How to start a sports betting community on Whop

You already know sports betting is exploding.

But I bet you didn’t know the market is pulling in over $100 billion a year - and it’s set to hit $180 billion by 2030.

That means millions of people hunting for winning picks, trusted insights, and a community they can rely on. Well, Whop is where sports picks communities live.

We have thousands of sports betting groups. Hundreds of thousands of paying members. Close to $100 million spent on premium picks and strategies in the last year alone.

We researched the top 100 communities to put together this guide. You’ll learn:

It’s game time… let’s build your whop.

Start a sports betting community on Whop in 6 steps

If you’ve got sports insights and a winning track record on your bets, you’ve already done the hard part. You can turn your knowledge into a proper internet business in just a few minutes on Whop.

Here’s how:

1. Create your whop

This step could hardly be simpler.

Head over to Whop.com/sell
Choose a catchy name for your community (you can change it later)
Choose your URL

Congrats, you’ve got yourself a whop.

You’re going to need a place to share your picks - the Forums app is the best way to do it.

Add the app to your whop and rename it… Give it a name that makes sense for the kind of bets you’re sharing. For example:

Daily Picks
MLB Picks
Parlays
NBA Parlays

You can add the Forum app multiple times to create multiple feeds of sports betting tips.

3. Add the ‘Chat’ app to create a group chat

Create a place where your members can chat, discuss strategies, and share their wins by adding the Chat app.

Rename the app to reflect the kind of conversations that should happen in that group chat. For example:

Community Slips
Winning Slips
Community Chat

You can add the Chat app multiple times to create multiple group chats.

4. Provide resources and learning materials

All the highest-earning communities provide tons of resources and learning materials to help members deepen their sports betting knowledge. This is how you teach members your method, unit system, and mindset for winning.

Here are the most popular ways to provide learning materials:

Add the ‘Content’ app
The Content app gives you infinite flexibility to share text-based content and instructions with your community. Here are some different ways to use the Content app:

Welcome: Give new members a clear next step and make them feel part of your community from day 1.
Beginner’s Guide: Teach betting basics so even newcomers can follow along and feel confident.
Glossary: Explain key betting terms so no one gets lost in the lingo.
The Method: Break down your personal system - your unit system, risk strategy, and how you pick bets.
FAQs: Answer common questions so members feel supported and save yourself from repeating answers.

You can easily add whatever content you want by going to the app, clicking Configure Content, and editing it just like you would on Notion (type “/” to add blocks and formatting options).

Add the ‘Courses’ app
The Courses app lets you create a structured learning experience for your community - with videos, text lessons, PDFs, quizzes, and more, all in one place. For example:

Pro Bettor Course: Teach members your full system step-by-step, from bankroll management to researching picks.
Parlay Masterclass: Show your strategy for building high-value parlays without reckless risk.
Beginner’s Betting Bootcamp: Help total beginners understand odds, units, and how to place smart bets.

After adding the app, go to Configure Courses, click Create your course now, and follow the setup steps. Check out our guide on using the Courses app for more details.

5. Design your store page

Your store page is where people can learn about your community and decide if they’ll join.

To convert visitors into paying members, your store page needs to be clear, professional, and focused on what bettors care about.

To get started, just click your whop's name in the top left, then select Design store page from the drop-down menu to open the editor. Then click Edit details.

Pick a clear name + headline: Keep it simple so visitors know what you offer at a glance. Example: “Daily NBA + MLB Picks” or “Pro Parlays for Casual Bettors”
Write a description that sells the value: Explain what members get (daily picks, chat access, betting guides) and why it helps them win.
Upload a logo: Even a basic sports icon or clean text logo makes your store look more pro.
Add gallery images or a short video: Winning slip screenshots, chat highlights, or a quick 30-second intro video help build trust and hype.
Choose Sports as your category: This makes it easier for bettors to find you on Whop.

If you need some inspiration, here are the store pages from some of the largest sports betting communities on Whop:

6. Set up pricing and Whop Payments

Alright, you’ve built your community. Now let’s make it a business.

Here’s how to price your community and make sure those payments hit your account.

1. Add a pricing option

Click your whop name at the top left of your dashboard, select Manage Pricing, and then click Create a pricing option at the bottom right of the popup.

Most sports communities choose a recurring fee - for example:

$10/week for daily picks
$30/month for full access

To do this, select Recurring when creating your pricing and select weekly or monthly. You can also add multiple pricing options (for example, a weekly plan, a monthly plan, and a lifetime membership). Don't overthink this - you can update or change your pricing as your community grows.

