Let’s say you’ve managed to jump through all the legal hoops and open your very first online sportsbook. Congrats! What now?
Well, there’s more than one way to grow an online sportsbook. The best thing is that they’re all intertwined – so one good decision in one area will inevitably carry over into the other.
For example, bookies employing sports data providers such as OddsMatrix to automate the tedious stuff can focus on different aspects of their business, like marketing and customer acquisition and retention. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves – let’s delve into how you can grow your online sportsbook.
An online sportsbook is a website or a platform that sports bettors use to participate in sports betting.
That’s the basic answer. However, modern sportsbooks go beyond just providing a platform where customers can place bets. Sportsbooks are powered by incredibly complex algorithms and systems designed to help bookies streamline the administrative side of the business.
Bookies can, for example, automate the odds setting process by feeding historical data into the algorithm.
They can also develop incentive programs to attract and retain new customers. That data has to come from somewhere, which is precisely why sports betting data services such as OddsMatrix are so important – our product does all the grunt work for the bookies, leaving them to focus on other aspects of the business.
But, as you’ll read further down, that barely scratches the surface of what actually goes on under the hood of a modern sportsbook.
Growth tactics, no matter how clever, are useless without a foundational understanding of the sports betting industry. Because the sports betting sector combines the excitement of sports with the intricacies of data analytics, user psychology, and risk management, operators must familiarize themselves with the mechanics of odds creation, betting markets, and how line movement works to ensure profitability while maintaining fair play. Understanding the nuances between fixed-odds betting, in-play betting, parlays, and prop bets enables sportsbooks to diversify their offerings and appeal to a wider audience.
Further, the regulatory environment surrounding sports betting varies significantly across jurisdictions, and keeping up with the legal landscape is non-negotiable. Some regions have embraced online sports betting with clear legislation and licensing frameworks, while others remain in flux or outright prohibit it. Operators must stay informed about compliance requirements, tax implications, and responsible gambling standards to mitigate risk and build a trustworthy brand. That’s why partnering with legal advisors and monitoring updates from regulatory bodies is crucial for navigating this evolving space, and highly recommended by all industry experts.
Equally important is recognizing the changing behavior of bettors. Truth is, modern sports bettors are more informed and tech-savvy than ever before. They expect real-time data, user-friendly interfaces, mobile accessibility, and personalized experiences. To meet these demands, sportsbooks need to invest in high-quality data feeds, robust analytics, and intuitive platforms that cater to various types of bettors—from casual fans to seasoned professionals. User experience and engagement tools can play a decisive role in acquiring and retaining customers.
Lastly, operators must acknowledge the impact of competition in a crowded marketplace. Understanding how other sportsbooks position themselves, differentiate through promotions or features, and innovate with technology can inform your own growth strategy. Competitive intelligence, alongside a deep understanding of your own strengths and customer base, can help bookmakers identify market gaps and unique selling points.
That’s not to say you should take on unnecessary risks just because they might lead to success. This is where a risk management plan comes into play. We’ve already covered this topic in a separate article, so to summarize some of the actions you should take when managing risk:
In addition to these measures, utilizing real-time data and predictive analytics can enhance your ability to mitigate risk. Firstly, monitoring betting patterns, market fluctuations, and customer behavior will take you a long way to identifying irregular activity or potential liabilities. Secondly, investing in automation and AI tools to flag suspicious betting or sharp line movements allows for rapid intervention before losses escalate.
Bookmakers should also invest heavily into staff training and operational transparency. A highly-trained team that understands the principles of risk management will be more equipped to make informed decisions in high-pressure situations. Regular internal audits and a clear reporting structure can help detect inconsistencies early and maintain accountability across departments. A culture that prioritizes responsible risk practices not only protects your margins but also builds long-term credibility with partners and bettors alike.
While online betting was an oddity not 15 years ago, nowadays, we can safely say that the market is oversaturated with them. Whether betting experts or hobbyists, consumers are spoiled for choice, so bookies must go the extra mile to acquire and retain customers.
