SportsBroker
How I helped SportsBroker improve retention & designed two sport–prediction games.
Research
Prototyping
UI Design
Leadership
Overview
I joined SportsBroker in autumn 2024. I helped design and develop two new sport-prediction games. I was responsible for the design strategy. I managed a team of three designers and facilitated cooperation with external research and marketing agencies.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Years
2024 — 2026
Type
Full Time
Team
Product Manager, Product Designer, Graphic Designer, Frontend & Backend Developers
Tools
Figma, Framer, Replit, Midjourney
The Challange
Product & Company Overview
SportsBroker is a UK-based betting company that wanted to disrupt the betting scene, which traditionally revolved around the fact that it’s user vs. bookie. What we wanted to achieve was based on pool-betting mechanics, where all users contribute to the pool and the pool is shared equally among the winners. By injecting social aspects like inviting your friends and sharing bets, we wanted to empower this even more.
Bussines Problem
The UK betting scene is very competitive, with a few huge operators. Small players have to fight for every user, and SportsBroker was no different. When I joined, they struggled with churn and a limited offer.
User Pain Points
We found in early research with Customer Support that users often jump on the big guaranteed pools, don’t really get how pool betting works, and run into clear usability issues. On top of that, with no retention features, they were leaving for competitors with better offers.
Key Problems
17%
Low retention
33%
Activated accounts to deposits
10+
Usability issues
Discovery
Market Analysis
After analyzing the market, we put together a plan that lined up with our product goals. The industry was clearly ready for something new, so we needed fresh game mechanics to stand out and keep current users interested.
"The online sports betting user interface can be traced back to the paper coupons, and has experienced minimal fundamental change as the industry migrated online and made the switch to mobile. This has been seen as an opportunity for innovation and differentiation."
My Key Findings
UX Innovation
The betting scene needs innovation in UX both in game mechanics and in interaction with the bookie.
Social Betting
As an overall approach, it has strong foundations in the market.
Low Compexity UI
A lack of keeping up with progress in technology left betting interfaces stuck in earlier decades.
"Traditional fixed odds betting is saturated
& stigmatised."
Vision & Requirements
Through various exercises and workshop methodologies like drawing wireframes on a piece of paper during a pub beer meeting, we gathered the initial vision and requirements from market research, the product manager, and the CEO. All of this was translated into a backlog and planned for the design team to deliver.
What I did
1:1 Interviews with Stakeholders
Strategic Workshops
User flows & process
Managed design backlog
Solution
Chapter 1 – Fixing Usability
As the first step immediately after onboarding, I started fixing broken user journeys and resolving usability pain points to make the existing product user-friendly and fully operational. These changes alone improved registration-completion and registration-to-deposit metrics and reduced Customer Support tickets related to navigation issues.
Imidiate Results
23%
More deposit from first time users
0
Support tickets with navigation issues.
I was responsible for:
Usability Audit & Report
Report handoff to the development
Chapter 2 – Reshaping the Offering
Right after stabilizing the product, I focused on two new prediction-based games.
In close cooperation with the Product Manager and other team members, we created the vision, which I translated into wireframes and prototypes.
Riding the AI wave allowed me to utilize many different tools: GPT, Midjourney, but the most useful in our process were vibe-coding tools like Replit, Cursor, or Figma Make, which allowed me to bring product vision to life super fast.
What I did
Wireframes
Prototypes in Replit, Cursor & Figma Make
Facilitated cooperation with branding agency
Delivered end–to–end design solution
Chapter 3 – New Skin (Coming Soon)
We knew the existing user interface had its limits. It was designed for a different purpose, and it was time to refresh it with a new approach in mind.
We wanted it to be bold, engaging, and as immersive as video games.
Another piece of the picture was the new wave of users we wanted to serve — young adults raised on video games, looking for a unique experience.
What I did
UI Design
Microinteractions
Facilitated cooperation with branding agency
Managed team of three
Delivered end–to–end design solution for both games
