The most common features offered by sportsbook app

One common goal should be behind every sportsbook app: to build traffic, engagement, and ultimately revenue. In order to do so, each sportsbook app should offer a variety of features to appeal to new users and make current users loyal and engaged.

Without further ado: below you’ll find a list of must-have features for users of sportsbook apps.

Betting menu 

The more, the merrier. That rule applies here too. Betting menus should be:

• Continually expanded,
• constantly updated,
• striving to improve.

There are numerous sportsbook apps available that support various leagues, divisions, markets, and sports. In addition to betting on the Premier League and Serie A events, more popular sportsbooks offer to bet in less popular divisions. The higher the number, the more advanced the app is since data for subsequent leagues has to be bought.

Also, the higher the number, the greater the possibility of attracting more players (who, for example, are familiar only with a particular league or sport or would like to bet on their favorite team which plays in a lower division). Therefore it’s important that sports betting apps provide a clear division between countries and leagues, along with multi-level nesting. An app for a sportsbook should also offer features for personalizing a betting menu, like marking a particular team, league, or market as a favorite. The user can then receive an alert to bet on a particular team or set of games in the near future. 

Betslip 

There are a few features that can and should be offered here. First of all: single and multiple bet slips, or, depending on the implementation, single and combo bets. Users should be able to bet both on a single event as well as on a group of events or matches.

The expected cashout should also change if there is a modification in the odds or stake when placing a bet. 

And even though this option is not used by everyone, the bet slip should also be allowed to be paid from a virtual wallet that is topped up by the user. If there’s an option to complete the whole process – from researching options through placing the bet, to paying for it – the possibility of delivering a great experience is high. It’s even higher if it comes across with an option to bet on multiple events, markets, and leagues with a single click, without jumping between tabs and bets. 

Latest news listicle

Not everyone enters a sportsbook app with the intention of betting on a particular game. Many people may be looking for options to bet on anything with good odds. That’s why it’s worth adding a list of the most important sports events in-app so users can get familiar with what’s going on and plan to place their bets. 

The news can concern not only the odds – and later the scores – but also rumors from the changing rooms, information about injuries or predictions, as well as premium interviews. 

Statistics

Personalized and dynamic statistics in a sportsbook app can drive a lot of traffic to it. They should be adjusted both to advanced gamblers as well as to people who are only taking their first steps in betting. That’s why statistics should include not only basic changes in odds but also the trend of changes over time.

The more statistics the better, however, users should be able to filter them out and only follow those which are most relevant to them. The ability to customize the dashboard may enhance the likelihood of conversion and shorten the process.

Some of the selected features could be:

• Marking particular events as favorites,
  
  
• setting up reminders for betting on selected events,
  
  
• configuring notifications (push notifications or in-app messages) triggered by e.g. yellow cards, corners, or penalties in terms of a football match,
  
  
• filtering between live or upcoming events.

Another analytical feature that should be accessible in the dashboard, yet is often neglected by sportsbook app creators, is trackers. They show dynamic statistics about teams and players in a particular game, as well as game statistics and historical data. This may consist of the history of fixtures between two teams, form over the last 5 games, injuries, clean sheets, or absences. Data such as this can assist users with placing their bets or even encourage them to actually consider betting even if they didn’t already intend to. 

Rewards highlights 

To appeal to your potential audience, you should offer rewards and custom promotions based on user behavior. Promotions should be accessible in a preview, without having to open a full tab dedicated to it. 

The app should include an advanced mechanism for setting up promotions and bonuses for users. The more options, the most attractive the sportsbook app is, ultimately bringing more attention and users.

Rewards may help the app get some real traction. The bonus options depend on the app’s maturity, audience, and available budget. While seasonal rewards and boosted odds are fairly popular among sportsbook apps, as well as first no-risk bets or cashback regardless of the score, there are more possibilities too.

Theme & odds settings 

There are more elements that could contribute to the success of a sportsbook app and its overall customer experience. It doesn’t have to be strictly about bets and odds, either. Design and usability are crucial to the user experience.

From the point of view of design, offering the option to smoothly switch between dark and bright modes can be greatly welcomed by many users. That’s only one of the toggles and switches a sportsbook app should offer. Another one may concern decimal, fractional, and American odds settings, making betting easy to understand (and pursue). Also, it’s worth checking out how the application appears on different devices and in portrait or landscape orientation. A seemingly small and simple thing can sometimes aggravate users the most.

Embedded affiliate programs

From a technical point of view, it’s possible to code some affiliate programs into a sportsbook app. It is possible to embed a mechanism to generate dedicated referral links that bring money to both the new user and the person who referred the app. 

There may be a few bonus schemes to follow. For example, an X% bonus or a proportion of bets placed by the person who generated the new signups via their link. Sign-up bonuses, as well as first-deposit bonuses, can be generated for new users whose attention is attracted by such a link.