One of the best customer acquisition tactics revolves around incentives. When you sign up for a service, most of them will offer an incentive of some kind, whether in the form of a certain number of credits to spend in the platform’s store or an x% discount for a set period of time.
Betting platforms are no different – the only distinction is that the process is more involved.
Bookmakers – especially those new in business – often lead an uphill battle against presumptions long-ingrained into the public consciousness. Because the betting industry is (still) rife with fraud, consumers are understandably wary of inputting their credit card details into a new platform.
So, as a newly formed sports betting business, it’s up to you to help people move past those suppositions and convince them to sign up. You could, for example, offer a sign-up bonus to x amount for every $100 in bets, together with a free bet after their first deposit.
The benefit is threefold; for one thing, it encourages new customers to make a deposit; secondly, it demonstrates that you are a legitimate bookmaking business. Finally, it offers customers an excellent opportunity to become familiar with your platform.
That’s just one way to go about incentives. Some bookmakers have become experts at gamifying the platform, offering bonuses once the user reaches certain thresholds.
Content marketing is a vast subject we won’t explore fully in this article. Its importance in the growth of a newly formed sportsbook cannot be understated, as it’s one of the best tactics to bring in more players looking to gamble.
There are several ways to go about this, but they all revolve around one simple principle: developing targeted marketing strategies tailored to reach specific customer segments. This means leveraging every digital marketing channel possible:
While social media has proven hit and miss in the last few years for various reasons – algorithmic changes within the platforms, company restructurings – content marketing is a surefire way to grow your sportsbook’s online presence if appropriately executed.
Modern bettors are more connected to the goings-on of the betting industry than ever before. By now, it’s safe to say that every semi-professional bettor has a gigantic spreadsheet documenting every possible move and betting strategy. And bookmakers have no choice but to adapt their offering to this emerging meta.
That’s why, as a newly formed sportsbook, understanding the various betting types and strategies is essential to offer a service that is not only interesting enough to capture the attention of bettors but also fail-proof against exploitation. We have covered betting types and strategies in separate articles, so if you want to delve deeper into this topic, they’re a great starting point.
In the sports betting industry, data is king. Data allows successful sports betting operators to make their business more efficient and offer customers what they want. Data is what keeps sportsbooks safe from fraudulent parties. Finally, data is what helps sportsbooks maintain fairness and transparency.
Sportsbooks need to get that data from somewhere – this is where OddsMatrix comes in. OddsMatrix is a sports betting data solution that provides bookmakers with essential tools custom-built to help them manage their operations more efficiently and competitively. Generally, the service collects and analyzes vast amounts of data and offers features meant to streamline the bookmaking process.
More specifically, OddsMatrix offers the following services:
Another method to grow your sportsbook is to set up a referral program. In short, a referral program is a marketing tactic companies use to encourage loyal customers to tell other people – usually from within their close circle – about their product or service.
While there are several referral-type programs, the end goal is always pretty much the same across all of them. Getting said people to sign up, use the company’s product and, ideally, recruit them into the referral program to get other people to sign up, and so on and so on. When done correctly, referral programs can coalesce into a healthy and active community of customers that the business can tap into for marketing purposes.
So, even going solely by that little intro, you can already see why setting up a referral program can be a great growth opportunity for your sportsbook. There are many systems to go for, the most typical of which consists of offering current customers a financial reward for each person who signs up and deposits money via their referral. Or, a flat referral fee system that rewards participants with a percentage of the money that one deposits.
Modern sportsbooks have lots of moving parts, which is why keeping the operation well-oiled at all times can be overwhelming for up-and-coming betting operators. In this case, automation is the name of the game. We’ve written an entire article about machine learning and AI in sports betting, so you should check that out if you want more details.
One of the biggest pain points bookmakers often face is event creation and scheduling. However, OddsMatrix can help bookmakers automate the process of creating and scheduling events for betting. This includes generating event listings, assigning market types, and setting opening and closing times for bets. Automating these processes can save time and resources, allowing bookmakers to focus on other aspects of their business.
