FanDuel Sportsbook
FanDuel, historically a prominent player in the daily fantasy sports market decided, in 2018, to entered the world of sports betting with their sportsbook application.
Design Manager
ROLE
2 Years
DUration
Native & Web
PLATFORMS
In 2018, sports gambling became a state-regulated industry in the United States, leading to a surge of betting providers eager to enter the market.
FanDuel Initially launched into the market with a white-labeled application, it soon became clear that a building an in house solution would be necessary for long-term scalability and success, giving rise to the 'NxtGen' project.
The challenge
In 2018 the US sports betting market is still in its infancy, with a wide range of potential users. This ranged from complete novices to seasoned bettors who had bet through illegal bookies or offshore books.
Technically the application needed to be highly adaptable to accommodate state-specific regulations, responsible gaming requirements, live streaming, stats and scoring across 16 different sports. Moreover, content needed to be highly flexible based on the sporting calendar and available promotions. Speed and efficiency were also critical, as delays in tasks like deposit/withdraw, bet placement, and cash-out could drive users to competing platforms.
The Goal
Rather than completely reimagining the existing white labelled app, our objective was to implement incremental improvements which addressed key customer pain points. Furthermore their was a need to align FanDuel's product with its parent company's (Flutter) tech stack. This would unlock several feature sets which would further differentiate ourselves in the market. Finally transition the product from a wrapped web app to a fully native react application. Unlocking further native capabilities such as Apple Pay, Face ID, etc.
Discovery, Design & Iteration
To begin with the team began by working with product and technical team leaders to prioritise features and implementation timelines. With an existing application as a foundation, the team had a bank of existing quantitative and qualitative data to inform design directions. This was largely in the form of existing moderated/unmoderated research sessions and platform analytics.
We started by breaking down the app's core functionality and addressing each aspect through iterative workshopping, low-fidelity design work, and rapid testing for validation. This process was repeated for each feature set, using learnings from analytics and prior research to inform our design decisions. Designs were constantly validated through moderated or unmoderated (via Maze) testing sessions with customers. Alternatively an A/B test could be run on existing live site to test performance.
Once a design was finalised, it was documented preseneted and handed off to the delivery managers and engineering teams for implementation. Any alterations that were required from these discussions were made and of course revalidated with customers.
THE Outcome
Following its release, the new app garnered positive feedback for its smooth, user-friendly interface. Multiple rounds of pre- and post-launch testing confirmed that the improved implementation significantly enhanced the user experience. The updated FanDuel sports betting app now serves as a solid foundation for future growth, with exciting new features on the horizon!
