Sports Betting App Development: Must-Have Features

Bookmakers across the globe are attracted towards mobile application development due to the rapid growth of the gambling business coupled with that of the mobile industry. A recent archetype by Technavio reveals a bright future for the industry, with a growth margin of USD 134.06 billion; the APAC region is expected to witness a large chunk of growth, with China and Australia being the most promising markets. Such fierce competition obviously compelled them to work hard to distinguish themselves from the others.

Top Features to Нave in a Sports Betting App

Modern technology now gives you the option of "equipping" your sports betting application with plenty of features to meet the needs of a bettor and to enhance their user experience. There are core features that all applications need, some offered specifically for the gambling industry, and then there will also be best-in-class, highly innovative technologies just beginning to enter into the industry. Depending on what tech solutions and integrations the business stakeholders and developers choose to implement in the application, they can create a sports betting app that will entice players to engage in betting and provide an excellent user experience. Innovations present thrilling opportunities for them to create something truly new and groundbreaking.

Registration and login might also be done with an email and password combination or through social media accounts. The options offered will differ between regular users and admin users. In other words, user accounts can be limited by age and geographical factors where the user is registered for your app, primarily if the app is accessed from a location in which you are not licensed to operate or that outright bans gambling.

User onboarding, betting guide for the user introduction to the application, guided tour on app functionalities, explanation of how to wager, among other aspects, an exemplary starter guide might be an interactive pop-up for the user's first interaction with the application where they create their account specifications or place their first bets. Besides, the betting guide page will be helpful for new players who are also new to betting and gambling, getting them acquainted with how it generally works.

• Personalized dashboard for the user is what your user sees every time they open up the app. Players want to have the features that they use most often right at hand. Also, the dashboard is where you place personalized recommendations to cater to the user’s likes or encourage them to explore something new that will be to their taste. This was the case with Graphyte when they introduced a smart lobby with personalized product recommendations. All this is made possible with AI/ML integration that allows to collect data on user behaviour in the app and analyse patterns which can be later used to generate personalized recommendations. At today’s level of technology, AI content personalization can be done seamlessly and help create a genuine experience for the user.
• Admin Panel or a separate dashboards should be set up for the admins, as they need to use functionalities that differ from that of a user dashboard. Admins need access to user management – access to user accounts, option to add or ban users from the game, view transaction history; sending notifications, content management for adding new events, user and game statistics.
• Creating a wager should be simple and intuitive enough to let the user do it without hesitation. Allow the user to set their own picks and bet amounts.
• Search with a filter option for wagers allows your users to easily filter out wagers by date, status, sports, players and their average betting rates, etc. What’s more, app developers can leverage AI technologies to create a powerful search engine with strong personalisation that is self-learning, basically putting it one step ahead of any other search option you can possibly offer to your user. AI-powered smart search helps your users find exactly what they need with pristine precision. A great example of this is Graphyte’s intelligent search engine. With AI technologies they built a search engine for betting and gaming sites that allows a bettor to look up events or game results in a fraction of a second. Search results are personalised to that particular user so that they get exactly what they need. And it being AI, the smart search engine only keeps getting better and self-calibrating itself to each individual user and their needs.
• Payment integration is an important feature to implement in sports betting app development since you want your users to be able to easily place their bets and withdraw winnings. This can be done in a few different ways, the first obvious one being enabling users to link their cards. However, some users may run into issues if they are from a location that places restrictions on online gambling. The UK Gambling Commission decided to ban credit card transactions for gambling, and that same year one of Australia’s major banks came to the same decision, even though Australia boasts one of the biggest gambling markets worldwide.
  It’s good to offer more varied payment options for the user in case they are restricted to use one or the other. Consider such payment gateway integrations as Stripe, Netller, Skrill, Cardinity, and others. Bitcoin payment integration is also on the rise and as relevant as ever in the iGaming industry. Allow the user to add multiple payment options and let them link their accounts to their in-app wallet for easy one-click bets.
  The main thing is that the payment should be easy, but secure. As in the case with Ladbrokes Cora, they created an optimized and systematized payment solution which allowed them to subsequently cut costs and save revenue, as well as introduce additional features for the users.
• Real-time live scores help keep the users interested and encourage them to gamble more frequently. This is particularly relevant for sports betting, especially certain kinds of sports. For instance, this feature is often implemented in football betting apps.
• Notifications are a must to keep the user informed about the game outcomes, final ranks and match summaries. These can be in-app or push notifications. A good rule of thumb is to not go overboard with push notifications. Otherwise, instead of being a useful feature it may turn into a nuisance. If a piece of news is important for the bettor to know and is time sensitive, that’s when you know to use push notifications.
• Security is essential for betting platforms as the user discloses to the app personal and banking information in order to place bets or withdraw winnings. Security in iGaming is important to protect the user from harmful data leaks. To be resilient to cyberattacks and fraudulent activities, it’s crucial to build sports betting apps that are secure by design.

Conclusion

The development of sports betting applications faces some challenges and certain requirements dictated by the industry. However, bookies are hastily edging towards the transition of their offline businesses to online web applications used by bettors on smartphones or other devices, making sports betting as convenient as never before. Development of the betting and gambling applications requires remarkable technical know-how, a good sense of the marketplace, and tons of passion. Starting with providing all must-haves to creating a seamless user experience with UI/UX designing.

Similar to the Ladbrokes Coral, the company succeeded in remaking the experience into a fantastic new UI to facilitate optimal betting features, all this harnessing cloud-native technologies that helped them bring record levels of customer satisfaction. Now you can check out online betting apps in India.