Puls

Intelitics: zgodność i UX mogą współistnieć

Allan Stone, CEO of Intelitics, says operators need to take a digital first approach if they are to nail their onboarding journeys and close the growing gap to the industry’s power players.

How important is the user journey and experience when it comes to converting players? Is this an area where operators still have work to do?

It’s critical, and yes, most operators still have a lot of work to do here. The most successful online sportsbooks and casinos are winning because users can complete the sign-up flow with ease. When I sign up for most betting apps, it feels like the book doesn’t actually want my business.

I’m pushed through a five-page registration process with “next buttons” hidden below the fold and no explanation as to why the operator needs my personal information in the first place. Yes, some of this is a necessary evil – operators need to collect SSNs, verify ages and implement responsible gambling checks – but these regulatory requirements are not an excuse for terrible UX.

What’s the difference between a good sign-up flow and a bad one? What are the successful operators getting right?

This is about more than just good v bad – the operators getting this right are taking market share while those that aren’t are losing it, quickly. Nor is this about following regulations or not – it’s about how the requirements are implemented into the sign-up flow.

For example, a poor implementation and flow around the SSN requirement would be the player eventually hitting page five of the sign-up process and it simply saying: “Provide your Social Security Number” with absolutely no context whatsoever.

Good implementation, on the other hand, would say: “We need your SSN to comply with regulations and protect your account. This helps us report winnings and verify your identity”. This isn’t advanced UX theory, this is the basic stuff, but most operators are missing the mark.

Are there any other basic rules that operators should stick to?

Yes, there are. All CTAs must be key above the fold, and it’s imperative to explain WHY you need sensitive information. Operators should also see friction points as an opportunity to build trust, and it goes without saying that the entire process needs to be designed for mobile from the get-go. The biggest myth in this industry is that compliance and good UX can’t co-exist, but they absolutely can, and there are a small number of operators out there that are proving this.

You mention building trust between player and betting brand. Just how important is this, especially for those engaging with online sports betting and casino for the first time?

It’s incredibly important. This will be a tough pill to swallow for some, but the next wave of growth in competitive gaming isn’t going to come from newly regulated states. It’s going to come from digital transition and getting the basics right. Legacy gaming brands don’t need to surrender their digital future to FanDuel or DraftKings, they just need to understand that the reason these two brands dominate is that they are digitally native from birth.

They never operated a bricks and mortar sportsbook or casino – they built everything for digital from day one, and that’s why they have got the jump on their rivals. By being digitally native, and nailing the basics from sign-up to payments and more, they have been able to quickly build trust with players and now dominate the space. If smaller operators want to engage players at scale, they need to take a digital first approach and nail the basics from the get-go.

You said that compliance and UX can co-exist, but this implies that most operators are struggling to strike the balance here. Are regulations and requirements too stringent?

I think they are mostly proportionate, but what I would say is that the wider industry treats some types of innovation as a threat. Right now, there’s a bizarre narrative where disruption automatically equals exploitation – you only need to look at the pushback against sweepstakes, DFS 2.0 and anything blockchain-related to see what I mean.

The knee-jerk reaction to something new and smart is always: “You must be trying to take advantage of consumers”, which is absolutely not the case. This is certainly something we are seeing with AI, where I actually think he real opportunity is to use it for backend processes, compliance automation and operational scaling, which has nothing at all to do with direct consumer engagement.

Just as with my point about UX, the companies that figure out how to navigate regulations while embracing these tools won’t just have an edge, they’ll be playing a completely different game.

Any final thoughts on the subject of compliance and UX?

I’ve been in the real money gaming space a long time now, and one thing still amazes me – 95 per cent of executives in our industry have never tried to sign up for their own product. How do I know this? Because if they did, onboarding flows wouldn’t be so absolutely and unbelievably annoying.

This is why I always suggest having a non-betting friend try to sign up to your brand as their feedback will be brutal and necessary. The onboarding experience is costing operators customers, and many executives don’t even know it.