Serving a passionate community is probably one of the hardest challenges to accomplish—ever. Are football fans your target audience? They are both predictable and loyal. You will have no problem modeling user expectations.
Your challenge centers on managing them.
Football fans know everything—at least they think they do. Tactics, formations, players, field grass, coaches’ decisions—you name it—they are ever-ready to discuss any aspect of the game for hours on end and cross verbal swords with friends or foes.
Your main issue (linked to your challenge of managing them) lies in delivering high-quality fantasy sports website.
In this post, we discuss how to start a fantasy sports website sports fans will love. With every fantasy sports solution, the finely tuned technical side of the project is crucial for overall success.
What do fans love about fantasy sports websites?
The query ‘how to start a fantasy sports website’ is popular on such resources as Quora, Reddit, and Google.
Why?
Because fans like the question ‘what if..?’
What if it had not been raining so badly?
What if the striker had scored that goal?
What if that left defender had been substituted 20 minutes earlier?
Plus, lots of other things—just let your imagination go wild.
In real life, even top-ranked squads lose competitions.
In an alternative world, everything can turn out differently.
This is why fantasy football leagues are highly popular competitive games. Fantasy football is a chance to prove theory with practice.
However, success in fantasy football depends on various factors we call knowledge and experience, not just on luck or prophecy. Beating others in fantasy tournaments will quickly show how brilliant someone’s ideas are.
Also, fantasy football websites are different. Fantasy football is a mix of a sports manager and betting office. Nevertheless, a fantasy football tournament does not look like any of that.
A gamer becomes a team manager, but unlike the sports manager, the team consists of real football players. Gamers choose players who they think will do their best and get points based on their achievements in actual games (e.g., Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals and got a yellow card in the Champions League; therefore, gamers who picked him up get +250 for the goals and –20 for the card).
Unlike betting, fantasy football lasts as long as a real football tournament lasts (e.g., Copa América 2018). Gamers do not win or lose everything immediately in one game just by surrendering to the temptation to win a little bit more.
Both betting and fantasy football are games with unpredictable information, so gamers are always dealing with uncertainty. But in fantasy football, gamers are the ones who define (i.e., get control over) the squad, unlike betting where participants pick up what there is available for them.
But if you want to attract rabid fans, you must be able to answer the question, how to create a fantasy sports website?
Briefly, it is simpler with previous experience. Below we share our experiences to help you.
How to create a fantasy sports website: product development lifecycle
Fantasy leagues are not revolutionizing gaming. This type of competition has been around for several decades. Its basic structure and modules are similar to those used to create any betting service (e.g., a broker’s board).
Indeed, the recipe on how to start a fantasy sports website differs from that of a betting competition. Fantasy football website has issues regarding its goals and its target audience.
Therefore, we started with our expertise of existing modules and reused code to shorten the time needed to make the development cost effective. The rest of the time on the project was spent on customization, design, integration of third-party resources, testing, and adjustment.
Here is an example of a website IT Craft team developed for its client from Latin America.
Mock-ups
For fantasy football websites, our designer creates mock-ups of all pages and sends them to the customer for approval.
Administration panel
Our goal was to create a service that customers could manage on their own. Therefore, we developed an easy-to-adjust administration panel any responsible person can use to set up rules, manage winnings, close the squads at a designated time, and block any changes to prevent cheating.
Technologies
Front-end:
Back-end:
Third party services integration
Used for quick, reliable match data delivery (i.e., trustworthy calculations), we integrated Data Factory statistics feed based on customers’ recommendations.
PayPal or League Swipe is integrated into fantasy football websites to manage account funds and pay out winnings.
How to create a fantasy football app: a cost-effective approach
It is impossible to imagine a fantasy football service unavailable from smartphones. Such service will miss its core audience. How to reach smartphone users? Certainly, the best way to access is to create a fantasy sport app.
Still, many owners have constrained budgets to launch a fantasy sports app. Is there any cost-effective approach to create fantasy sports app?
Yes, businesses should try hybrid fantasy sports app development. This means that development team can reuse many of website components for fantasy sports app development making fast delivery possible.
To make this happen, we use responsive design technology.
All screens display beautifully on both desktop and mobile devices.
GET adaptiveResponsive website is the best choice that you can get to grow your audience
What other challenges are technically important?
Full product development cycle
We fully develop your service from analyzing your requirements and budget, and to the stage of the working stage.
select your package or let us know if you need help
we will build a timeline of development phases
then development process goes
final testing on all devices and push project LIVE
Below is our list of core topics that challenge fantasy football game development and their respective solutions:
quick responsestabilitydata integrity
To deliver high-performance stable service we use:
Linux
Apache
MySQL
PHP
Yii2 framework as a backbone (it is an open-source MVC framework which is based on the LAMP stack)
cheating
Some (not a complete list) actions against cheating:
calculations only on the server (back-end) side;
back-end and front-end of the system are separated. Users have no access to the back-end;
‘close’ time is only managed by the administrator; no updating instruments;
... and more
social integration
Service has its own Facebook page, Vimeo, and Twitter accounts
personalization
Players are greeted with personalized letters. They can choose avatars, etc.
translation
The website has Spanish, English, and Portuguese versions
Surprisingly, product owners can only test their own fantasy football services during football matches, usually once or twice a week. Everyone must wait until the next match day to see the improvements.
In conclusion
Fantasy football is addictive and time consuming. Tournament participation requires regular changes in the virtual squad to compete with other gamers. Assuming that regular championships last about nine months, this would not be a big deal for those who live and breathe the game.
IT Craft has accumulated expertise on how to create a fantasy sports website and a dedicated mobile app. This makes it possible for our clients to have their own fantasy football competitions delivered faster and for less.
