EPL Bets

EPL betting demo built with Django, HTMX, Redis, and Celery. Live scores via WebSocket, real bookmaker odds, and simulated bet placement — all server-rendered with zero JavaScript frameworks.

This just demo. No real money. No real gambling.

Live demo: eplbets.net

Tech Stack

• Django — Server-side rendering, ORM, admin
• HTMX — Partial page updates, polling, WebSocket integration
• Redis — Cache, Celery broker, Channels layer (triple duty)
• Celery — Background API polling, bet settlement
• Django Channels / Daphne — WebSocket live score updates
• PostgreSQL — Persistent data store

Architecture

         ┌────────────────────┐
         │       Browser      │
         │      HTMX + WS     │
         └────┬──────────┬────┘
              │          │ 
          HTTP/HTMX   WebSocket
         ┌────┴──-┐ ┌────┴---──┐
         │ Django │ │ Daphne/  │
         │        │ │ Channels │
         └────┬───┘ └───────┬──┘
              └──────┬──────┘
               ┌─────┴────────┐
               │     Redis    │
               └────┬───────┬─┘
            ┌───────┴──┐  ┌─┴───────┐
            │ Postgres │  │ Celery  │
            └──────────┘  └─────────┘

Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/zachcalvert/epl-bets.git
cd epl-bets
cp .env.example .env   # Add your API keys
docker compose up -d
docker compose run --rm web python manage.py migrate
docker compose run --rm web python manage.py seed_all

Then open http://localhost:8000.

Seed Commands

seed_all is the master seed command — it runs all individual commands in dependency order:

Step	Command	What it does
1	seed_epl	Teams, fixtures, standings, and odds from external APIs
2	seed_challenge_templates	Challenge template definitions
3	seed_badges	Badge definitions
4	seed_bots	Bot user accounts
5	backfill_stats	UserStats from existing bet history

All commands are idempotent (safe to re-run). Flags:

# Skip external API calls entirely (useful offline / in CI)
docker compose run --rm web python manage.py seed_all --skip-epl

# Use bundled JSON fixture instead of live API
docker compose run --rm web python manage.py seed_all --offline

# Skip odds fetch to save Odds API credits
docker compose run --rm web python manage.py seed_all --skip-odds

Utility Commands

Command	What it does	Options
simulate_prematch	Bots place bets and post comments on upcoming matches	--matches N (default: 3), --reset-bets (cancel pending bot bets first)
reset_bot_comments	Delete all bot-generated comments	--yes (skip confirmation)

Example:

# Simulate bot activity on the 5 soonest matches
docker compose run --rm web python manage.py simulate_prematch --matches 5

API Keys

Three free APIs power the app:

• football-data.org — Fixtures, scores, standings (free tier: 10 req/min)
• The Odds API — Real bookmaker odds (free tier: 500 credits/month)
• Anthropic Claude API — Bot commentary generation (pay-as-you-go)

Add your keys to .env after copying .env.example.

Deployment

Production is deployed on Fly at eplbets.net.