If you want a step-by-step guide on creating all kinds of pricing options with every single setting explained, check out our guide on creating pricing options.

Pro tip: Many of the biggest sports betting communities on Whop use a free + premium model. This means setting up two whops - one that’s free to join and another with paid access for premium picks and resources. We’ll cover exactly how to do this in the “How to get your first 100 paying members” section below.

2. Set up Whop Payments

In your onboarding checklist:

Click Set up Whop Payments
Select your country so payouts are in your local currency
Complete the Stripe-powered setup (fill in your details, link your bank, and upload ID)

The whole process only takes a few minutes. After that, you’re ready to get paid.

All you need now is members…

How to get your first 10 paying members

Whop has helped thousands of people turn their sports betting insights into a profitable online business.

Whether it’s a side hustle bringing in an extra $4k/m, or a fully-fledged company earning $100k/m, they all started where you are now: zero members.

When you break down how the top 100 sports betting communities on Whop landed their first 10 paying members, a clear playbook emerges:

Share your insights and wins on social media
Create a free AND premium whop community
Build a reputation in other communities

Most (if not all) big communities on Whop have a good social following - no awards for guessing that.

But to replicate their success, don’t copy what they’re doing NOW. Scroll to the very beginning of their feeds and see how they grew from nothing. And, to save you some time, our researchers did just that.

Here are the 4 main strategies to get your sports betting social channels off the ground:

In the beginning, give away all the sauce for free. Share your methods, data points, strategies, and picks with your audience - if you’ve got valuable insights, you’ll start to get some traction.

Case study: Hellraiser
In just 6 months, Hellraiser grew to 55k followers on X/Twitter. In January, he started sharing his ‘Study Guides’ - personal data points he writes down before placing any bets.

He would post these every week, with some posts getting hundreds of thousands of views.

2. Make viral content about sports

Sports is one of the biggest content niches on all social platforms. Sharing interesting news, clips, and memes can get you a LOT of traction. Then, start funnelling some of that attention into your community.

Case study: Thooth Pings
Thooth Pings gets thousands of views every day, posting memes about the NBA, NHL and MLB. This post alone got 250k+ views on Instagram. Peep the comments and you’ll see he sends some of that traffic directly to his community.

Nothing grabs people’s attention like big bets and big Ws. When you make a bold call or a big win, share it.

Or even better, share the wins from people in your community.

Case study: KingCap
Not a week goes by where KingCap doesn't share a big win on his social channels. He posts screenshots of his winning slips as a Reel on IG, together with a clip from the game and strong commentary over the top - like this Reel that got over 2M views.

KingCap excels at kicking the video off with a strong hook to immediately get your attention. Here are just some of the bold statements he’ll use in the first 5 seconds of his videos:

“I’m literally shaking right now”
“Just cashed out $100k at the MGM in Aria”
“When I say I’m the best in the business, just know I f***ing mean it”

4. Engagement hacks

Social media is a game, and the biggest accounts know how to play it.

To get your account off the ground, encourage people to engage with your posts and put your money where your mouth is. Here’s how the biggest sports communities on Whop are doing it:

If you want more inspiration for your social strategy, follow these accounts religiously and see what’s working for them.

Look out for the posts that are performing better than average for each creator (outliers) and create similar content for your particular niche.

Create a free AND premium community

Most of the top earning sports betting communities on Whop use this one strategy:

Free community: Funnel traffic from your socials into a free whop. This is where you build trust, show your expertise, and warm up potential paying members.
Paid community: Use your free group to promote and advertise your premium whop, where members get exclusive picks, strategies, and resources they can’t find anywhere else.

Not sure what to include in your free vs. premium communities? These examples will give you ideas for how to structure your offers:

How to set up a free and premium whop

You can create this model in just a few steps:

On your dashboard, click New whop (top right). When asked “What dashboard would you like to create your whop in?”, select the same dashboard as your original sports betting Whop - this keeps both communities linked.
Design one whop as your free group. Name it clearly, add the relevant apps, and set the pricing option so it's free.
Design the other whop as your premium group. Name it appropriately, add the relevant apps, and set the pricing to match your paid offer (weekly, monthly, or lifetime).
Now, on your store page, both free and paid options will appear. Click Edit Benefits under each to clearly show visitors what they’ll get with free vs. premium membership.

