TrueSport - A Sportsbook Casestudy
TrueSport is a case study on the current state of sportsbook desktop experiences. Since sports betting is relatively new, most of these apps went straight to iOS/Android development.
Because of this, the desktop experience is lacking, and there is significant room for improvement in the sportsbook space. This doesn’t cover the entire gamut of a typical sportsbook experience but instead dives into the weeds of common components and interactions.
Overview
Navigation Menus & Homepage Clarity - A Deep Dive
Because of the dramatic increase in screen real estate from a mobile to desktop experience, apps tend to get bloated with information simply because they can. This is especially true for data-driven apps. Let’s start by taking a look at how menus are handled.
FanDuel
Fanduel displays a ton of menu options and 4 distinct menu/ navigation bars. While they group sports into a “favorites” and “all sports” section, this is an excessive amount of options to display on a homepage.
We don’t need to know metrics to make a safe guess that “Darts” receives significantly less interaction than the NFL or the NBA.
“The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.”
-Hick’s Law
While Fanduel thinks giving users every single option possible will encourage users to interact with pages they normally wouldn’t have, it could actually be discouraging exploration instead.
Fanduel is well balanced, but has an exhaustive navigation menu and too many choices.
Caesars
Caesars takes a very similar approach to FanDuel but makes navigation menus even more complicated by adding collapsible accordions. On top of this, many of the options are redundant.
Take MLB for example — from this view the user can access MLB from the top menu bar, the middle-top menu bar, and ALSO from underneath the generic “baseball” collapsible on the left. Combine this redundancy with other sports and you’re left with an overwhelming array of choices.
“Olympics” is another waste of real estate, as the events are 8 months away at the time of this writing. Not only does this distract from other more relevant/current markets, but by adding this menu option all year round, it limits the ability to showcase the Olympics when the time does come near.
Caesars should personalize menu bar options, based on past betting behavior, location, or demographics,
BetMGM
BetMGM is moving in the right direction, as there are fewer competing menus, and “Top Sports” is separated from “A-Z” Sports. Still, the sorting of “Top Sports” is unclear, and attempting to find a specific league requires a few mental hurdles.
BetMGM should prioritize games starting soon, and users’ favorite teams / sports.
Betrivers also moves in the right direction, with “Most Popular” grouped toward the top. Again, the sorting of top sports is unclear, and there is a mixture of leagues with generic sports.
One differentiator of Betrivers that MUST be pointed out is the massive “Newsfeed”. Not only is it huge, but it’s animated with live updates. It functions almost as a stock ticker but for random anonymous bets.
In their mind, BetRivers might think this component functions as some type of social proof, but there simply isn’t enough info for anything positive to come out of it. It merely shows bet sizes, with no mention of the sport, game, or line.
Of all sportsbooks covered, this is the single most unnecessary feature and only serves to distract users from digging into the core of the offerings.
BetRivers
Just because there is space, doesn't mean it needs to be used. Remove unnecessary elements like BetRiver’s “Newsfeed”.
DraftKings has the most legible menu options. The navigation hierarchy is significantly more clear, with “Popular” being displayed more prominently than the other leagues/sports.
Promotions are also much more visible on this homepage than on other competitors because they are not only larger than average but have bright contrasting backgrounds.
DraftKings
Great job of not filling space for the sake of it. Promotions could be even more prominent.
Bet365 is worth mentioning because of how the homepage and navigation are organized. The side menu is broken into 4 sections (Top Events, Popular, Frequently Visited, and Full List). This division might even be too granular, as it’s not immediately evident what the difference between each category is.
Furthermore, their promotions are larger than any other site in this study, and utilize a carousel to swap between them.
Bet365
Bet365 is well organized, but the menu is too subdivided. Is "Frequently Visited" referring to the individual or to users as a whole? In the latter case, wouldn’t that be the same as popular?
Introducing TrueSport
Combining lessons learned from above, TrueSport is a vision developed to showcase what a highly tailored and personalized sports betting experience can be.
Above all else, clarity, personalization, and transparency are the main tenets of TrueSport. While some sportsbooks may intentionally overwhelm their users with dark UX patterns, TrueSport aims to empower its user base and freely provide all the information necessary to have an informed, fun, and responsible sports betting experience.
Many of the websites barely offer a simple search and those that do greatly reduce the component's visibility. Ease of use should always take priority.
Clear and Available Search
All Leagues are still accessible, but the core markets have the most straightforward navigation path. If everything demands attention, nothing does. This area could be personalized if a user is continually interacting with a sport outside of the top leagues.
Concise Menu
This can either be broken up into smaller promotions, or used as a full banner for more important/special occasions.
Highly Visible Promotion Area
Flexible Callouts for Unique Game Attributes
This is an adjustable feature that allows for a wide variety of callouts or flags, depending on the use case for each game. Some ideas are to pinpoint games starting soon, games with fast-moving lines, or games with high levels of activity.
As an option, users could select their favorite teams from across a wide variety of sports and leagues. This component showcases their upcoming games and heavily encourages diving in to discover more.
