Start a Sportsbook
Online gambling is the second most profitable industry on the web, right after the adult film industry and represents 8% of the global gambling market which is estimated to reach $412 billion in 2015.
Betting over the internet is so popular because it’s convenient, accessible 24/7 and anonymous. As a gambler, you just have to find an online bookmaker, sign up for an account and that’s it! Now you have access to a wide range of gambling products that you can enjoy anonymously from the comfort of your home at any given time. Moreover, the latest technological advancements in mobile technology have made it possible to access gambling products from any mobile device as long as you can connect to the internet.
The process to start online sportsbook, or any online gambling operation for that matter, is quite complex and requires the following: sportsbook software, website, gambling license, sports data feeds, hosting, payment channel setup, marketing and a starting bank roll. Those are just the minimum requirements in order to legally run a sports betting website. For an operation to industry’s standards you might consider adding: live betting, mobile sportsbook, affiliate marketing and customer support.
Costs for operating an online sportsbook
By adding all the costs for those items you can get a close estimate of your initial capital. Let’s take them individually:
- Price for professional gambling software starts at minimum 100.000 EUR and can reach well over 1.000.000 EUR depending on the reputation of the software provider and the capabilities provided by their gambling platform.
- A gambling website costs approximately between 5.000 – 15.000 EUR for a small to medium gaming operation.
- In order to legally run an online gambling business you need to apply for a gambling license issued by a gambling authority in your country of residence or in the country where you want to establish your business. The price for gambling software varies from one country to another. However, the most affordable gambling licenses are obtained in off shore countries like: Costa Rica, Curacao, Malta, Isle of Man, Alderney, Antigua and Barbuda, Gibraltar, Kahnawake and so on. Prices for a gambling license range between 30.000 EUR/year to more than several hundred thousand EUR/year. A yearly tax from your gross revenue might also apply.
- For sports betting gambling operations you are going to need sports data feeds which essentially are the odds that you are going to provide on your website. Although currently there are several sports data feeds providers, you might not find the exact markets that you are looking for in a single place and you’ll probably need to collaborate with several providers in order to get the exact coverage of sports markets that you are interested in for your website. Regarding prices, sports data feeds for a popular soccer league can cost between one to several thousand EUR per month.
- Hosting plays an important role for an online gambling website and should not be treated lightly. On a busy day, a medium sportsbook website might host between 100 to several thousand simultaneous users. Your hosting service must be capable of sustaining that kind of traffic and not lose functionality. In order to achieve that, you need a lot of hardware servers which can be quite expensive to buy and require maintenance since occasionally might malfunction.
- Marketing is just essential. Once your online sportsbook is operational, your next task will be to acquire traffic and build your user base. At this point you will need to devise effective marketing strategies using various tools and services. As a general rule, half of your initial capital goes to the marketing department.
- A bank roll is required in order to sustain your gambling operations until revenue is generated.
As you can see, starting an online sportsbook is not cheap. If you are serious about investing in an online sportsbook, we encourage you to find out more about the industry and study various solutions before investing any money.
Why us?
Our company offers a complete set of products and services for starting an online sportsbook, casino, poker room or live casino. We have 10+ years experience setting up gambling websites and we know the industry top to bottom. We provide turnkey white label gambling products and during the years we have tried various technologies until we got the best solution related to costs/benefits ratio. All our gambling products allow for a high degree of customization and meet the highest industry’s standards. In addition to the iGaming infrastructure, we deliver all the necessary services in one complete package. This aspect eliminates the need of hiring additional staff since all daily operations are managed by our own staff.
As our partner operator, you will be not left alone. We will communicate with you on a daily basis (if necessary several times a day) and find effective ways to deal with various situations in order to increase your monthly revenue and lower the costs of operations. We currently charge 5-15% from monthly revenue which is the lowest fee in the online gambling industry. Check our products and services sections to find out more.