professional sportsbook marketing company that can help you attain all the marketing and business goals.
Build a High-performing Sports Betting Software with Betfoc
Now you have adequate know-how of the betting exchange marketplace and software requirements. It is the right time to kick-start your dream project with the help of experts. We at Betfoc have talented sports betting software developers who can provide you with the right assistance and solutions required for developing betting exchange software. We are one of the leading iGaming software companies renowned for our cutting-edge solutions and services.