The sports betting industry has long evolved past traditional sports. Today, sports bettors are dividing their attention between conventional sports and eSports. The main reason is that, unlike traditional sports, eSports are a purely digital phenomenon that, thanks to the arguably more complex play mechanics powering them, add an exciting dimension to betting that regular sports cannot provide.
A brief look at all the meta mechanics behind a game such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is enough to realize the betting opportunities resulting from them.
While in a standard sport like soccer, there are only so many variables to bet on – final score, winning team, etc. – in Counter Strike Global Offensive, players can place wagers on things like the number of maps won by a team, the winner of a single map, a team’s score, and the total rounds played on a map, to name just a few.
Things can get even more complex in competitive strategy games such as Dota 2, a game that has so many mechanics under the hood that they warrant their own article.
As it so happens, OddsMatrix also provides coverage for eSports betting – so if you’re a bookie looking to expand into this industry, look no further than our services.
At a certain point, acquisition stops being the hard part. The real challenge is multiplying what’s already working — sustaining revenue momentum without escalating bonus costs or operational risk. When you’ve already achieved stability, the next phase isn’t about learning how to grow your online sportsbook from scratch; it’s about refining the systems that already power it.
For advanced operators, growth no longer comes from adding features or promotions. It comes from orchestration — connecting personalization, market depth, promotions, and data intelligence into one continuous loop of insight and optimization. This is where marginal gains turn into compounding advantage.
Every operator personalizes in theory. The difference lies in execution. Real personalization happens in milliseconds, not in marketing decks. It means showing the right market to the right player at the precise moment their intent peaks — and doing so without overpaying for engagement.
Sophisticated operators treat personalization as an operating system. The sportsbook’s interface reshapes itself dynamically: high-frequency players see rapid in-play opportunities first, casuals see pre-match content and bet builders, and those showing signs of churn get predictive nudges timed to their next natural visit. The focus is on the next best action — whether that’s a prompt to deposit, build a parlay, or explore a new market.
The outcome isn’t just better engagement. It’s margin preservation. When personalization is driven by predictive models instead of static segments, bonuses stop being a blunt instrument. Incentives are distributed where they change behavior, not where they simply reward activity. The result is measurable uplift in ARPU with stable or even declining bonus-to-NGR ratios — a hallmark of sustainable personalization.
Expanding market coverage is often mistaken for growth, but true expansion is about relevance, not volume. A sportsbook that wants to keep its edge doesn’t just add more events — it deepens the local connection. Every market you add should have cultural gravity. Domestic leagues, regional derbies, national tournaments, even niche specials — these become part of a bettor’s daily rhythm.
Operational discipline matters as much as cultural fit. Before entering new territories or rolling out new verticals, top operators verify that latency, price accuracy, and acceptance rates can sustain existing NGR margins. Poorly timed feeds or lagging live markets can erase months of progress. The right expansion is balanced: the sportsbook grows its footprint without compromising the integrity of its live trading.
Localization is the quiet multiplier here. Native language content, compliant payment options, responsible gambling integration, and local market narratives form a flywheel of trust. As you expand, you’re not just growing reach — you’re compounding retention.
Promotions can be either an expense or an investment. The difference lies in measurement. Mature operators build promotion portfolios with the same rigor as financial assets: every campaign has a defined cost, a projected ROI, and a control group to validate its impact.
Reactive, calendar-based promotions often inflate short-term handle but cannibalize organic betting. The smarter approach uses behavioral sequencing — light-touch incentives for engagement dips, tailored winbacks for specific inactivity thresholds, and bonus throttling for naturally active players. The best programs are dynamic: the same player receives different incentives at different lifecycle points, guided by real-time value models.
Incremental measurement closes the loop. Every promotion should prove its profitability through uplift in NGR, not raw stake growth. When promos are treated like tradable instruments, marketing spend becomes a self-funding system — high-performing offers are recycled, low-return ones retired quickly.
