Build a Live Odds App: Architecture & Code

Core architecture

• Ingestion: HTTP polling or WebSocket/Server-Sent Events for odds updates.
• Processing: Normalize markets, lines, and price formats.
• Delivery: Publish updates to clients via WebSocket or SSE.

Polling vs streaming

Start with short-interval polling (2–5s) and upgrade to WebSockets for lower latency and cost efficiency.

Latency playbook

• Use edge regions close to consumers.
• Minify payloads and compress over the wire.
• Batch updates during peak events.

Data freshness and consistency

Ensure eventual consistency across markets and selections. Use sequence numbers or timestamps to discard stale updates.

Change detection

Track last-seen odds per selection and compute deltas before publishing to the UI to reduce unnecessary re-renders.

Scalability and cost

• Batch updates for high-volume events to reduce fan-out.
• Compress payloads and prefer binary protocols for streams.
• Autoscale consumers and apply backpressure when overloaded.

UI/UX patterns

• Highlight price up/down with subtle animations and colors.
• Show last update timestamp and connection status.
• Gracefully fallback to polling if the socket disconnects.