Horse-racing betting & gaming
Industrializing two high-traffic mobile apps
Leading mobile development at Europe's horse-racing betting leader: technical excellence across two production apps, automated testing, CI/CD and modernization of the React Native codebase.
- Client
- PMU
- Sector
- Horse-racing betting & gaming
- Role
- React Native Lead Developer
- Period
- January 2024 - present
The scale of the playing field
These public figures describe the platform the engagement took place on, not a result I claim on my own. They show the level of demand of the environment.
€10bn
in annual stakes across all PMU betting (2022), including €9.16bn on horse racing
€802M
paid back to the French horse-racing industry in 2025
13,200
retail outlets in France, on top of the apps
Public figures on PMU's activity. They give the measure of the reliability bar: on a platform of that volume, a regression in the betting or payment flow translates immediately into lost stakes.
Sources: PMU, chiffres 2022 (Wikipédia) · ANJ, bilan du marché des jeux d'argent 2025
The context
PMU runs mobile apps where every incident translates into missed bets. Two apps in production, a React Native codebase several years old, native bridges to maintain, and the reliability bar that comes with platforms handling real money.
The challenge
Modernizing a mature codebase without breaking production, and putting in the guardrails that were missing: automated tests and a reliable deployment pipeline. On a betting app, a production regression is not an option.
What I did
- Set up E2E and unit tests, with GitLab CI/CD and automated deployment
- React Native upgrade and rewrite of the native Kotlin and Swift bridges
- Technical design of User Stories ahead of development
- Pull Request reviews and quality standards for the team
- Development across both fronts: Next.js (React) and React Native apps
Technical stack
The outcome
Two production apps with an automated testing and deployment pipeline, an up-to-date React Native codebase, and native bridges properly rewritten rather than worked around.
What this means for you
A mobile app that works is not the same as a mobile app that is industrialized. If your app runs but every release is a stressful moment, the gap is closed with tests, CI/CD and code standards, exactly what a senior first mobile engineer covers.
First Mobile EngineerA similar need?
30 minutes to look at your situation and tell you honestly how I would approach it, whether you work with me or not.