William Hill
Feature: Live Scores
Overview
William Hill is a global betting company headquartered in London, England. In 2018 PASPA was overturned in the U.S.A. allowing states to approve or deny sports gambling. Since then, William Hill has operated in New Jersey as a digital tech hub offering online sports betting in Sports Books and mobile apps.
Lives Scores is a feature that will enhance the online in-play sports betting experience. This feature was introduced to increase revenue and interaction with the app and its users after a gaming event has begun.
In-Play in this context means during a gaming event.
Tools
Sketch, Invision
skills
Research, Wire-framing, UI Design, Usability Testing
breakdown
Team Size: 8
2 Back-end Engineer, 2 Front-End Engineeers, 1 Mobile Engineer, 1 Business Analyst, 1 QA, 1 UX Designer (myself)
Design timeline: 6 weeks
Problem Area
William Hill knows that each day that goes by they will lose money if they don’t implement features that will enhance the betting experience on their mobile app.
Currently user engagement with the William Hill app is limited. Before an event (game) begins, users are only given the time an event will start and the match-up. The app does not provide any other information. Once the event begins, unless the user is following the event on some external media, the app does not provide any other information regarding the event.
Having additional data points could encourage users to interact with the app while the event is ongoing. In order to improve user engagement, William Hill must add new features that will encourage the user to engage with the app.
Target Users
- Potential users who have never placed a bet before
- Current users that place bets before a gaming event has begun
- Users who place bets on other sport betting apps
This is the interface that a sport bettor would see when looking at the William Hill app before and during a game.
Digging deep
For a better understanding of what this could be, I conducted ethnographic research with users of sports betting apps. I asked the interviewees about the big four sports:
- Football
- Basketball
- Baseball
- Hockey
They identified data points that might influence what bet they would place for each sport. I used the information gathered to further run a user survey with people that watch sports but have not placed a bet before. This helped to shape what information I thought necessary to include in the feature. I also analyzed API documentation from our vendor that returns live scoring updates during sporting events.
Competitors
As I gathered information from surveys and interviews, I analyzed the competing apps to learn what additional features they offered and how they were implemented. This was my opportunity to set the William Hill app apart from the competition.
Solution
After completing my research and learning what competitors both local and international were doing, I was able decide on what elements to use in the interface. I wanted the William Hill app to offer data points that were not available in other apps.
Sketches
Working through ideas
I explored many ways we could display the new elements on the screen. I looked at how sports scores were presented on television screens and other online media. This helped to shaped the design. Below are a few versions I tested.
Final Outcome
This is a pre-event hockey screen. I found it useful to include statistical information that might assist bettors when deciding which team they might bet on. The screen now indicates each teams’ Wins, Losses and Overtime Losses after a tie score in regulation time.
When a hockey event transitioned to Live, I included many indicators to keep the bettor well informed of what was happening on the ice. This included:
- The period
- Time left in the period
- If the goal keeper’s net was empty
- If the game was in overtime
- If the game went to a shootout
As for baseball, live-betting users will be able to see:
- The inning
- Whether it’s the top or bottom of the inning
- Balls, strikes, and outs
- Runners on base
- Current batter
In baseball, knowing who will be the opening pitcher can greatly impact how a person bets. Therefore, I included it as a pre-event data point. I also thought it would be nice to know, depending on the user’s location, what TV station they could find the game.
Football season is the busiest time of year, so as it approached, we wanted to include all necessary information. I was able to pull in a few elements for the pre-game screens.
- TV station the game will air
- Match standing
- Weather conditions
Closing
Working on this feature through the lens of a first-time bettor was advantage. As I had no prior experience with online sports betting, I not only attempted to answer the question that potential users would have but also those that I would have posed as a first-time user.
This feature is being rolled out in stages. Partial launch date: 11/06/2019
- Adding logos for NBA and NHL
As this project matures some of the UI elements including, typography, iconography and colors will be updated.
Closing
This feature will be rolled out in stages based on when the various pieces are connected. Depending on the feedback, we’ll determine how the interface will be updated post launch to better serve our users.