888 Sport
888.com's Sports Betting Responsive Platform.
2019
Introduction
Launched in 2008, 888sport provides online sports betting primarily in European markets. There are numerous sporting events available for placing bets. I was part of a project to redesign the 888sport experience due to low user engagement.
My role
I collaborated with another designer in my team on UIX design, we worked alongside with two PMs and the R&D team.
Project duration
8 Months
The problem
From the time 888sport was launched, it had been operated by a third-party provider of sportsbooks betting data, technology solutions, and a user interface. Therefore, new feature requests were stuck in the third-party operator funnel and took a long time to be released. Additionally, the UI was very generic and outdated, and very similar to that of competitors using the same platform. Users also complained about poor UX, such as frustrating navigation, performance issues, and lack of critical information (that our competitors do provide).
The old platform
The solution
Providing our users with an enhanced experience. An experience that enables them to gamble in the shortest amount of time by simply clicking a button.
This is what we did:
Disconnect from the third-party operator
To improve performance and time to market, we rewrote the code to create our own platform
Improved mobile UX
It was difficult to navigate the mobile app due to tile-structured components that require endless scrolling to view events. We changed the behavior to side-scrolling
Redesigned the UI
Created a polished, professional look and feel that aligns with the company's unified product framework
Added valuable features
We lacked some critical information like live sports events and horse racing data that our competitors provided for betting
Research
Market state:
“The global sports betting market was valued at around $104.31 billion in 2017 and is expected to reach approximately $155.49 billion by 2024. 888holdings is one of the major contributors to the rise.”
- gambling.com
888sport compared to competitors
Ladbrokes, William Hil
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Traditional
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Interface cluttered / can be confusing
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Slow experience
888sport
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Less specialist than those leading the pack, but modern and relevant
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Associations with Casino /Poker
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Simple user experience compared to other brands
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Can be slow / lag
Betfair, PP, bet365
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Modern interface
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Speedy experience
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Good odds
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Can be complex for infrequent bettors
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Innovative – create your own bet
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Paddy Power injects fun into the pack
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Bet 365 feels the most popular and salient
UI design
Currently, we are developing a design system. Ultimately, it is the 888sport experience redesign that became the basis for the design system. The work on the online betting platform was also part of another project I am working on, which is a unified wrapper for 888's many markets.
Colors
Yellow is used for information regarding money (e.g.- cashier and “deposit” CTAs) and to emphasis important data. Orange is associated with our sports brand (when green and blue for casino and poker respectively).
The dark colors that accompany 888's flagship products represent the true casino experience, which takes place mostly at night, in spaces where time tends to disappear.
Fonts
The 888 font was custom made and especially tailored for 888.com for the purpose of strengthening and uniqueness of the brand.
Icons
Icons play a very important role as there are dozens of sports types, they help identify and discern.
The final product
A responsive web platform has been designed. At the same time, it reflects premium nature while exemplifying simplicity. The goal of the project was to create an easier, simpler, and extremely inviting experience for users looking to place bets.
Main screen
This is the platform's main screen. It contains various components of sports types with variant options to place a bet easily and quickly.
Inner screen | "Live right now"
The screen below is a drill down to one of the components, "LIVE RIGHT NOW". It focuses on sports events that are currently accruing, and the data is updated dynamically.
Inner screen | "Horse races"
The screen below shows the various horse races that are currently taking place, as well as those that are coming up. Based on the race's conduct, the odds data changes dynamically.
User testing
We conducted qualitative research with three groups of six 888sports and competitors' users of varying ages (25-34, 35-44) and locations (the UK and Spain). The user interviews provided us with interesting insights into the user mindset.
Overall, redesign was well liked with a few potential areas for improvement. Common words used to describe it: clean, simple, modern, smart, slick, bold.
It appeals strongly to 888 VIPs and to younger users.
“It looks more up to date. You can see they have focused a lot more on the UX design…”
-Younger 888sport user
These are a few of the comments we got:
Users asked for personalization in choosing teams, sports types and odds format.
How did we help them:
Added the odds format feature.
Added a new feature called “MY FAVORITES” to allow users to choose teams to follow and get noted on when these teams play. This will make it possible to immediately place a bet on your favorite team.
The feature will present maximum amount of results (8) and allow smooth scrolling.
Once the user chose a team, event cards are presented.
888sports post-launch statistics
12.5%
Increase in conversions
30%
Increase in Sportsbook's overall KPIs
40%
Growth in registrations
25%
Increase in users who deposit immediately
after registering
What is next
We redesigned and tested the main platform screen as the MVP. A few months later, the company has decided to acquire an existing sports betting platform for £15 million. The reason for the acquisition was to strengthen 888’s product and technology capabilities and to support the long-term development strategy for 888Sport.
The new platform is currently live in our UK market and will scale to more markets within the coming year.
Quantitative research was done by our marketing department who conducted a survey of 9000 users.
These are some of the results highlights:
New UI
“This looks really good. I might go ahead and get the laptop out for this…”
"Looks like a soft version of bet365”
Loading speed
Horse racing
"This looks great. You can see all the meetings coming up, that’s really good"
“I’m happy to see the trainer and form, as well as the jockey“
UX Ease of placing a bet
Takeaways
While working on the redesign, I was very interested to learn about the nature and characteristics of the users (Sports bettors). Although they are mostly male, I was surprised to learn there are more women than I expected. Many of the users are sports enthusiasts, tech-savvy, and have been interested in it since they were children, going to games or racing with their families. It holds great sentimental value for some.