How to promote your paid community
There are one million ways to build hype for your paid community. Here are some of the popular (and proven) ways to do it:

Set up an automated welcome DM: Send new free members a friendly intro message that tells them how to upgrade for premium picks and resources. To do this, go to your Dashboard > Marketing > Automated Messages.
Upgrade your Welcome content: Create a 'Welcome' resource inside your free whop that explains what’s inside your paid community… and how to join.
Offer a free trial: Let free members test out your premium group for a few days to see the value firsthand. You can add a free trial to your premium whop by checking the box in the pricing options.
Run promo codes: Offer limited-time discounts to create urgency and drive upgrades. To create a code, go to Dashboard > Marketing > Promo codes.

Join these free sports betting communities on Whop for real examples of how the pros promote and sell their paid offers:

Build a reputation in other communities

When you’ve got your socials and free whop community set up, it’s time to start building your name in the sports betting world.

Join as many other free (and even paid) communities as you can - especially ones where your ideal members are already hanging out. Be active. Share your wins, join the conversations, and help others out. You don’t need to push your own community - just focus on being genuinely helpful and visible.

Start talking to the other members and start following them on social media - they will naturally check out your socials and start noticing your posts. This is one of the easiest ways to get in front of exactly the kind of people who’ll want to join your community.

4 strategies to quickly scale to 100+ members

Whop has worked closely with 7-figure sports betting groups to build out-of-the-box solutions that will help you scale your business quickly.

Here are 4 strategies the biggest sports betting communities on Whop are using to increase traffic, improve their conversions, and reduce churn:

Strategy 1: Pay your members to post their winning slips

Some communities incentivize their members to post their winning slips on their social channels.

It’s pretty simple: with Content Rewards, you can pay members based on how many views their posts get. You choose the rate (most communities go with $1–$2 per 1,000 views).

So if someone’s slip gets some traction and pulls in 10,000 views, you’re only paying $10–$20 for all that exposure. You get traffic, they get a bit of extra cash - everyone wins.

If you want a detailed tutorial on setting up Content Rewards, check out our tutorial video on YouTube.

Strategy 2: Set up your affiliate program

Nearly every top sports betting community on Whop runs an affiliate program… and for good reason. It’s one of the easiest ways to let your members help you grow.

Here’s how it works:

You set the rate: Most communities offer around 30%, but usually range anywhere between 10% and 50%. Just head to your store page editor, scroll to the bottom, and set your percentage.
Let your members know: Announce it in your chat, post about it, or create a simple resource inside your whop so members know where to grab their link.
Your members share their link: They can promote it to friends, social followers, or other groups.
They get paid automatically: When someone signs up through their link, they earn their cut - no extra work for you.

Strategy 3: Set up automated messages

Automated messages are one of the easiest ways to boost conversions and reduce churn.

Go to your Dashboard > Marketing > Automated Messages to set up any of the following:

When a user joins: Send a welcome message that points them to the right place, tells them about your premium offer, and maybe even gives them a discount or free trial to get started.
When a user leaves: Amazon doesn’t let you cancel Prime without putting up a fight, so why should you? Offer a discount to rejoin and ask for feedback so you can improve your community.
When you get a new lead: If someone visits your store page but doesn’t check out, send a message to reel them back in. A free trial or limited-time discount can help close the deal.

Pro tip: When you offer discounts, make it clear they expire in 24 hours - urgency helps convert.

Strategy 4: Run competitions and giveaways

Surprise competitions and giveaways are a great way to keep your members active and excited… and coming back for more.

Get creative with your competitions:

Add games apps: With just a click, you can add games from the Whop App Store. Challenge members to share their highest scores - the winner gets a prize.
Use the Giveaway app: Members can enter with one click, a winner is picked at random, and you can pay them out right through Whop.
Create a leaderboard: Reward the member who wins the most in a week (and shares proof of their winning slips).
Run a ticket-sharing challenge: Enter everyone who shares their winning tickets on their socials into a prize draw, then select winners at random.

And get creative with the prizes:

Offer a free pass to your paid community.
Use the Whop Wheel app to let winners spin for a prize. You can customize the prizes and set the odds for each one.

Sell your sports picks with Whop

You’ve got everything you need: the tools, the strategies, and a clear path from zero to hundreds of paying members.

Now it’s time to build your community and turn your sports betting insights into a real business.

Start building your sports betting community on Whop today.

Create your whop

How to start a sports betting community on Whop