Summary

2022 marked a pivotal year for Sports Interaction. The industry was buzzing with competition, with rival brands enticing customers through a multitude of betting features and generous bonuses.

The Challenge

As a product design leader, I found myself facing a significant challenge; how could we stand out and thrive in this cutthroat landscape? With competitors luring customers in with bonuses and piles of features it was tempting to follow suit.

Instead of following the crowd, we made a bold choice. We would play to our core strength and differentiate ourselves by product - offering simplicity and fun in a market crowded with complexity. This is the story of how we maintained Sports Interaction as the go-to brand for recreational bettors in Canada.

The Competitive Landscape

In 2022, the Canadian betting market was flourishing, with a growing acceptance of sports betting as a mainstream recreational activity. This shift in perception brought in a surge of recreational bettors, making them the fastest-growing market segment.

With the availability of betting licences to more providers, the market was flooded with newcomers, eager to cash in on the action. These newcomers all took a similar approach – push the variety of features and offer big bonuses in the hope that these would be paid back in time.

There was a fierce race to capture the newly bought-in Canadian bettors. Ontario was bombarded with advertising. The pressure was on us to respond.

We knew that simply replicating what others were doing wouldn’t set us apart. We needed to emphasise our unique identity in this highly competitive arena.

Our Unique Value Proposition

We had for many years grown in confidence as a brand. Our strategy had always been to put the customer first and Product Design had taken a leading role in the strategic roadmap. We had always prided ourselves on providing the easiest and most user-friendly betting platform. We understood that not all bettors were seasoned professionals, in fact, most Canadian bettors were casual fans looking to enhance their sports-watching experience with a little extra thrill. For many, this was their first venture into the world of betting and we aimed to make it as welcoming and enjoyable as possible.

We would play to our strengths – we were a Canadian brand who knew Canadians. We had a Product Design team who were invested in the market and in the business as well as the quality of the product.

The Power of Simplicity

Here are some things we focused on:

Remove Friction from the Signup to Deposit Process.

We conducted user research to identify pain points and areas where we could enhance the experience. We watched users interacting with our existing forms on desktop and on mobile. Their pain was our pain. Through iterative design and development we increased sign-up and deposit success rate.

Streamlined Betting

Any steps we could remove from first landing on the site to betting would greatly enhance the user experience. We included sports and leagues in our main menu while others were asking customers to wade through pages of menu content. We cut out any betting jargon we could. The less learning, the more fun.