Kicks. The intuitive sportsbook

Traditional sports betting products will struggle to engage newer generations of sports fans. Kicks makes sports betting more intuitive, fun and social.

Role: Project Lead, Design Lead

Team: Gianni Selvaggi (Producer), Noel Zahra (Design)

Overview

Through a determination to re-invent online casino, Casumo established a set of principles that define how we approach product innovation. These include:

• Make products more accessible, less complicated, more welcoming • Find a long term competitive advantage • Design for emotion

We believe these principles are transferable to other products, and that innovation needs to remain at the core of the company. If we are to transcend into a new category, we need to innovate in multiple areas.

Innovating sportsbook

Sports gambling shares similarities with the traditional online casino space. Both have a legacy of overly complex products that have been slow to react to changes in consumer behavior dynamics. Large bookmakers, with decades of history and brand equity, have found it difficult to pivot and innovate their products to attract new players.

In the UK, around 2.1 million people bet on sports last year. That is a huge number, but compared to 8.2 million ‘avid and active’ soccer fans between 18 - 69, it shows that there is room for growth still. What would happen if we start to consider the 6 million fans who don’t bet? What would happen if we could bridge that gap with something new and inviting for all?

We have always described ourselves as an ‘entertainment platform, that right now does Casino’. By innovating the sports betting experience, we open our brand up to a whole new audience, whilst giving us a new vehicle with which to accelerate away from the traditional gambling space.

Research and context mapping

One of the challenges any sportsbook faces is the sheer breadth of options they offer. The range of sports, events, markets, bet types and selections is huge and creates big challenges in presenting clear and intuitive betting experience. We decided to start with single sport and go from there, in this case soccer, by far the most popular for betting in Europe.

As part of our research phase we ran sessions with a cohort of our audience, engaged fans.

Insights and opportunities were established, such as the following

Emerging themes, takeaways and opportunities

At this point we started to iterate on ideas and directions. I created an experience flow to help us keep focus on the player and business needs.

5-a-side

I liked the metaphor of 5-a-side football over 11-a-side for this sportsbook. 5-a-side is street football, anyone can play. You don’t need any special knowledge of positions or strategy, it’s intuitive and open to all.

I was also really drawn to the idea of a captain and what they represent. Every social group has a ‘captain’ in different contexts; someone who organises events, when to meet etc. My Dad goes to watch football, but only because his friend Paul (the captain) tells him which pub they will be at. It’s a social experience. My Dad wouldn’t watch a Bet365 ad and suddenly put a bet on, but if Paul recommended something they can play together, he’d be up for it.

I wanted to explore how we can leverage these existing social mechanics, with all their pre-existing group chats and channels of communication. If we can empower ‘captains’ to engage with their own communities, how might we trigger a network effect?

I worked on a concept for a social 5-a-side ‘group ACCA’.. 5 bets, 5 players, win and lose together.

Intuitive betting

Our audience respond to casual games: intuitive, fun and rewarding. The traditional bookmaker interface resembles the ‘backend’ of a system. Understanding odds are a barrier for a brand new casual better to overcome. So we explored removing odds, instead showing simply what you will win.

Cards

I also developed a card system to drive engagement. The cards can be used to boost your bets and give you access to a deeper betting experience. Cards are rewarded the more you play, acquired with a virtual currency within the game economy. Each card has 4 levels which give you better boosts as you progress.