Sports Gambling SaaS

[orenz9002]

TLDR, I’m looking for advice on how to get the first few customers to use the online sports gambling bot I built. I think it is SaaS but apologies in advance if not.

My bot automatically places bets at bookmakers. It is only betting for me at the moment, using my money and my bookie accounts, no outside customers. It has been live for 18 months and it's stable, fast and as a result making great profit.

I’m really pleased with progress so far but I think I can take this project further by finding customers to also use the bot. My idea is for them to have their own instance, using the same tech as i do but using their own accounts, money and strategies (what bets to place). I've made a couple of small enquiries so far to see if there is any interest and the feedback I've had is that the functionality and product is attractive but as i'm a new company with no customers it seems risky eg maybe there are security issues that might compromise their bookie accounts etc.

I’m looking for advice how to get my first customer. I’m open to giving access for free at first to get feedback or any other ideas that sound promising. Also if you think it’s a terrible idea more than happy to hear that feedback too. I don’t have a website fyi.

No coding would be required by the customer unless they wanted to write the code for their betting strategy themselves. The strategies i use are pretty simple, no complicated models or algos but if a customer wanted to use something like that then that would be possible too.

Key bot functionality:

• Fully automated, runs 24/7 no regular manual tasks required other than moving funds between bookies.
• Currently integrated 10 bookies, including some with APIs and some without. I can add any others as required.
• Get odds and event data and place bets in

 

[613jono]

@orenz9002 Get a lawyer. A lawyer will ensure your company is properly setup to prevent personal liability and will draft up the Privacy Policies / Terms & Agreements clients must agree to.

Some SaaS products are low risk and you can get clients before drafting up legal documentation, but I wouldn't risk this with a gambling website.

Edit: I read a comment below about "Game Mode" where the application works with fake money. This could be a good approach to ONLY offer Game Mode and get a bunch a beta clients using your application, let them know version 1 will offer real money accounts once any issue is ironed out of beta. Once you have enough beta clients, get all the legal requirements sorted then convert your beta clients to real clients. Just make sure your beta clients are actual gamblers so you can convert a fair amount of them.

 

[orenz9002]

@613jono Ok i see your idea, game mode > legal > real money

I'm not sure pro gamblers would want to play for fun, at least not for long..?

I'll look into legal requirements thanks

 

[613jono]

@orenz9002 Yes I was thinking with the game mode you could work on getting clients on the platform, get their feedback etc... and when you have enough clients where you think monetizing the application (and going live) would pay for your legal fees then this would minimize risk of spending on legal then not being able to get clients.

Yes some of your beta clients will only test for an hour or so, then never touch it since they gamble with real money, but that's ok. Send them a survey after they test it asking if they would use the application once "live mode" is activated. Essentially you're building an email list of potential clients. Go a step further and give them an option to pre-order for 50% off the price for one year.

Game mode would also help you get more clients later on, since they could try before they buy.

 

[khazarian1]

@orenz9002 What is to stop bookies from banning your account? If you have many accounts with the same IP making these changes it will definitely get flagged. This probably needs to be a self hosted solution.

But really, just go to sports gambling forums and market your product. Make a landing page, include SaaS management functions, make it free until you're confident you can charge. Get tons of feedback, grow.

 

[orenz9002]

@khazarian1 Thanks for the reply. I’ve got a platform I should have mentioned, it disguises each account to allow multi accounts at one bookie. But yes self hosted would probably be better

 

[khazarian1]

@orenz9002 You need to tell people how it disguises. Accounts are valuable, not gonna want to lose it easily. Also how do people trust your won't basically loot their winnings?

 

[orenz9002]

@khazarian1 Sure, it uses fringerprinting and proxies to manage how each account appears to the bookie. Yeh as i said in my original post i've had similar feedback about account security, i guess i need to make it clear that there is no way for me to access a customer's bookie account.

 

[khazarian1]

@orenz9002 The problem with closed source tech is basically that you can do an exit scam. Unless you open source the software then it might have difficulty gaining trust.

 

[orenz9002]

@khazarian1 By exit scam do you mean a business disappears with their customers’ money? That could never happen here as I’d never hold any funds, they would all be in the customers’ bookie accounts, solely controlled by the customer as they would be when the account was used ‘normally’ ie not through the bot.

 

[khazarian1]

@orenz9002 Do you require the user's password to trade?

 

[orenz9002]

@khazarian1 That’s true the bot would need access to the customer’s bookie account to login, place bets, get outcomes etc. Some bookies require (or you can ask them to require) authorisation to withdraw eg pinnacle you need to authorise with an email. That would be a way for customers to be more confident that only they can access their funds (as the bot doesn’t need any access to their emails). Also you would be able to see your bookie balances real time in the bot and I have notifications for when balances move by an amount over a threshold level.

 

[orenz9002]

Update - as i understand Plaid is a company that allows sites in finance domain to display users' financial data from multiple sources in one place. Plaid stores users' login data not the site that is displaying it. This would solve the security issue if it existed for bookies, 'Plaid' could hold login details not my bot.

Not sure how that would work for the bookies that don't have public apis, i guess Plaid needs to work with / have permission from the sites it integrates with? Would that be easy to build?

 

[dannyt]

@orenz9002 Hi, I may be interested on this. A few questions:

1. Betting depends on the country (legally), how are you handle this? Your customers have to be on US or UK or a special country to use this?
2. You say no coding is required, but at the same time, "to have their own instance". So you just share the codebase and they install it on a VM on DigitalOcean or whatever? If that's the approach, although I am a techie and I could do it, I don't think you will get much people.

I think the right approach is to do a complete SaaS. I register, I can import strategies/recipes into my account, and I start betting. The pricing is difficult, but I think you have two options:

1. Credits. Pay per strategy, recipe, etc. That's up to you.
2. % of what they win. Since you can track their winnings, I think this would be the best system. Of course, they could win and never pay you - but in that case you can block their account. You can give them 5 days to pay or something like that.

I also think it is very important for you to allow a GAME mode where I can try it out without real money.

 

[orenz9002]

@dannyt Thanks for your questions.

How the customer opens an account would be up to them. As you say residents of some countries are not able to open accounts with some bookies but there are lots of ways around that. I could provide advice on solutions.

I guess there are 2 approaches, use an instance per customer or use my platform that manages IP and fingerprints to enable multi accounting. I think either would work but i agree most will prefer the approach with least required tech knowledge.

Pricing i'm not sure on either, i was thinking price per number of bookies you use or bets you place. Maybe you get 3 bookies free to see how it works then pay to add more? Profit share could work too.

Game mode is great idea, play for fun, i hadn't thought of that - thanks

 

[cate2]

@orenz9002 Do you still have this feature?

 

[orenz9002]

@cate2 Yes, not made any progress with customers, still just using it myself

 

[spiritcenteredlife]

@orenz9002 Hi Andrew, can you please check your inbox? Reached out to you regarding the marketing for your SaaS.

Thanks