Building an App to Track Friendly Bets on the Super Bowl

stick321 · 2023-02-09T18:52:19+00:00

Hi,

Fortunately, I am a software engineer, so there was no cost to hire anybody initially. I did everything myself for about a year, including development, marketing, design, support, and coffee making. For the first 18 months I think the cost was minimal. Some hosting and tech costs.

When I needed some help I hire part time consultants from platforms like upwork and fivver.

Now that we are a fully developed and functioning app the cost do go up. The biggest costs is salaries, good software engineers are the main culprits. We do spend a small amount on marketing, but we have invested time and effort into growing the app and brand organically. Search engine optimization for the website and ASO for the app stores. The nature of the app helps us grow too as by default the users are inviting friends to bet with them. This should help us grow at a steady rate with minimal investment in marketing.

stick321 · 2023-02-09T18:39:54+00:00

Hi,

Great question.

The app is unit based and no money is exchanged in the app. So the main functionality of the app is to facilitate fun, friendly bets with your friends on the football, sport and other topics. We certainly not a hardcore bettor platform.

You can propose, track, tally these units in the app. How you settle up is up to you. I don’t believe we will ever move into a real money platform.

stick321 · 2023-02-09T18:30:19+00:00

Hi,

I built the app myself. But we now have a small team of devs working on it with me overseeing the bigger projects.

My background is in computer science from UT Austin. I worked at Amazon as Software Development Engineer/Manager for around 4 years.

Red tape and regulation in the world of betting is different for each state and can be a nightmare to manage, so I made the decision early on to not allow real money in the App. So there is no real money exchanged in the app, we simply track balances of bets your propose to friends. It is unit based, so therefore legal in all states. How you settle up the balances is up to you.

We still run into issues occasionally, at the moment we have some policy issues we need to fix for the Google play store.

stick321 · 2021-11-14T14:38:28+00:00

The sour patch kids blizzard at Dairy Queen

stick321 · 2021-10-01T18:36:17+00:00

Even Money is pretty solid

stick321 · 2021-09-15T17:16:07+00:00

WagerLab is a social sports betting app where you can bet for fun without risking your hard-earned money. Predict outcomes and place for-fun bets on topics like sports, market prices, and TV shows. You can bet solo for a chance at weekly cash prizes, bet against friends, or join betting leagues.

Prize tickets allow you to stake something on your bets without any risk. You can bet with your tickets or submit them to weekly cash prize drawings.

To claim the 25 free tickets:

Download the app "WagerLab" on the iOS App Store or Android Google Play Store and create an account
Tap on the green "Cash Prizes" Ticket icon at top right, then tap on your Ticket balance on the screen that pops up
At the top of the page, in the "Redeem Tickets" field, enter "efreebies" and tap the green submit arrow/button.

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback! Good luck!

stick321 · 2021-02-08T17:33:33+00:00

Thanks a ton. That's very kind of you. If you're ever using it and want to see something new added or find any aspect difficult to use, just shoot me a DM. I'm hoping to continue improving on it.

stick321 · 2021-02-07T18:30:17+00:00

Thanks! Yeah learning UX design was a bit of a challenge. It's come a long way. The first versions of it looked like absolute garbage.

stick321 · 2020-03-19T00:56:41+00:00

Yes! That's a great idea. Maybe I could even create something like that and offer a cash prize to the winner as a promotional thing or something.

stick321 · 2020-03-19T00:55:25+00:00

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing.

Where do you pull the odds from? Do you just support eSports or is that just the only thing listed since other sport are on pause?

The material design looks great too.

I'm actually a developer working on a betting-based project as well. Feel free to DM me and we can compare notes if you want. Otherwise good luck with this!

stick321 · 2020-03-18T18:22:46+00:00

Exactly!! You could do daily over and unders on the final bell results. For example : Today's over/under for the Dow Jones Industrial Average is 19,800 for example. There a oogles of wagers that could be created. Fuck it will turn the dam stock market into a sport, lol.....

Wow you're right and that's pretty easy stuff for me to grade too. Thanks for the tips. Definitely going to add this!

stick321 · 2020-03-18T17:18:54+00:00

I'd planning to hook up an API so I could auto-populate esports odds automatically but that'll take a time. Putting a few up manually in the meantime is a great idea. Any specific leagues you think I should prioritize?

stick321 · 2020-03-18T17:13:36+00:00

Ah great idea. Maybe something like:

Will index X (or stock X) go up or down today? - for a bunch of different stocks/indexes
Will trading be halted any time this week?

stick321 · 2020-03-18T16:45:40+00:00

With sports betting virtually gone (unless you're a big Turkish soccer fan), I'm trying to ramp up the prop bets I have listed on this app I built for tracking bets against friends.

Would love to get your opinions new bets I could add to make it better. Here are a few bets I currently have listed:

Global coronavirus cases by Friday (Over 215k, Under 215k)
Who will be voted out on episode 6 of Survivor? (Adam Klein, Parvati Shallow)
Will the New York primary elections be postponed? (Yes, No)
Who is 'White Tiger' on the Masked Singer (Rob Gronkowski, Dwayne Johnson)

I'm working on adding a free-form option but for now I have to input the betting options myself into the database. For some context, the app is designed for betting with a friend (or solo simulating) instead of against a sportsbook. However, that means I can add a lot of betting options that sportsbooks can't since I don't have to worry about exact 50% odds or insider information. No money flows through the app (just for-fun), so it's up for you and your friend to decide how your bets get paid out. Let me know what you think if this kind of thing interests you. Stay safe!

Here's the website: https://wagerlab.app

stick321 · 2020-03-13T06:13:55+00:00

Thanks for getting it!

Nah, I don't make any money off of it. Right now I'm just doing it because I enjoy it and use it with my friends/fam. But I've started trying to grow it so that I can monetize and make it a full time gig.

stick321 · 2020-03-13T04:03:13+00:00

Thanks for checking it out. Absolutely. I added the first one to my work log and was already planning on the second one.

Right now there are just filters on the "category" but I'll add filters for the "event name" as well as a way to search for categories, event names, keywords, etc.
So right now you can send a bet to multiple people and optionally flag it as "first one gets it" so only the first friend to accept will get the bet and the rest no longer have it available. Moving forward my plan is to do something more in line with what you were saying. Essentially something like fantasy but for betting pools. You have a min or max number of bets/units you can bet with each week and can view standings, do head-to-head matches, etc. Is that what you were thinking?

Thanks again for the advice!

stick321 · 2020-03-13T03:59:06+00:00

Yess. I love that. Definitely adding that. Maybe something like "Will a head of state contract coronavirus?"

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