Competition in the sports betting business is fierce. Since the Supreme Court made its landmark decision in 2018 to allow states to control legislation, it has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. The sportsbooks all want a major piece of that action.
With so much sports betting now taking place online, a well-designed site and mobile app is vital. All the biggest and most successful betting firms know how important the look of a site is – and any Bovada review will include a section about the user experience. But what kind of design aspects do betting sites have to think about most? Read on to find out.
First Impressions
It is obviously true for all businesses but betting sites absolutely have to attract customers with the very first thing they see. There is no point in having the biggest welcome offers and best betting markets if a potential customer is turned off by a terrible homepage.
The website is now the initial point of contact for most customers, so it has to be easy to use and pleasing to the eye. This can sometimes be difficult to achieve, as betting sites also need to offer a lot of information immediately. The best sportsbooks are able to strike the perfect balance here.
Mobile Friendly
Mobile devices are where many people access their favorite sites these days. But for online sportsbooks it is not just a case of making their product mobile-friendly – the app needs to be extremely user-friendly and still completely usable even though the screen will invariably be much smaller.
Betting apps have totally revolutionized the gambling industry and it is rare to find a successful sportsbook that doesn’t push its customers to mobile now. That is why there is so much work done on the design of betting apps. If anything, this is one area of business that the betting industry leads the way on.
User Interfaces
Sportsbooks may well put a lot of time into designing the look of their sites and apps. But it is the user interface where the real work is done. Betting sites simply won’t exist if the customer is unable to place a bet successfully and quickly. Developing the software to make this happen is therefore crucial.
With so many betting markets and opportunities offered every single minute, sportsbooks cannot afford for their sites not to be able to take a high volume of business at any given time. Response times have to be lightning fast or people will look elsewhere.
Aesthetics
If there was little competition in the betting world, this is the one area of site and app design that would probably be lower down on the priority list. Customers would probably forgive a site not looking too pretty as long as they could find their desired market easily and place a bet quickly.
But, as we have already mentioned, there is a lot of competition in the gambling world. Betting sites have to look good and also provide all the information that customers need. Some sportsbooks do this very well and somehow almost achieve a graphically stripped back look that still offers everything bettors want.
UX and Intuitive Design
Sportsbooks rely on the user experience and a lot of that has to include intuitive design. Perhaps more than other businesses, betting firms attract a range of experience when it comes to using the product. The sites and apps therefore have to work for novices and veterans alike.
If a sportsbook can get all of these aspects right then they will be halfway to creating a successful product. There are, of course, the actual betting factors that will ultimately decide their fate. But, with more and more potential customers using online as a first meeting, betting operators know that good design means everything.