Social Betting

 

Client

Sky Games / Infinity Works

Overview

In 2017 Sky Bet signed up two new start-up businesses following the conclusion of the Yorkshire-based operator’s inaugural ‘CoLab’ incubator programme. While the business invested externally, they used the same process to explore internal innovate ideas.

The idea of Social Betting or ‘Group Bets’ came through the internal CoLab. Through an initial discovery we tested the idea with customers and found that a large number were already doing this with their friends — either physically when together or digitally through messenger apps (Whatsapp/Messenger).

We established that we could address a large number of pain points through Group Bets — essentially taking a behaviour that already exists and creating an experience that satisfies customers needs by simplifying that activity for them.

The idea researched very well with 30% of our base ‘Group Betting’ in some fashion, often done remotely through messenger services.

Group Bets was green lighted with an initial investment backing a first phase. Andrew Evans, Principle Product Owner, formed a small team, which included myself to tackle the discovery phase.

 

Core Responsibilities:

The core team consisted of myself as lead designer, a solutions architect, analyst, product manager and a 3rd Party for development (Infinity Works). This being my very first project for SBG.

  • Discovery: Deep dive into research, findings, data and competitor analysis / canvas session and initial collaboration with stakeholders

  • Journey maps & low fidelity concepts / internal testing 

  • Early med-high fed design feedback (with key stakeholders)

  • Prototype review / validation & testing. Peer & stakeholder reviews 

  • Comprehensive development involvement followed by a technical handover

  • Breakdown of components, annotated and elaborated. Designs in Zeplin, fully guided with multiple viewports considered

  • Working prototype to show interaction and / or animation. This could be in the form of a video with notes to explain the scenario

  • Assets supplied to Development with daily support via stand up or Slack 

  • Work with Product and Analytics to incrementally release and learn from each new feature

 

Early Progress:

  • June 2018 first release was launched

  • Full launch August 2018 via Infinity works

  • Tech limitations meant we couldn’t sync the wallet.

  • Progressed without syndication for MVP

Social Reaction:

  • Early engagement was positive

  • Viral in the betting community. Form & self deprecation playing a big factor

  • Validated the assumption that gamifying the experience would increase engagement in the product

 

Impact/Development Pause

After initial release the product was well received, delivering positive revenue impact, but not meeting all customer needs / expectations:

  • Commercial impact was positive. Average incremental margin impact of £2.36M on existing customers

  • Customers active since 1st Jan scored product 7.8 / 10 via feedback / sentiment reports

  • 240,000 users visited Group Bets since 1st Jan, but only 70,000 active since 1st March

  • Struggled to fulfil all customer requests within 3 month development period

  • Fun, socialisation and competitiveness are stand out reasons for enjoying the product

  • Difficulty organising the Bet, lack of markets, lack of form, no syndication were the biggest customer frustrations

Project paused due to lack of reinvestment with a view to pick back up and address pain points and opportunities at a later date.

 

Phase 2

Since the initial development pause, SBG decided to pick back up the Group Bets initiative in early 2022. It has the potential to be both unique in the Betting industry, but also to provide a standout user experience that becomes wholly relevant to the groups, their communities and conversations.

Part of that is delivering what the customers want:

  • User form and stats

  • More markets

  • Syndicate betting

  • More sports

  • Simplified architecture

Create a unique experience

  • A key psychological driver is community and collaboration

  • We’re all social animals. We love multi-player games, group activities and gamified experiences

Ecosystem of the product fits with users behaviours

  • Put the users conversation at the heart of Group Bets, use gamification tools to drive engagement and build that sense of fun, banter etc.

  • Simplify the user journeys with appropriate level of on boarding and in product support

  • More deeply integrated in to the Bet and FTP products (and vice versa)

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