Overview
In 2013, we were approached by Sportech, an Atlanta based company whose forte is providing digital services on front-end and backend interfaces to handle betting in real-time for mobile and web medium. The application already existed in web and had to be made mobile ready.
The challenge was to make the mobile interface seamless for both iOS and android. Further the native apps needed specific backend restrictions. We now had to build a robust application that caters end-end pari-mutuel needs for the client – G4, web and digital link, and CRM module. This included several configurable and customisable features, scalability as a one-stop solution for multiple clients serving millions of betters in real-time simultaneously. This provided for code synchronisation and other code related challenges. The application has to be locationally intelligent with continuous data analytics providing smooth and precise payment transactions without any delay. Lot was at stake, users were playing with real money.
Sparity’s team spent hours with team of Sportech. The goal was to build an extremely powerful custom application with front-end, back-end, admin, and CRM functionalities. A platform that can scale rapidly and offers a lot of flexibility for customizations within the set business rules.
Key Challenges
The following key challenges were identified during the discussions:
- Acquiring business knowledge of an already existing application, which was only available for web
- Scalability of the application to customise for multiple clients
- Seamless integration of content between web and Admin interface
- Traditional payment integration of multiple vendors
- Support multiple video streaming sources
- White labelled solution of the web and admin interface
- Mobile development of native application (iOS, Android)
- Geofencing and Geotagging capabilities
- QR code transactions with cashout – terminal integration to a centrally integrated account within mobile app
Technologies
Solution & Highlights
User centric design :
- Designing the first ever wagering application for mobile was a massive challenge at hand. The application design has to be simple, elegant and intuitive
- Moreover, the application must be agile, serving thousands of users continuously betting billions of bets with 99% of them in the last minute. It has be continuously evaluated with user feedback and data
- We have adopted an agile iterative based approach to address this complex challenge. Our team of designers came up with intuitive screens that provided for business rules and requirements that serve thousand’s of users across the globe
- The result was unparalleled, Sparity delivered a user centric design for such a complex system with lot of features based on continuous user feedback
Application Development :
- Sportech team and our project analyst sat down for many number of hours in discussions on the current state of the application and their further requirements
- In just a span of 3 months, Sparity team achieved terrific progress by building a highly scalable and rapidly customisable application. The application was carefully designed with a robust architecture which supported multiple clients, with 95% reduced turnaround time for both web and admin interface
- Currently Sportech application is serving for 9 clients, for both web interface and admin interface enhancing the operational efficiency of the client
- Seamless code integration and code deployment was achieved and the complete process between web – mobile, web- admin – database integrations have been achieved for all the clients
- Payment gateways – upgraded from credit card and ACH options to highly configurable; customised limitations with leading payment gateways
- Conceptualized custom modules, both for web and mobile within technology framework, including multiple video streaming sources
- Rich features have been integrated to the application including geo tagging and geo fencing to validate if an app, if allowed to be used only within an authorized geolocation configured via an interface
- QR code transactions with uniquely designed cashout-integration-integrated to centralised accounts
Solution Design
Configurability : Sparity customised for several drag and drop modules that added scalability making it highly configurable; supporting videos, campaigns, deals, branding, etc. We further addressed the licensing challenges of state validation, geo restrictions with our in-house written algorithms and API’s.
We have successfully delivered to and support following clients – MyWinners, Hawthorne, LoneStarPark, PennGaming, Betfred, Horsemens, Macau, Remington, Scioto, Presquelsle, Interbets, Mountaineer.
Examples : MyWinners – CRM/Drupal/Web/Admin/DL (digital Link), Betfred – Admin/DL, Interbets – Web/Admin/DL
Architecture design : We came up with a highly configurable robust architecture, which has scaled over the years with a comprehensive back-end upgrade. We have served for a state-of the art billing system solution that is based on commissions.
We have expanded the data mining aspect of the application with a swift auditing of the billings, and other very important data access. Also, our concrete solutions provided for seamless ATL routing across various spaces of the application infrastructure including geo fencing, data analytics.
- We built the whole solution using Java, GWT, Java Frameworks – Hibernate, Spring, Web services, Tiger CRM and Drupal CMS
- Native apps were built on Android and iOS (Swift 3.0). and push notifications were delivered
Achievements :
- Single application serving multiple clients – 9
- Highly configurable with custom modules like – ‘one day pass’, ‘multiple video streamings’, etc
- Continuous integration via ‘GIT’ and continuous deployment via ‘Jenkins’
- White labelled solution, for both web and mobile (i0S,Android)
- Highly scalable supporting several customisations and services to more than 9 clients
- Currently supports multi lingual on web and mobile for traditional Chinese and simplified Chinese
- Custom modules – multiple video streaming, one day pass, etc
- Location intelligence – geotagging and geo fencing capabilities with custom restrictions on mobile
- Enhanced backend upgradation incorporating billing system for commission based auditing requirements through ATL routing system
- Expanded data mining capabilities have been achieved and providing for data analytics and stats, enabling smooth flow of the business process
- Enabling QR transactions and payment gateway for multiple vendors that are easily customisable