"Every Grand National, someone in my group chat ends up running the sweepstake on a spreadsheet, chasing people for a fiver. It's a complete nightmare. I wanted something anyone could use — your nan, your boss, your whole WhatsApp group — with no money changing hands and no faff whatsoever."
The Story
SquadGames didn't come from a boardroom or a startup pitch deck. It came from a WhatsApp group and a very annoying spreadsheet.
Darryll Wolloff is a self-taught developer from Bourne End, Buckinghamshire. At 47, with two kids and a full life outside of code, he builds apps in the evenings and at weekends — the way most good things get made.
Before SquadGames, Darryll spent six years building BetSquad, a real-money sports betting platform. It worked. It grew. And somewhere along the way he realised that the most fun people were having wasn't with the money — it was with the banter, the group chats, the shared experience of watching sport together and having a stake in the outcome.
So he stripped everything back. No real money. No bookmaker integrations. No compliance headaches. Just the bit that was actually fun: getting your mates in a squad, drawing horses, and seeing who wins.
SquadGames went from first line of code to live on the App Store and Google Play in three to four months of evenings and weekends. The Grand National — the race that inspired the original idea — is the first event. The World Cup 2026 is next.
How We Got Here
Why It's Free
SquadGames is free because sweepstakes should be. The whole point is that anyone can join — the person in the office who never bets, your mum, your kids. The moment you add an entry fee or a paywall, half the group drops out and the fun evaporates.
The app is supported by unobtrusive ads. That's it. No subscription, no in-app purchases, no hidden fees. If you want to support the project, just tell your mates about it.
Try the App Darryll Built
Free Grand National sweepstake for you and your squad. Takes two minutes to set up.
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