Affiliate marketing can be a breeze in many industries, and betting mobile apps are no different here – referrals are effective at generating many users for little effort and at low cost. Before the coding begins though, it’s necessary to examine the legal aspects of affiliate programs on the market which the app will address. Affiliate marketing depends on the chosen market and license. 

Notifications system 

Notifications drive traffic to a sportsbook app once it’s not used, and in-app messages can push users to react quickly once they are using the app. Both solutions can be extremely beneficial and efficient when it comes to driving more attention to the app to ultimately take more bets and generate more revenue.

Here’s what can be implemented: 

• Push notifications (they can be triggered by bets or geolocation),
  
  
• in-app messages (they can be triggered by user behavior),
  
  
• e-mails (they can be segmented and sent in sequences),
  
  
• SMS messages (they can be sent to offline users),
  
  
• pop-up notifications (they can be sent to those using the web version of a sportsbook application).

They can serve as communication channels with betters, but all of them in different dimensions. While some of them will do their magic while gamblers use the app, others will only provide results when users are offline or even when they have uninstalled the app. All of these elements can inform about new offers, remind them about bets ready to be placed in their bet slips, and redirect to the app for details.

In turn, it’s all for increasing customers’ lifetime value and revenue. 

The more customized a notification is, the greater the chances of it working are. If they refer to a specific event or location, they may encourage users to place a bet (if the rest works well too – we’re talking copy, offer attractiveness, and UX here).

Social media integration

We have already covered the importance of social gaming in our previous article. How can sportsbook app creators leverage it?

By providing a fully functional set of features to involve social media in betting. The most effective ways are often the simplest way – as simple as adding a “share” button to the app. With such a button, users can quickly share their odds, scores, or winning bets directly to social media. And this way, others (both frequent gamblers and those who are not into betting… yet) can get inspired and give it a go next time, too.

Social media, then, is a good way of driving more traffic and users to the app, so that option should not be ignored when designing it. Once implemented, social media can be an effective promotional channel driven by the users themselves.  

Going the extra mile may be nothing but beneficial here, and make the app stand out from the crowd of sportsbook apps that look like peas in a pod. For example, implementing a chatbot that gathers bets and effectively informs about the progress may be one idea to consider.

QR codes and promotional codes

No one is going to use a sportsbook app if it’s not properly promoted. And, especially among fierce competition, the promotion needs to be thoroughly planned at the stage of coding and designing the app. 

This includes not only online promotional channels but also offline ones that may help users find the app. For both cases, though, promotional codes are something to apply. 

And here’s where to redistribute them:

• Betting offices,
  
  
• stadiums and arenas,
  
  
• adverts and banners,
  
  
• sport equipment shops,
  
  
• leaflets and brochures (e.g. in a merchandise shop),
  
  
• printed matchday programmes,
  
  
• newspapers and sports magazines.

There can be either a promotional code (e.g. START15) or a promotional link (abc.dyz/downloadNOW) to follow, but QR codes are equally popular and can trigger the instant download. Especially now, in the world of 5G and fast connections, scanning a code and downloading an app only takes a jiffy. It is also more convenient to scan a QR code than to manually write out a long link or complicated code.

It’s also worth mentioning AppClips here. What do we mean? From iOS 14 onwards, generating so-called AppClips is enabled. AppClips allow for generating a dedicated code similar to a regular QR code. By scanning it, users can open a part of the mobile app without downloading it on their device. Thanks to that, users can be encouraged to give a particular sportsbook app a try without dedicating too much time or drive space initially. They can browse through leagues, bets, and odds and if they like the interface and functionality of the app, they may decide to download the full version and keep betting.

Of course, using all of those features is also dependent on the actual law and legal restrictions concerning each and every market you wish to enter.

Help center

It’s often forced into code by law but is also considered a helpful asset for thousands of gamblers around the world. A help center should consist of:

• How to play? – a kind of a knowledge base to explain the technical mechanisms of placing a bet, paying for it, cashing it out. This may include some basic info (at least for advanced gamblers) but will be extremely useful for those who have just started or feel a bit lost in-app.
  
  
• Betting rules – what’s allowed and what’s forbidden, long story short. This should also consist of legal restrictions, as well as terms and conditions of the service.
  
  
• Bet calculator – if applicable, the calculator should help users easily work out potential winnings or losses.
  
  
• Explanation of various bet types – such information should be available to read as a knowledge base article, as well as in the form of mouse hover next to particular bet types once to be placed in-app.
  
  
• “Gamble aware” section about addiction, responsible gambling, and self-assessment. Even if it’s not forced by law, it’s always good to add such a disclaimer in-app. 

Over to you

Does a sportsbook app need to have all these elements in order to be successful? Not necessary, but they are encouraging. Our list can serve as a checklist of features to take into consideration when designing a sportsbook app, or when outsourcing this process further to a software development company such as Crustlab. We’re happy to help!