You have to admit that betting apps can be pretty tricky to understand, let alone make any money from. There’s a reason why many people refer to betting apps as a ‘black box’ – because, quite frankly, they kind of are. From the point-of-view of a user, all you know is that you install the app and then you start making wins and losses.
But from the app developer’s point of view, all you need to know is how to make money from betting. Luckily, as a software engineer with a genuine curiosity, I managed to crack the code and understand how all these apps make money.
The Multi-Billion Dollar Business Model
The truth is that, ultimately, all these betting apps follow the same basic business model: they take bets from individuals and match them with the betting markets of professional gamblers. For example, you might download the SPREAD app and bet on the over/under stats for a favorite sports team. Each time your team scores a point, you win a small bet. But if the over/under stats come in under the odds, then you win a big bet that could potentially be paid out in Bitcoin.
From an external perspective, this appears to be a scam since you’re not betting with real money and therefore can’t lose. However, the developers of these apps make a small profit from every bet that’s processed, which is then divided amongst the app’s backers. So, quite simply, people bet with their trust in the app’s developers, just like in a market for securities.
A Solid Revenue Stream
As a developer, you might wonder why you’d want to even develop a betting app. Well, aside from the fact that it’s become quite popular, especially now that privacy is more of a concern, there are a number of reasons why you’d want to develop a betting app.
For example, you might want to develop a betting app for the following reasons:
- Curiosity: you want to see how all these wonderful odds and stats work
- Entertainment: you want to provide a gaming experience to your users
- Business: you’re interested in the betting industry and want to gain insights from the inside
- Exercise: you want to keep your body active and use this app as part of your routine
- Fun: you want to provide an easy way for your users to have some self-expression
- A Place to Hold Your Currency: you’re a Bitcoin journalist of some sort and want to understand how all these currencies work
- Political Campaign Contributions: you’re a political campaign and want to understand how to win elections.
- Scientific Research: you’re a scientist and want to test your theories on the odds and stats for the sport you’re interested in
To give you a better understanding of why these apps exist, let’s dig into each one’s unique business model.
SPREAD (SportsPlus Performance and Prediction Economy)
SPREAD, the original betting app designed for fans of NASCAR, is one of the largest and most popular app stores for fans of all types and sports, including craving gamblers. From a users standpoint, SPREAD is similar to Bet365 in that it provides a simple, user-friendly interface for making wagers on a wide variety of sports. However, where Bet365 is a global company with offices in a lot of different places, SPREAD is a US-only operation.
Unlike Bet365, SPREAD does not require you to create an account beforehand and instead lets you login via Facebook. This is a common practice amongst the major social media networks, such as Facebook, to gain access to the user’s email address, which is then used to create an account on the app’s site. Usually the app’s website will also require you to create an account, but at least on the Android app store, this step is obviated since you login with your Facebook credentials.
SPREAD, like the other apps we’re discussing in this article, takes a bet between a single user and the bookmaker for that specific sport. For instance, if you like the Boston Red Sox, you could put up a bet on the Red Sox winning the World Series. If the Red Sox win they win a small bet (generally equal to the size of a favorite toy or mini-golf putter), but if they lose, then you win a big bet (usually equal to the value of a few months of rent for an attached apartment).
Overall, SPREAD is a very simple app to use. You download it, create a login and then you’re ready to bet. While the odds and stats for your wagers are updated in real time, the betting process is very simple and, for the most part, is carried out via text message, making the whole process a bit more accessible to non-English speaking users. Once the wagers are processed, the winners are displayed in a card format on the main activity page of the app.