Sports Betting App Development Guide for Startups in 2025

Thinking about launching your own sports betting app?

With platforms like Bet365 and DraftKings booming, the demand for sports betting app development is increasing fast.

In 2025 alone, the sports betting market is expected to hit 77.18 billion USD, and by 2029, it’s projected to reach 94.89 billion USD, growing at a steady pace of 5.30% per year.

To succeed in this space, your online sports betting app needs to be:

• Fast and real-time for live betting
• Secure and compliant with local laws
• AI-powered for odds, insights, and fraud detection
• Engaging with a smooth UI and rewarding features

But here’s what you may face:

• Strict regulations and costly licenses
• Heavy competition from global players
• High traffic during events that can crash unprepared apps

If you’re ready to enter this profitable market as a startup, it’s time to turn your idea into a revenue-generating betting app.

How To Create A Sports Betting App?

The process of sports betting software development for an entrepreneur has its complexities. You need to be very thoughtful regarding the features and functionalities you want in your application.

However, before you start building your betting application, you must go through an extensive pre-development stage that requires a lot of planning and detailed research.

Let’s discuss these steps in detail:

1. Get a license for your app

Before starting your sports betting app development, make sure you secure a valid gambling license in each jurisdiction in which you plan to provide your wares. Obtaining a license, specifically for gambling, is subject to the laws of the country.

To avoid legal trouble, you should familiarize yourself with the specific license requirements of the state in which you intend to operate. Dealing with a qualified lawyer and asking for apt suggestions can drive the process smoothly.

Take a glance at the online gambling licensing structure in a few nations.

2. Conduct market research

After getting a gambling license, the next phase of your startup for online sports betting app development is to conduct market research. Knowing current & future trends and users’ interests is required for better decision-making; analyze betting patterns, including popular apps and betting types. Deep market research will improve your betting platform development by identifying the loopholes of your competitors.

3. Examine published gambling laws

Before you build a sports betting app, check the gambling laws in your target country or state. Every place has its own rules—some strict, some more open.

Both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store have specific rules for gambling apps. Only approved publishers can upload these apps. Plus, iOS and Android have different policies. Make sure you read them before starting.

4. Select a method of payment

Your app needs secure ways for users to deposit and withdraw money. Use trusted options like debit cards, credit cards, or electronic transfers.

Also, make sure your payment system supports the currencies of the countries where you’ll launch the app. This improves trust and user experience.

5. Choose a development partner

If you create a sports betting app full-fledgedly, it can be quite expensive to build for your startup. If you have a tight budget, building an MVP app first is the best solution for you. It reduces the initial cost, lessens time to market, and improves according to the market response.

However, you can hire sports betting app developers to execute the process smoothly. Work with a reliable sports betting app development company that has experience in gambling or sports betting apps.

Check their past work, industry knowledge, and what quality checks they offer. A good team will guide you through planning, designing, and launching the app.

6. Focus on Great UX/UI Design

Use AI tools like Galileo, Figma (with AI plugins), Uizard, and more to boost your UI/UX development for sports betting apps. Your app should be clean, easy to use, and visually appealing. A simple design keeps users engaged and makes the betting experience smooth.

However, you can hire experienced designers to give a better user experience. It will help you to focus on business without compromising the quality of your app.

7. Launch & Keep Improving

Once your app is ready, plan your launch. But remember, you have to pay attention to user feedback, reviews, and issues.

Keep updating your app to fix bugs and improve features. Also, set a budget for marketing so more people discover and download your app.

Tech-Stack for Sports Betting App Development

The tech stack you choose matters a lot for sports betting app development. It includes the programming language, framework, and database used to create your app.

Different developers prefer different tools, which affect the cost and quality of the product. That’s why it’s important to ask your developer what tech stack they usually work with for sports betting app development.

Here are some popular and recommended tech stacks you can consider for your betting platform development, based on your goals and requirements.

