White Label Sportsbook vs Turnkey vs Building Your Own
6 min read
A white label sportsbook gives you a ready front end, odds and risk tools under your brand. Turnkey is a fuller package, usually paid by revenue share. Building your own takes longest. The licence always stays your obligation.
This article compares the three routes on what actually decides the outcome for a new or growing operator: who holds the licence, how the cost is structured, how fast you can go live, and how much control you keep over the wallet, the brand and the customer data. If you already lean towards a branded front on a fixed price, the white label sportsbook page explains what RealTimeBets Platform Enterprise includes.
Three routes, defined plainly
The terms are used loosely across the industry, so it helps to pin them down.
- White label sportsbook. A provider supplies the sportsbook front end, the odds and the trading tools, and you run it on your domain under your brand. You connect it to your own wallet and player accounts. You hold the licence and own the customer relationship.
- Turnkey sportsbook. A provider supplies the full stack: front end, odds, trading, often the player account system, payments and back office. You add marketing and the licence. Turnkey deals are commonly priced as a share of revenue.
- Build your own. You hire engineers and traders, license a data feed, and build the pricing models, risk controls, settlement, front end and back office yourself.
The lines between the first two are not sharp. Some turnkey providers let you swap modules, and some white label products include more than a front. Read the contract, not the label.
The licence is always yours
No technology route moves the regulatory obligation away from the operator. Whether you buy a white label, sign a turnkey deal or build in-house, the licence to accept wagers in each jurisdiction belongs to the company taking the bets. The provider supplies software and data, and in many jurisdictions also needs its own supplier licence or registration, but your obligations around player verification, responsible gambling, anti-money laundering and reporting stay with you.
This has practical consequences for the choice:
- Your regulator may require approval of the software or of the supplier before you go live. Ask each provider what documentation they can give you.
- Your licence conditions may require data to be stored or reported in a specific way. Check that the provider's export and audit tools fit.
- If you change providers, your licence stays with you. Under a white label or a self-built stack, so do your player accounts and history.
RealTimeBets issues production API keys only after the operator stores a licence record (licence number, regulator, country) and keeps that record on the account for audit.
Revenue share versus a fixed subscription
The biggest commercial difference between the routes is how the provider is paid.
Revenue share is common for turnkey sportsbooks. The provider takes a percentage of gross gaming revenue (GGR), sometimes with a monthly minimum. It is attractive at the start because you pay little when you take little. It becomes expensive as you grow, because the provider's cut scales with your success, not with the work it does.
A fixed subscription costs the same each month regardless of GGR. RealTimeBets Enterprise, which includes the white label sportsbook, is $4,999 per month, or $2,499 per month billed yearly ($29,988 per year).
A worked case shows where the lines cross. Suppose a revenue share deal at an assumed 15% of GGR. The rate is an assumption for the arithmetic, not a quote from any provider.
| Monthly GGR | Revenue share at 15% | Fixed, monthly billing | Fixed, yearly billing (per month) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $1,500 | $4,999 | $2,499 |
| $20,000 | $3,000 | $4,999 | $2,499 |
| $50,000 | $7,500 | $4,999 | $2,499 |
| $100,000 | $15,000 | $4,999 | $2,499 |
| $250,000 | $37,500 | $4,999 | $2,499 |
The break-even point is the fixed price divided by the share rate. At 15%, the monthly plan breaks even at about $33,330 of GGR ($4,999 / 0.15), and the yearly plan at about $16,660 ($2,499 / 0.15). Above those levels, every extra dollar of GGR stays with the operator under a fixed subscription. Put your own GGR forecast and the actual share rate from your offers into the same formula.
Building your own has no provider fee, but it has the largest fixed cost: engineers, traders, data licences, hosting and security, all paid before the first bet. For most new operators that cost is far above either of the other routes in year one.
Time to market
How quickly you can take the first bet depends on more than software. The factors that usually decide the timeline are:
- Licence and approvals. Often the longest step, and the same for every route.
