Site in-depth: Sickodds
TOM WADE REVEALS ALL ON HIS ESPORTS BETTING COMPARISON PLATFORM.
TELL US WHAT SICKODDS DOES.
SickOdds is a betting comparison platform that focuses solely on esports. If you’re not familiar with esports, they are essentially competitive computer games that are played by professionals for spectators. We work with esports betting providers – ranging from established brands to new startups – in order to pull in all the latest odds for both popular and niche esports titles.
WHY DID YOU CREATE IT?
Myself and close friend Nick Pateman have been huge fans of esports for a long time and wanted to create something awesome in the space. The concept of amalgamating and normalising such disparate data sets also appealed to me and combining data from all betting providers was no small feat. When I stepped away from my agency life in 2017, it seemed like the perfect time to give it a shot.
WHAT WERE YOU HOPING TO ACHIEVE?
We wanted to create a platform that was more than just a list of matches to make it something that people would want to come back to. We set our minds to develop a resource with match-up histories, best odds for your geography and the latest industry news. With us both having client-facing agency backgrounds, we wanted to create something with good UX at its core and that constantly kept evolving.
WHAT TECHNOLOGIES WERE USED IN BUILDING IT?
We developed the main client-facing platform in WordPress, as it’s in both of our comfort zones and makes content management a breeze. I built our odds engine and API in Laravel and subsequently use Socket.IO to push live market changes to the website. We then have a small number of Node microservices that hook into the API and WebSocket for analytics and graphing.
HOW HAS IT BEEN RECEIVED?
The reception has been great! We’ve seen esports fans from all over the world dropping in to find the best markets and keep up with news. We’ve had some great feedback from our social channels and even betting providers have reached out to comment. We like to think we’re doing something right!
WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’LL DO NEXT WITH IT?
Over the next couple of years, as esports continue to grow and become more mainstream, we want to grow alongside them. With our recent partnership with Abios, an esports data specialist, we aim to expand our statistical analysis and match data, as well as expand the markets we cover. We love data!