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The increasing use of smart phones and greater internet access have led to the rapid growth of the online sports betting market – its value of $106.22 billion in 2024 is projected to reach $186.58 billion by 2029. While Europe accounts for roughly 50% of 2025’s global online gambling market €47.9 billion, the US is catching up fast. The US market, worth $11.92 billion in 2023, is predicted to reach $36.52 billion by 2032.
To claim their share of the pot, iGaming and sports betting operators need to deliver intuitive, personalized and rewarding platforms and solutions to customers – before their competition does. But is your software development partner up to the task? Read on to learn how you can tell if they are the ace up your sleeve, or whether they are bluffing.
How to tell if your software partner is helping or hurting your business
While the scope of responsibilities, level of ownership and technical complexity will vary project to project, there are certain universal questions you can ask yourself about the quality of services and output you receive from a software development partner.
Are feature rollouts too slow?
Is it time-consuming to add sports, update types of bets, launch promotions and increase gamification? Slow feature rollout limits attracting new players and risks turning off existing ones
Does your platform experience downtimes and glitches?
Understandably, these can cause frustration and lead to distrust, lack of credibility and customer loss.
Are you getting the most out of your data?
If you’re not getting up to the minute information about usage trends, betting patterns and player behavior, how can you make strategic decisions?
Are costs rising without a sufficient improvement of services and functionality?
No noticeable return on investment puts a strain on growth and your company at risk.
Red flags to watch out for with your software development partner
The aforementioned questions are a good start – but as they are quite high-level in nature, they may not provide the evidence needed to make a decision. At a move granular level, there are certain warning signs that should make you question your choice in partner.
Warning signs:
Minimal accountability
An inability to take ownership can be manifested in a number of ways. These include low-quality code, incomplete documentation and insufficient testing, which all usually contribute to missed deadlines.
Long resolution times
If iGaming and sports betting operators are not launching products to market at speed, then they are falling behind the competition. That’s why missing requirements, poor planning, technical debt and ineffective project management are major concerns.
Weak data security
Protecting users data and financial information are pivotal, as the damage that a cyberattack can cause is immense. Statista reports that, worldwide, over $10 trillion is spent on repairing the damage cause by cybercrime. Inadequate encryption, outdated dependencies, compliance issues related to GDPR, SOC, Data Act) and vulnerable infrastructures out companies, and customers, at risk. If your software development partner has a long backlog of high-severity security issues and/or lacks a secure development lifecycle, it’s time to make a move.
Poor communication
The business and technical value that comes from expertise and experience is lost (or at least diminished) if a partner is unable to effectively communicate with you. If you are dealing with time zone issues, feel a lack of knowledge sharing, notice increasing cultural differences that impact work and sense a disconnect between business and tech goals, a breakdown in communication has occurred.
Lack of business results
This ties into the questions asked above. Increased development costs, delays in deployments and slow time to market make it difficult for any operator to continue operations.
How can changing my software development partner enhance my business?
It is understandable that companies may be reluctant to make a change in their software development partner. For one thing, they may fear disrupting day-to-day operations, as a break in continuity turns off customers and winning them back is no small feat. There’s also the question of retraining employees and getting them familiar with new processes and technologies. Additionally, companies may worry that onboarding a new partner could be slow and costly.
However, aside from maintaining operations, speeding up development and reducing costs, the right software development partner provides:
Comprehensive expertise
- Deep betting industry knowledge
- Proven transition methodologies
- Security-first mindset
Flexible evolution
- Seamless handling of multiple transitions
- Adaptive to changing business needs
- Progressive modernization approach
- Risk-managed transformations
Business focus
- Aligned with business objectives
- Revenue-driven improvements
- Customer experience priority
- Future-proof solutions
Finding a software development partner who has proven experience
For iGaming and sports betting operators, the key is finding a company that has industry experience, as the demands of these sectors are particular. Along with experience, the right partner should be able to present a cohesive roadmap of what it actually looks like to take over a platform.
