Odds Portal

Understanding Users

Before starting the design process, I needed to better understand the users' context. My focus was to understand the profile of Odds Portal users and the challenges they face.

I decided to conduct secondary research taking into consideration the project deadline. Furthermore, I looked for all types of online content that would help me understand the language used in the world of sports betting, considering that this was the biggest challenge I faced at this initial stage.

Research Results

According to research carried out by FSGA, 80% of the audience is male and 20% female. Furthermore, 50% are between 18 and 34 years old (the average age is 38.1 years old).

In another survey, carried out by the SBA, it was reported that only 1% of respondents spend less than 15 minutes researching and evaluating all the events they bet on, however, 36.9% spend only between 15 and 30 minutes and 15.3% they spend more than an hour researching before betting.

Although most bettors don't worry as much about the outcome of their bets, those who bet the most money also spend significantly more time preparing their bets. More than half (52.9%) of those who bet more than $5,000 per month spend more than an hour researching every event they bet on.

Insights

The target audience for betting sites is men between 18 and 34 years old.

The interest in understanding the world of sports betting is directly linked to how much a person bets.

The vast majority of bettors use data and statistics to inform their bets, however, this data is not researched for every bet they make.

Benchmarking

To learn more about the market, I analyzed several competitors to understand the most common features they offer and their differences. I looked for references for sports odds and betting products.

I especially looked at OddsChecker and Draftkings. Two of the most influential products in the sports betting market and which are ahead of their competitors in terms of design.

In addition to this analysis, OddsChecker underwent a redesign in 2019 that is well documented in a case study on Medium. This served as a reference for pain and insights for a product similar to Odds Portal.

Insights

The products offer ways to place bets in 2 to 3 clicks (if you have already logged in/created a profile).

All competitors have complex interfaces, with a lot of information. However, the best competitors have clear information architectures with pages dedicated to each type of content (results, tables, leagues, etc.) just a click away.

Popular games and leagues are prioritized on the home screen.

The CTAs for placing bets are clear, but they are generally not integrated with sportsbooks, meaning that the user needs to go to other sites to place their bets.

The ability to continue browsing and add what I want to bet on allows me to find the best site for betting together, and not just each individual bet.

Users looking for a sports odds comparison portal want to compare odds between operators.

Tree of Opportunities

Due to the open scope of the project and resource limitations, I chose to create an opportunity tree. This framework is a tool that visually represents the link between three essential elements of discovery and development: results, opportunities and solutions.

By using this approach to mapping opportunities, I was able to maximize resources and produce ideas that directly hit Odds Portal's pocket.

Hypotheses and Experiments

Vocabulary

One of the biggest difficulties I faced at the beginning of this challenge was understanding the language of the sports betting universe, mainly because there is a big difference between terms depending on the country of origin of whoever created the product.

Because of this, I sought to incorporate a more common vocabulary, facilitating the user's learning curve, if they come with experience of a competing product. Furthermore, good copy is capable of reducing the cognitive load that the user would have to spend to understand how the product works.

Glossary

As mentioned in the previous experiment proposal, a major problem for the adoption of new users is the need for a specific vocabulary for the world of sports betting. Searching for a glossary of terms was essential at the beginning of my research.

To my surprise, few of our competitors have anything similar. This usually means two possibilities, either competitors have already tested and this experiment failed, or this is an opportunity that has not yet been explored. In any case, this is an action that consumes few resources and can bring constant returns in the long term.

Newsletter

Newsletters are extremely important for maintaining an audience. But beyond that, it is essential for the education of our audience and our positioning as experts on the subject, considering that according to the survey carried out by Hot Papers Lanterns, 47% of respondents defined brand reputation/trust as essential when choosing a sportsbook and 35% defined specialized content as a determinant, and although our product is not a sportsbook we are directly linked to this market.

Tips

This is the last experiment in our opportunity tree with the aim of positioning ourselves as experts in sports betting. In addition to influencing the formation of new users who are on the path to becoming possible “mobile game whales”, we were also able to impact the product's SEO with this low-cost action.

News & Top Sportsbooks

The only way to increase organic access is to improve our SEO. This is a long-term process, but it can bring a huge positive impact on leads and improve our ROI. Improving our SEO is the best long-term strategy, however, Google's algorithm changes annually and requires strategic changes to remain well ranked.

In addition to articles, having a list of sportsbooks can help us rank in searches that wouldn't necessarily be for Odds Portal, and it can help us create a brand presence by association.

Affiliate Ads

Affiliate ads are a great way to make direct sales while maintaining our visual identity. Currently, the Odds Portal home page has advertisements that are not so disruptive, but break up the user experience with a standard appearance in the advertising market.

The use of affiliate ads can be very positive for the product, promoting offers that are truly valuable to our users and providing qualified leads for the affiliate.

Modern & Charming UI

According to the previously cited research from Hot Paper Lanterns, a top-notch product/experience and brand reputation/trust are essential in the sports betting market. The Odds Portals interface is old-fashioned and appears to be a product stuck in time, despite having very interesting features for its users.

In addition to an unattractive interface, the Odds Portal UI is confusing and provides little information for beginners in the world of sports betting.

To remedy these pains, a complete redesign was necessary to focus on creating a modern, intuitive interface that would bring a sparkle to our users' eyes.

Final Design

The final product of this redesign was a dark theme interface, taking advantage of all the advantages it can offer. Dark themes are preferred by many users as we can see in this survey, almost 85% of respondents opt for this option.

However, not just an interface redesign was necessary. It was necessary to rework the Odds Portal logo so that it matched the new visual identity adopted, elegant and impactful.

Next Steps

I had to dedicate a lot of time to understand how sports betting lovers behave and who they are, and yet, there is a lot more to learn to produce something really impactful in the daily lives of these users.

Some experiments had to be left aside due to lack of resources or simply because they were beyond the power of execution on a prototype, such as the presentation of teams based on users' geolocation, but, when it comes to improving this experience even further, these would be some of the next steps:

• Add tooltips to the platform to facilitate the entry of new users into the world of sports betting;

• Non-intrusive onboarding of new users and features;

• Video session for users who need more didactic content that textual guides cannot provide;

• Create team analysis content and rank them based on their results;

• Use an algorithm to display on the homepage the teams that the user usually bets on;

• Present teams based on the user's geolocation;

• Have a section where the bet button leads directly to the bookmaker, and not to the betslip.