TIMOTHY LI
•
PRODUCT DESIGNER
A LITTLE BIT OF CONTEXT...
For around a decade, sports fans looked to
theScore’s sports media mobile app to get their favourite teams' latest news and scores.
In fact, there was a growing trend within our public chat of betting being one of the most frequent topics of conversation, despite being technically illegal in Ontario.
Through our client calls, fans frequently shared that they rely on theScore to research what to bet on, and place those bets using grey market operators such as
Bet365 and
Sports Interaction.
⚠️ Client problem
Our client experience a disjointed betting experience, using our sports media app for research, and a competitor app for placing bets.
In 2019, the province of Ontario began the groundwork on legalizing sports betting within the province, and it has already been legalized in certain states in the United states.
To illustrate the potential:
In September 2018, the state of New Jersey alone generated 24 million USD in revenue in sports betting (
source)In the first year of legalization in Ontario, the expected gross revenue generated was around a billion CAD
(source)With strong client demand and a large untapped market in sight, launching a sports betting product became a core focus in defining the next phase of the company.
SO, HOW DID WE GET THERE?
Traditionally, the sports betting industry has treated the fan experience as an afterthought. Imagine if an online poker site or slot machine at a casino had been dropped onto your phone.
Prepare your eyes:
Yikes.
But – this is a great opportunity! We already have a great foundation with our sports media app's experience to build off of:
This is what our existing fans (and potential bettors) expected of us.
For the MVP, we looked at existing players in the market, engaged clients on their feedback along the way, and shipped a product that met key expectations while setting ourselves up for future evolutions.
It was all about speed and quality, after all.
🎯 Goal
Build and launch an MVP of a sports betting app in 9 months.
📏 What does success look like?
Take a lead in market penetration against 13 other operators.
Partnering with my design lead, 2 product managers, 6 frontend engineers, and 4 backend engineers to develop an MVP.
Establishing the core flow
With the need to move to market quickly, we leveraged the tried and true core experiences in other sports betting apps.
In fact, it’s quite similar to online shopping:
With the core flow defined, we gained clarity of the scope to work within before progressing into higher fidelity.
Referencing our competition (in this case Bet365) again, we were able to visualize the skeleton of our core screens.
How a fan explored potential outcomes and the likelihood of said outcomes.
Adding to cart and checking out
How a fan could add bets to their betslip, pick the amount of money to bet, and placing their bet.
Like tracking the performance of stocks, a fan can also track how their bets are performing as games happen live.
This achieved three things:
- Unlocked our engineering teams to work on data modelling and explore reusable UI components
- Provided stakeholders a clearer vision of the product going to market
- Supported our product and engineering teams to plan more accurate timelines
With wireframes in place, we felt confident in moving to higher fidelity.
WHAT DID WE END UP BUILDING?
With client experience being an afterthought in this industry, trust is a huge factor in user adoption and key to our success. From the start, we defined a few principles to guide our design along the way.
Rely on operating system (iOS and Android) conventions where possible vs being inventive.
Rather than excess like our competition, we wanted to help clients focus on getting their bets placed smoothly.
Repurpose or iterate on UI components from our sports media app to ease adoption and simplify development.
Let’s put it to an example:
You’re a huge Lebron James fan, and feel pretty confident that his team (the Los Angeles Lakers) will win the game tonight against the Washington Wizards tonight.
Browsing
Adding to cart and checking out
User taps on the button to select a LA Lakers victory
Their selection is added to their betslip (shopping cart), selects their bet amount ($1), and places their bet
Their bet is placed!
You tap on the button to select a LA Lakers victory with -420 odds.
Your selection is added to your betslip (shopping cart) along with your bet amount ($1) with a likelihood of winning $1.24.
Your bet is placed!
Tracking
Like tracking the performance of stocks, a fan can also track how their bets are performing as the games happen live.
While the game is on, the fan is following along
How it all comes together:
And guess what, the LA Lakers did win! Now you’re $2.38 richer (cha-ching 💰!), and happier that your team was on the winning end.
📈 Initial Results
- Led the market with 35% of downloads over first 2 weeks of legalization in Ontario (source)
- 73% of total bets placed by clients who use the sports media app in Q3 of 2023 (source)
To tie back to what success looked like at the outset, we were able to reach our goal.
📏 What does success look like?
✅ Take a lead in market penetration against 13 other operators.
That’s it for now.
Reach out if you'd like to learn more!
GOT MORE TIME?
2023 - 2024
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How did we turn a contribution-based product into a payment-based service?