The stages of handing over a sports betting platform to a new software development partner:
Stage 1: Platform setup and foundational infrastructure
Establish the tooling and processes for building a platform, while creating a robust and scalable development environment.
Stage 2: Complex system integration
Take ownership of a running platform, conduct detailed analysis and institute an approach that maintains stability and allows for improvements.
Stage 3: Knowledge transfer and transition to 3rd party
Ensure a smooth transition to a new team through comprehensive knowledge transfers that prioritize operational continuity.
Stage 4: Critical transition to live operations
Emphasize risk mitigation and operational readiness, so that the transition to production is stable and secure.
Stage 5: Architecture transformation
Migrate from a shared infrastructure to dedicated environments, while ensuring service continuity and improved isolation.
Stage 6: Continuous enhancement and modernization
Elevate a platform’s operational excellence through systematic implementation of best practices and continuous improvement.
If you’d like to learn more about how to effectively change software development partners, check our a free ebook – written by experts– that shares best practices and real-world case studies of what this process should look like. Reducing annual costs by $180,000, cutting time to provision new environments to under an hour and achieving a 99.95% uptime during launch phases are just some of the results you can read about.
You can download these insights here.
FAQ
What is the market growth forecasts for online sports betting and gambling?
The online sports betting market’s value of $106.22 billion in 2024 is projected to reach $186.58 billion by 2029. While Europe accounts for roughly 50% of 2025’s global online gambling market €47.9 billion, the US is catching up fast. The US market, worth $11.92 billion in 2023, is predicted to reach $36.52 billion by 2032.
How can I evaluate the quality of my software development partner?
While certain metrics may vary project to project, some universal areas to monitor include the speed of feature rollouts, the amount times your platform suffers downtimes and glitches and whether you feel you are maximizing your data. Overall, you need to determine if costs are rising at a rate that does not correspond to improvement of services and functionality.
How can I tell if my software development partner is ineffective?
A partner that does not take accountability, causes long resolution times, provides weak data security, has poor communication and does not produce concrete business results is an ineffective partner.
What benefits can a new software development partner bring to a project?
If a new partner is qualified, they will provide technical and domain expertise that accelerates development, strengthens security, increases flexibility, mitigates risks and enhances customer experience.
What should the process of handing over a sports betting platform to a new partner look like?
There are six main stages of handing over a platform to a new partner: platform setup and foundational infrastructure, complex system integration, knowledge transfer and transition to 3rd party, critical transition to live operations, architecture transformation and continuous enhancement and modernization.
About the authorAndrei Prescornic
DevOps Engineer
With over 20 years of experience spanning Linux, Cloud administration and Team Management, Andrei's core expertise lies in cloud architectures, DevOps implementation and platform engineering. A fervent advocate for continuous improvement and automation, Andrei is dedicated to transforming how teams operate. He empowers organizations to achieve faster, more reliable software delivery by effectively integrating development and operations.
About the authorDan Marinescu
Project Manager
With experience in project and product delivery across complex digital platforms, Dan specializes in leading cross-functional teams, aligning business goals with technical execution and ensuring projects are delivered on time, within scope and with measurable impact. His background spans software development, reporting systems and large-scale platform integrations — particularly within the betting and iGaming industries.
About the authorDumitru Beznos
Software Delivery Director
With a proven background of delivery excellence in the iGaming industry, Dumitru brings together strategy, technology and people to deliver impactful results. Dedicated to building scalable solutions, optimizing delivery pipelines and creating teams that execute with precision, collaboration and purpose, he has supported operators across the world. Throughout his career, Dumitru has been transforming complex challenges into high-performing products.
About the authorMarius Ion
QA Engineer | QA Lead
With over a decade of experience in Quality Assurance, Marius specializes in building effective QA processes, integrating backend and frontend automation and ensuring quality is integrated throughout every stage of development. His background spans manual and automated testing, API validation and test management within complex betting and banking platforms.
