Pick24 – Social Betting Mobile Apps Development
Pick24 is a company from Switzerland that asked us to create a social sports betting mobile platform dedicated to the global market. Due to the legal background and law regulations in different countries, Pick24 offers simulated gambling. Virtual diamonds replace real money in this application. Collaboration with CrustLab was initiated by Dario Wyler, the CEO of Pick24. He found us through online research and felt that our experience and knowledge about sports betting and mobile applications development meet the needs of this project.
Social betting mobile apps challenges
The main challenge of this project was taking over the platform from the previous contractor and continuing work on the back-end development and extension of the apps with new functionalities. Along with developing the next version of the product, it was necessary to optimize the design and create several new screens for new features.
The design of an explicit data structure was a different challenge. The universal solution could address issues with the extensive sports offer, the multitude of bet types, and the need to integrate with many external data and odds providers.
One of the providers we integrated the mobile applications with was LSports API. The integration layer was implemented in a serverless architecture. Node.js was our language of choice, and the whole backend system was deployed natively on AWS. However, creating the integration layer of the client’s choice generated an additional difficulty – we had to develop a set of algorithms that guaranteed a proper calculation of European and Chinese handicaps.
Additionally, the sole responsibility of creating backend logic was to add up the rates from different markets, calculate the winnings and exchange them for diamonds, refresh the odds in real-time, and inform users about changes.
The social aspect of the application required creating tools for setting up clubs and user management, so two types of user accounts had to be made: regular user and manager profiles.
How we build a social betting mobile apps
After taking over the project, we started implementing a live sportsbook for both iOS and Android using React Native framework, AWS serverless technology, and Node.js with TypeScript as our backend language of choice. As part of this project, we provided mobile development, front-end development, back-end development, and UX/UI design customization and optimizing apps’ performance.
The application offers a game intended for clubs as a competition within groups. We have created two types of user profiles: a manager who is also a bookmaker and regular users who place bets. The user account presents the history of the bets placed and the resources available in the player’s wallet – for the end-user, there is no significant difference from an actual sportsbook application as we maintained a substantial set of features. We can say that we’ve replaced wallet management and payment integrations with diamond management, preserving the whole betslip, wagering set of screens, transactions history, and adding a set of features promoting collaboration between players in making bets.
The critical user in the app is a Manager of a club of players. He can manage the list of players, buy diamonds for the club members for real money, distribute diamonds among club members, or set limits. Only the manager can send or approve invitations to the club.
We have divided the extensive sports offer of the application into seven sports disciplines and several hundreds of leagues. The league includes events and tournaments – just like in typical sports betting mobile applications. The introduction of one data structure significantly facilitated the integration with dozens of external data and odds providers. The whole data flow of applications works near-real-time, and it was one of the biggest challenges indicated by our client.
The last and critical issue for the quality of entertainment was to ensure an above-average betting experience to keep the players’ attention. The primary market is based on two types of bets that are magnified by odds multipliers. Prematch, i.e., accepted in advance, at least 15 minutes before the start of the event. And live bets, calculated by the algorithm on an ongoing basis during the event.
Additional bet types are handicap, yes/no, the number of goals scored, double chance, undercover, and more. The player can make a solo bet or make a combo of several bets and view the stakes live in both of these options.
Result
As a result of the cooperation, social betting mobile apps have been significantly expanded. Starting from introducing corrections in the front-end and design of the application, ending with implementing complex back-end serverless solutions.
The significant effects of working on the applications are undoubtedly the sportsbook implementation, creating a clear and universal data structure, the possibility of easy and quick integration with external sources, and an extensive and engaging gambling mechanism.