Your BI layer isn’t a reporting tool; it’s the control tower. It connects your trading, CRM, and product teams with shared truth and real-time visibility. For established sportsbooks, BI is where data transforms from hindsight to foresight.
Advanced setups move beyond dashboards into automation. Predictive churn models feed directly into campaign triggers. Margin volatility alerts surface operational risks before they reach the customer. Correlation analysis ensures that new parlay templates don’t quietly erode profitability. Every insight has an action path — either automatically executed or flagged for human decisioning.
The biggest differentiator isn’t the data you have; it’s how fast you act on it. Operators who can turn a metric shift into a live experiment within minutes, not weeks, are the ones who compound growth sustainably.
At scale, alignment matters more than ambition. KPIs are the connective tissue between teams. ARPU, NGR, and churn form the core triad, but they only tell the full story when measured consistently and viewed in context.
ARPU tells you whether personalization is creating real value or just inflating stakes. NGR reveals whether that value survives after bonuses, payouts, and taxes. Churn exposes the health of your retention funnel — the silent killer if left unchecked. Around these, supporting metrics like bonus-to-NGR percentage, bet acceptance rate, and dispute ratio act as guardrails, ensuring short-term wins don’t come at the cost of long-term stability.
Healthy sportsbooks publish these KPIs weekly across teams. Everyone sees the same definitions, the same baselines, and the same thresholds for escalation. That transparency is what turns data into discipline.
At the top of every operator’s BI environment sits the “executive strip” — five tiles that rarely change: ARPU, NGR, churn, bonus-to-NGR, and acceptance rate. Below it, the story deepens. Cohort analysis shows how acquisition months age over time. Margin heatmaps reveal where specific markets outperform or underperform. Promo ROI boards track every campaign’s cost versus incremental NGR. Operational panels monitor latency, uptime, and dispute resolution times.
The final layer — and the one most operators underuse — is the action queue. This is where BI becomes operational. Suggested experiments appear with predicted uplift, risk flags, and automated routing to CRM or trading systems. It’s the difference between knowing what’s wrong and acting on it instantly.
Growth often coincides with migration — whether to new markets, new tech stacks, or new data infrastructures. The most successful transitions follow structured gates.
Before launch, compliance and payments are localized, translations are verified, and responsible gaming protocols are embedded. Trading teams validate latency and exposure limits under simulated load. Product and UX teams confirm that every key journey — deposit, bet placement, cash-out — performs flawlessly on mobile. Data engineers test end-to-end event flows to ensure the BI layer captures every touchpoint in real time. CRM teams confirm that segmentation and cooldown rules fire correctly. Only when all gates pass does a go-live trigger.
After launch, a 72-hour guardrail review ensures stability: acceptance rates, downtime, disputes, and margin volatility are compared against baseline. Post-migration, the focus returns to experimentation — the continuous refinement that distinguishes stable operations from market leaders.
The fastest-growing sportsbooks operate on rolling 90-day cycles. The first month focuses on visibility — aligning KPI definitions, deploying a unified dashboard, and instrumenting every major process. The second month scales proven levers: localized markets, personalization, and promotions with verified incremental NGR. The third month institutionalizes success — automating winning experiments, moving rule-based CRM triggers to predictive models, and embedding cross-functional reviews to maintain accountability.
This sprint model works because it converts strategy into motion. Every quarter becomes a contained experiment, every result an input for the next cycle.
You’ll find no shortage of articles about how to grow your online sportsbook, but most focus on acquisition and ignore the compounding power of operational precision. Competitors like Altenar or BookieIntel offer solid KPI frameworks, and marketing guides from DataArt or similar platforms provide good context. Yet they stop short of full integration — where KPIs, personalization, and BI automation reinforce each other continuously.
That’s the Oddsmatrix difference. We don’t just help you identify growth levers; we help you orchestrate them.
Growing an online sportsbook from the ground up can be overwhelming. Thankfully, the right tools and solutions will make the road ahead less rocky. Start growing your online sportsbook with OddsMatrix, the leading sports betting data provider used by thousands of sportsbooks worldwide.