You can start either with a website or with fantasy sports app development.
Do you have an app idea? Do you need a reliable development team to deliver high-quality code based on your idea?
IT Craft is here to help you launch. High-quality source code. On time, within your budget. Call us today. We can market test your idea. Find out how.
Hi Marek,
Thank you for asking, such a good question.
Basically, our development team has designed its own special fantasy sports engine which is customized depending on clients’ particular needs.
However, everything depends on your aims and your budget. If you have a different idea, and you can wait a little longer, we can start native fantasy sports app development, both iOS and Android.
Best,
IT Craft team.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your interest.
No, we can design a fantasy sports website (and create a fantasy sports app, too) for basically any kind of sports. This can be basketball, baseball, ice-hockey or swimming―everything.
Moreover, you can have a solution dedicated to any kind of competition. You can even have a fantasy website dedicated to elections!
Feel free to contact us with your idea and we will find a solution suited to your needs and your budget 😉
Best regards,
IT Craft team.
Hi Rudi,
It is great to hear from you. Yes, everything is possible with the right attitude.
But first of all, why do you want to make an app like DraftKings? Do you plan anything different? If you just make a copy of a popular fantasy sports website, people won’t use it.
If you want our advice on how to create a fantasy sports website, we highly recommend you to think different. Think through how to start a fantasy sports website people would want to use instead of your competitors’.
Make interviews with users, study Reddit and specialized forums. Determine what features users miss.
Also, make a list of possible benefits. This can be: adding local competitions (e.g., Asian Champions League), adding specific competitions (e.g., women football), making a unique gamification system, adding extra security for user profiles and more.
This way, you will create a fantasy sports website users will love.
Have a good luck!
IT Craft team.
Hi Jon,
We are sure that the best time is now, when sport competitions are slowly recovering from the world pandemic. Stadiums are empty; fans are banned from visiting them. Still, they want to be a part of the game. A fantasy football league can help fans reinvent the game and enjoy the competitive part.
Of course, remember. Your idea must be interesting for the prospective users. Do research before you start fantasy sports app development!
Best,
IT Craft team.
P.S. Here is an interesting story on how two guys made their own fantasy sports website: https://bleacherreport.com/
Hi Marshall,
Thanks for asking. No, it is not the same.
Although there are numerous debates on the legal status of fantasy sports websites, they have passed legislative status in several states.
Certainly, fantasy sports competitions are subject to restrictions. There mandatory policies regarding advertising, fees, registration, participants etc. We recommend you to refer to the article regarding fantasy sports in New Jersey: https://scarincihollenbeck.com/
Also, here is a tracker fantasy sports contest legislation to help you see how laws change in the different states: https://velawoodlaw.com/
We hope this helps you.
Best regards,
IT Craft team.
Hi IT Craft,
Is your offer on fantasy sports app development limited to hybrid apps?
Hi Marek,
Thank you for asking, such a good question.
Basically, our development team has designed its own special fantasy sports engine which is customized depending on clients’ particular needs.
However, everything depends on your aims and your budget. If you have a different idea, and you can wait a little longer, we can start native fantasy sports app development, both iOS and Android.
Best,
IT Craft team.
Hi guys, do you provide your services only for fantasy football?
Hi Chris,
Thank you for your interest.
No, we can design a fantasy sports website (and create a fantasy sports app, too) for basically any kind of sports. This can be basketball, baseball, ice-hockey or swimming―everything.
Moreover, you can have a solution dedicated to any kind of competition. You can even have a fantasy website dedicated to elections!
Feel free to contact us with your idea and we will find a solution suited to your needs and your budget 😉
Best regards,
IT Craft team.
Hi team, I want to start an app like DraftKings. Is this possible?
Hi Rudi,
It is great to hear from you. Yes, everything is possible with the right attitude.
But first of all, why do you want to make an app like DraftKings? Do you plan anything different? If you just make a copy of a popular fantasy sports website, people won’t use it.
If you want our advice on how to create a fantasy sports website, we highly recommend you to think different. Think through how to start a fantasy sports website people would want to use instead of your competitors’.
Make interviews with users, study Reddit and specialized forums. Determine what features users miss.
Also, make a list of possible benefits. This can be: adding local competitions (e.g., Asian Champions League), adding specific competitions (e.g., women football), making a unique gamification system, adding extra security for user profiles and more.
This way, you will create a fantasy sports website users will love.
Have a good luck!
IT Craft team.
I would love to start a fantasy football website but I feel like it is too late. What do you think?
Hi Jon,
We are sure that the best time is now, when sport competitions are slowly recovering from the world pandemic. Stadiums are empty; fans are banned from visiting them. Still, they want to be a part of the game. A fantasy football league can help fans reinvent the game and enjoy the competitive part.
Of course, remember. Your idea must be interesting for the prospective users. Do research before you start fantasy sports app development!
Best,
IT Craft team.
P.S. Here is an interesting story on how two guys made their own fantasy sports website: https://bleacherreport.com/
Hi IT Craft,
Do you know anything about regulations? I am thinking of a fantasy sports website but isn’t that the same as gambling?
Hi Marshall,
Thanks for asking. No, it is not the same.
Although there are numerous debates on the legal status of fantasy sports websites, they have passed legislative status in several states.
Certainly, fantasy sports competitions are subject to restrictions. There mandatory policies regarding advertising, fees, registration, participants etc. We recommend you to refer to the article regarding fantasy sports in New Jersey:
https://scarincihollenbeck.com/
Also, here is a tracker fantasy sports contest legislation to help you see how laws change in the different states:
https://velawoodlaw.com/
We hope this helps you.
Best regards,
IT Craft team.