Must-Have Features in Sports Betting App

In the process of sports betting mobile app development, it’s not just about placing bets; it’s about delivering a smooth, exciting, and secure experience for users. Here’s a clear breakdown of essential features you should include:

User Panel Features (Bettors’ Side)

These features focus on giving users control, comfort, and clarity while placing bets.

• Easy Login & Registration: Quick sign-up using email, mobile, or social media accounts.
• User Profile: Let users view and manage their betting stats, payment history, and personal info.
• Live Streaming & Scores: Real-time match updates and live streams to keep the betting exciting.
• Betting History: Track past bets, wins, and losses to refine strategies.
• Multiple Betting Options: Support for all major bet types like moneyline, parlay, over/under, etc. to provide more variety.
• Secure Payments: Fast, flexible deposits and withdrawals through multiple payment methods.
• Multi-language Support: Let users choose their preferred language for better accessibility.

Admin Panel Features

Admins need tools to manage everything behind the scenes seamlessly and securely.

• User Management: View, edit, or delete user profiles and manage user permissions.
• Bet Management: Monitor, approve, cancel, or settle user bets.
• Odds Management: Adjust and update odds based on real-time events.
• Content Control: Add or edit match info, banners, and app data.
• Payment Processing: Manage deposits and withdrawals and track financial transactions.
• Customer Support: Manage queries, complaints, and feedback directly.
• Marketing & Promotions: Run campaigns, offer bonuses, and show promotional content.
• Security Management: Protect user data with advanced access control and fraud detection tools.
• Analytics Dashboard: Real-time data on user activity, engagement, and revenue.

Advanced Features

Here are a few advanced features that you can add to betting platform development to make your app stand out:

• AI-Based Bet Suggestions: Use machine learning to suggest bets based on user history and trends.
• Push Notifications: Send AI-driven live match updates, results, or promotional offers instantly.
• Social Betting: Offers to create private groups and compete with friends.
• Voice Search Integration: Quick navigation using voice commands.
• Crypto Wallet Support: Allow deposits and payouts in popular cryptocurrencies.
• Risk Management Tools: Identify unusual betting patterns to flag fraud or abuse.
• Referral & Loyalty Programs: Reward users for inviting others or for frequent usage.
• AI Data Analysis: AI quickly collects stats, team records, and more to boost prediction accuracy.
• AI Chatbots: Handle user queries 24/7, improving support and making customer handling smooth.
• Fraud Detection: AI spots suspicious bets and cheating patterns early, keeping your app safe.

Cost to Build Sports Betting App in 2025

The cost of developing a betting app could range anywhere from 15k to 80k+ USD. However, there are multiple factors that affect the sports betting app development cost.

So, the final price to create a sports betting app can vary in a large range.

To count the price of the project, it should be divided into compartments such as

• Design of the App
• App Platform (Android/iOS/Hybrid)
• API integration
• Development of the Backend
• Project Management
• Quality Assurance Tests

Pro Tip: Build your dream sports betting app without breaking the bank. Choose from our Clone Solution if you have a limited budget. It will cost you 10k to 25k USD. The AI-powered app for fast development or a custom MVP based on your budget, and aPurple will handle the rest.

What Are the Monetization Methods for a Sports Betting Mobile App?

As a startup owner, you want to build a sports betting application to profit from it. It’s not only the commission through which you generate money from a sports betting app. Marketing the app can enable you to create multiple revenue-making streams.

Here are a few ways through which entrepreneurs can earn money from sports betting apps:

1. Advertising

You can use your application as an advertising platform for sports leagues and other sports-related contests. There are several paid advertising partnership options for your app and the possibility to make good money from it.

2. Subscription Fee

At one point, when you have built a good reputation for your application, you can add a subscription fee for users. You can create sections like free and paid subscription packs or choose to have a paid subscription section only.

