Pokerstars Sports Horse Racing

case study

ENHANCING HORSE RACING EXPERIENCE ON POKERSTARS SPORTS

overview

Project Name: Optimizing Horse Racing UX on PokerStars Sports
Client/Product: PokerStars Sports (Flutter Entertainment)
Platform: Web & Mobile
Timeline: 10 weeks
Role: Senior UX Designer
Tools: Figma, UserTesting, Optimal Workshop, Miro, GA4, Jira

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Horse racing on PokerStars Sports had lower engagement and retention compared to other sports verticals. Feedback indicated the experience was unintuitive, data-dense, and lacked the excitement users expected when betting on live horse racing.

Key Issues Identified:

Poor visibility of upcoming races
Overwhelming racecards with unclear hierarchy
Inefficient bet placement flow
Lack of personalization for frequent racing bettors
Convoluted and long-winded navigation between races

Research

Objectives:

Understand how users currently navigate the horse racing section
Identify key pain points and opportunities
Benchmark against competitors

Methods:

Analytics Review: Session times, click paths, bounce rates
User Testing: 8 moderated usability tests on desktop & mobile
Interviews: 50+ PokerStars Sports users (panel via UT)
Competitor Audit: Top 5 sportsbooks UX flows

Key Insights:

68% of users said the racecard "felt crowded"
40% dropped off before reaching the betslip
New users struggled to distinguish between "Race Time", "Odds", and "Form"
70% wanted Next Races and Favourites more prominent
Power users missed "My Horses" or personalized tips

insights

1. Stakeholder Interviews

Goal: Understand business goals, technical limitations, and KPIs.
Key Insights:
- Increase engagement time and bet volume in the horse racing vertical.
- Cross-sell racing to users who primarily use poker or casino.
- Simplify betting terminology for casual users.

2. Competitive Analysis

Benchmarked Bet365, Sky Bet, William Hill, and FanDuel Racing.
Identified best-in-class features:
- Live streaming
- Bet slip clarity
- Race time filtering
- Runner form and history
Gaps: Overwhelming data, inconsistent mobile UI, and lack of guidance for new users.

3. User Interviews

Conducted with 8 users: 4 seasoned bettors, 4 casual users
Pain Points:
- “Too much info—I don’t know where to start.”
- “Odds formats are confusing.”
- “I just want to place a quick bet on a race happening soon.”

user JOURNEY

After numerous interviews and feedback I identified the user journeys of the customer experience, and then identified pain points across the journey to highlight areas for improvement of the experience for all users.

(User Journey shown: New user bet placement from tip)

how might we...

I conducted a brainstorming session, reframing the problems and individual design problems.

I started thinking about the recording process, and spent time sparking ideas for possible innovative solutions.

SPECIFIC DESIGN PROBLEMS

After reviewing the 'How Might We' notes, grouping them into associated areas, I broke these down into four main design problem areas, in order to focus the specific design solutions for each.

sketches

The next steps was to each do a 6-up lo-fi sketch using the new user-flow I created. Here quickly incorporating my brainstorming ideas into rough sketches.

lo-fi wireframes & USER FLOW

After sketching out wireframes, I moved into Figma and created lo-fidelity wireframes. Following the user journey map and constructing the user flow.

USER TESTING

I took the lo-fi wireframes and created a series of prototypes, testing our user journeys for navigation and for bet placement, then recorded the results, looking at the pain point, journey-critical elements and any way in which these could be refined to reduce friction and enable a smooth user journey.

DESIGN ITERATION - Improve navigation

After review of the user testing feedback and report analysis, I iterated on the designs and took them through another testing stage. This was specifically within the area of the journey of 'enabling quicker and simpler navigation between races'. I tested three variants of quick navigation components, gauging usability criteria.

Hi-fi design to dev handover

I took the learnings from the user testing sessions to build out the hi-fidelity designs after playing back the design choice rationale to stakeholders. Once completed, I then ran handover sessions to the development team and was involved heavily in UAT, build and deployment stages.

success metrics - HORSE RACING

The HiFi Designs were built and set up as part of an A/B test on the live site in both the incorporation of the improved navigation, silk image integration, individual horse statistical analysis and Each Way resulting clarity explanatory notes.

live a/b test & results

The Horse Racing Improved Experience was run in an A/B test, 50% split in traffic on the live site from February 2021 to August 2021. The results are data pulled from the updated design vs the older design on the UK site only.

21%

Bet Placement increase (total bets placed) across UK cohort

2.2s

Average speed in time reduction of bet placement journey across tracked funnel

£2.6m

Total Revenue increase in 6 month period tested (new design vs old design)

conclusion

The existing solution was very confusing to customers, the navigational journey was long-winded and unclear, the ability to inform themselves of the horses statistical background, all mixed in with the lack of clarity of how Each Way functions and how the bet results and winnings are calculated, all led to a lack of trust and confidence.

Once these issues were addressed and cleared up, the majority of customers found the journey more informed, clearer and therefore the level of trust and confidence increased and alongside that, so did their propensity to convert.