Charlotte founder Vincent Durham studied computer science in graduate school at the University of Dayton and now runs Durham App Designs, where he builds apps, websites, and AI workflow systems for clients.
Amidst this work, he got the idea for his own app-driven startup after observing friends who wer eusing gambling to add competition or higher stakes to activities like golf and bowling. (He was also accustomed to making bets about miscellaneous events in graduate school.)
“My friends and I would sit around the table making bets about the weekend,” Durham said. “I started thinking, ‘What if you turned this into an app without the gambling?’”
These observations specifically led to the early concept of Build-A-Bookie, a “gamified gambling” platform that enables users to create betting-style competitions revolving around themselves and their friends without involving real money.
The Build-a-Bookie platform
Build-A-Bookie revolves first and foremost around the idea of “creating books.” Users log in, choose a theme, and the platform generates a baseline set of bets that users can customize further. For example, someone creating a book for a golf outing can add friends and instantly generate wagers ranging from traditional bets like “Player X over/under 77.5 strokes” to more humorous prompts like “Who will be the first to complain that it’s too hot?”
Users can fully customize bets and odds, but Durham has increasingly focused on making the “Quick Book” feature as streamlined and user-friendly as possible through automatically generated bets and templates. That said, users can also create fully custom books, manually set odds, and track stats across activities like golf, bowling, darts and basketball.
Over time, the app has evolved from a simple betting-style platform into something closer to a social stat-tracking system, whereby leagues and friend groups can keep recurring records, averages and leaderboards. Much of the app’s recent development has focused on reducing manual setup and grading through AI-assisted automations and easier tracking systems.
The platform also includes a “League Builder” system aimed at commissioner-style leagues, allowing organizers to create multiple teams and rosters, track league-wide analytics and manage ongoing matchups and seasons. Features like League Builder reflect Durham’s broader goal of turning Build-A-Bookie into a long-term stat-tracking and competition platform rather than just a one-off betting app.
While building the app, Durham realized many users were less interested in winning money than in the competition and social interaction surrounding games. The app’s design increasingly focuses on recreating the camaraderie of betting culture—the trash talk, side bets and running jokes among friends—without the financial risk associated with sports gambling.
“It was never really about the money,” Durham said. “It was all about, ‘Oh, I placed a bet on this tonight. You bet on this.’ It’s just funny hearing everybody together.”
Development and future growth
Durham increasingly sees leagues and recreational groups as the app’s biggest opportunities for growth. Bowling leagues and golf outings are natural fits for the platform because users are already keeping score, tracking averages and creating informal side bets among friends.
“[There are] over 10,000 bowling leagues in the U.S.,” Durham said. “One bowling alley might have 10 to 15 leagues. If you’ve got one bowling alley, you’ve got a pretty good start right there.”
QUICK BITS
Startup: Build-a-Bookie
Founder: Vincent Durham
Founded: 2025
Team size: 1
Location: Charlotte
Website: build-a-bookie.com
Funding: Bootstrapped
Much of the app’s development has been shaped by observing how users actually interact with it. Early versions required users to manually build and grade nearly every bet, but Durham quickly realized that reducing friction and setup time was essential if the app was going to work for leagues or larger groups. With that in mind, he has focused on simplifying stat tracking and score input, automating processes when possible and developing systems that allow a book’s odds to become more refined and personalized over time as users continue entering data.
The platform currently has more than 650 users, and Durham’s near-term goals are to grow Build-A-Bookie to 5,000 users while establishing a sustainable revenue stream through partnerships and advanced user subscriptions. Long term, he hopes the platform can become both a social competition hub and a place where users and leagues can track stats in an accessible manner.
“I’d love for it to become a one-stop shop for people who enjoy gambling but don’t want to lose money,” Durham said. “At the same time, I want it to feel like an ESPN profile for the average person.”