- Contracting. Revenue share and enterprise deals typically involve sales calls, negotiation and legal review. A self-serve plan with published prices removes that step.
- Integration. A white label needs your wallet and player accounts connected. A turnkey may bring its own, which is faster to start but harder to leave.
- Configuration. Sports, markets, margins, limits and branding.
- Building. Only for the in-house route, and the largest item by far: pricing models, suspension, settlement, risk and a front end that works on mobile.
RealTimeBets plans are self-serve with published prices, and a sandbox key is issued right after signup, so the software side of the evaluation can start the same day. The licence timeline is outside any provider's control.
Control over wallet, brand and data
Control is where the routes differ most once you are live.
Wallet. With a white label, your existing wallet stays the source of truth. The sportsbook front calls your wallet endpoint to check balances and post bets and settlements. With many turnkey deals, the provider runs the player account and wallet, which makes migration harder later. With your own build, you control everything and maintain everything.
Brand. A white label runs on your domain with your logo, colours and copy. Turnkey fronts are also branded, though some limit layout changes. Your own build has no limits.
Customer data. If the player accounts live in your system, the customer data is yours by default. Check where it lives under any turnkey contract and what you get back if you leave.
Trading. A white label on RealTimeBets includes model-based pricing with a margin of about 6 percent, the risk engine with liability per market and per-customer limits, micro-markets, and settlement with signed webhooks. You set the limits in the console, the engine runs them.
The three routes side by side
| Factor | White label | Turnkey | Build your own |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licence holder | Operator | Operator | Operator |
| Typical pricing | Fixed subscription or fee | Revenue share, often with a minimum | Salaries, data licences, hosting |
| Cost as GGR grows | Flat | Grows with GGR | Mostly flat, high base |
| Wallet and player accounts | Yours, connected by API | Often the provider's | Yours |
| Brand and domain | Yours | Yours, with layout limits in some cases | Yours |
| Odds and trading | From the provider, configurable | From the provider | Your own team and models |
| Main delay | Licence, wallet integration | Licence, contracting | Licence, building everything |
| Switching later | Moderate, accounts stay with you | Hard if accounts sit with the provider | Not applicable |
Which route fits which operator
A few patterns hold for most cases:
- You already run a casino or another vertical with a wallet and players. A white label is usually the natural fit: you keep the wallet and the customers, and add sports under your brand.
- You are new, have a licence and no platform at all. A turnkey can be faster to start, at the cost of a revenue share and dependence on the provider's account system. Run the break-even math above with your own forecast.
- You have a large trading team and a clear edge in pricing. Building your own may pay off, though many in-house books still license feeds and individual modules.
A mixed approach is also common: keep your own front and wallet, and license only the parts that are expensive to build, such as live odds, micro-markets and settlement. The sportsbook software page lists the RealTimeBets modules that can be used this way, and the pricing page shows which plan includes each one.
Questions about white label sportsbooks
Do I need my own licence for a white label sportsbook?
Yes. The operator taking wagers holds the licence in each jurisdiction. RealTimeBets activates production keys only after a licence record is stored.
What is the difference between white label and turnkey?
A white label gives you the sportsbook front, odds and trading tools on your brand while you keep your wallet. A turnkey usually includes the player accounts, payments and back office as well, and is often priced by revenue share.
Which plan includes the RealTimeBets white label sportsbook?
Enterprise, at $4,999 per month or $2,499 per month billed yearly. It includes the white label sportsbook with your domain, brand name, colour and wallet endpoint set in the console, plus SSO, roles, audit log, IP allow-list and 50 streaming connections.
Is revenue share cheaper than a fixed subscription?
Only at low revenue. Divide the fixed price by the share rate to find the break-even GGR. Above that level, the fixed subscription costs less every month.
Can I keep my existing wallet?
Yes. You store your wallet endpoint in the console next to your domain, brand name and colour. RealTimeBets does not hold player balances, so your wallet remains the source of truth.