3. Premium Features

You can allocate some premium features on your app accessible to users who are ready to pay for them. It can include bets that have a higher return value or some special money-making feature allocation.

4. Contest Entry Fee

You can directly go ahead and insert a minimum entry fee for all users. When you do that, you might get fewer app downloads than when the app is free to register. However, all the sign-ups would come from people serious about betting and would participate regularly and sincerely.

5. Sports Betting

While users would bet on players, contests, matches, and others on the application, the application would receive a commission from the winning party as the app’s source of income. Such commissions usually have a fixed rate; however, you can devise different rates for multiple types of betting options provided by the app.

6. Paid Contests

You can also conduct paid contests as an additional bonus for users and extract a commission from the contest. Such activities can have an entry fee or exceptional charges that would directly pour into the admin’s account.

7. Data Licensing

Another great way to earn from these applications is through data monetization. You can sell the exclusive data collected through bets to third parties and quote a price. Hence, synchronizing data is essential when you want to make money out of it.

Benefits of Sports Betting App Development

There is a diverse range of benefits an entrepreneur can get from a sports betting software. For instance, there are 24,000+ sports betting businesses in the market today making huge profits. This, in itself, explains why entrepreneurs are investing in the market today.

Read below to know how you can benefit from developing your own sports betting application:

1. Broader Reach

A sports betting app development service is resourceful in reaching a broader set of audiences. You get to market the app on your terms and conditions and build a thriving user base. You can utilize the fame collected from the reach in all other future entrepreneurial endeavors.

2. Enhanced Engagement

With the help of your set of ideas and plans, you can build better engagement features and metrics in your apps. Better engagement always acts like a bonus point, helping you expand your user base and revenue streams.

3. Community Building

Your user base is going to be your sports betting community. Such a community can be handy and resourceful when planning and executing other entrepreneurial ventures.

4. Brand Loyalty

When you build your own application, you will offer features as per your understanding of a brand value. Hence, it gives you more leverage to build brand loyalty.

5. Data Collection

You can collect useful data through your apps and later monetize it to make a good income. The data can also come to use when planning other entrepreneurial ventures.

6. Unlimited Access

As the owner of a sports betting app, there’s no restriction to data. You have the main access and the entire access to the admin panel, app data, and everything that revolves around it.

7. More Privacy

With the betting app’s ownership, you are responsible for allocating access to others. While you have full access, you also have the power to decide who should know what about the apps. Hence, privacy is maximum when you have better app owner rights.

Challenges of Sports Betting App Development

When you explore how to make a betting app, it’s important to know the challenges ahead and prepare smart ways to tackle them.

• Regulatory: Every country has its own betting laws, so you have to research deeply.
• Licensing: Getting legal approval, especially in the US or Europe, can be slow and costly.
• Data Protection: Personal and payment info must be kept safe to earn user trust.
• Safety: Use encryption tools like SSL/TLS to guard against cyber threats.
• High Traffic in Events: Without good scaling, your app may crash during peak sports moments.
• Live Updates: Fast odds and results require a strong backend setup.
• Market Competition: Competing with giants like Bet365 means offering something unique.
• Building Trust: Show fair odds and payouts; use blockchain for extra trust.
• AI and Predictive: AI and smart features help you meet users’ changing needs.
• Cross-Platform: Make sure the app works well on Android, iOS, and web.

Why Choose Us for Sports Betting App Development?

Ready to launch your own sports betting app? From secure payment systems to real-time odds and scalable performance, we build high-performing apps that win user trust and meet legal standards. With 10+ years of experience and 300+ successful projects, aPurple knows what it takes to thrive in the competitive betting space.

Let’s build your sports betting app—book your free consultation today!

Author

Mahil Jasani

Mahil Jasani is an enthusiastic web and mobile app development expert who always loves to enlighten readers about his experiences and the ever-evolving technologies in today's world. He has a decade of experience helping startups and enterprises with custom digital solutions to drive better ROI results across different industries.