Case study · Betfair · 2018–2023
Leading design through a five-year rebuild of the Betfair app
How I led design through a five-year platform rebuild, from making the case to shareholders to a staged, customer-tested rollout, and what customers taught us about what to keep.
The challenge
Betfair’s platform could no longer take new features, so a rebuild was a technical necessity. The business saw a bigger opportunity: to make Betfair a home for sports fans, not just a place to bet, and earn some of the time customers spent in score, stats and club apps.
My role
As Sports Product Design Manager, I led the sports design team, growing it from 6 to 18, and owned design direction for the programme. I presented progress weekly to the Managing Director of Product and monthly to the UK and Ireland CEO.
Where we started · The live Betfair app, 2020
Sportsbook race card 
Exchange market 
Cash out
The approach
Make the case
Our CEO brought back a model from Meta: people use products leaning forward, leaning back or on the go. I used app data to map when customers were in each mode, and led three pitch films that won backing from shareholders and the executive team. At the town hall, the response was “why aren’t we doing this now?”
Design end to end
Workshops with Gaming and Customer teams, and patterns from banking and fintech apps for a clean, trustworthy feel.
Test with real customers
We tested with Betfair customers almost every week from 2018, on a working app on their own phones, then released to groups of customers, pausing whenever results surprised us.
Adapt the strategy
Partway through, new leadership reset the direction: a product closer to the one customers knew, with a refreshed UX and UI and a stable base to build on.
Pitch films · 2017
Testing with customers · 2019
What customers told us
Both prices, one app
Customers liked seeing Sportsbook and Exchange odds side by side, but needed help to find it.
Now I know how to use it I would definitely look for different odds on the Exchange.
The default matters
People bet on whichever side they landed on, so opening on Sportsbook removed friction.
Explainers didn’t teach
Videos made the Exchange feel friendlier but didn’t show people how to use it. Guidance needed to live in the product.
“I think it’s far more user friendly than other apps that I use.”
Key decision
Letting go of the destination idea.
Testing showed customers already had trusted homes for scores and stats, like the Premier League’s own apps. So we dropped videos, ambassador content, feeds and player pages, and kept what worked: the refreshed layouts, with the Betfair yellow used as a deliberate accent.
The brand team pushed back. I ran regular sessions with them and let the test results guide the decision.
Where we landed · The rebuilt Betfair app, 2023
Home 
Today’s Football 
Betslip
Leading the team
Two first-job designers grew to senior and principal. One person left in five years.
I grew the sports design team from 6 to 18, including contractors, with roles from interns to leads. Designers owned key initiatives with my support, and grew through them.
The journey today
The platform we rebuilt is still the one Betfair customers use. This is the same journey, from the home page to the bet slip, as it works in the app now.
Results
- 2020
- The platform we built on was chosen as Flutter’s global sportsbook platform for all its betting brands.
- 4.7 / 5
- For the Betfair Sports app on the UK App Store, from more than 100,000 ratings.
- 18
- Designers in the sports team at peak, up from 6, including contractors.
- 1
- Person who left the team in five years.
- Set the design direction for a shared platform that Sky Bet later moved onto.
- A stable, familiar product to build on, with cleaner layouts and a brand used with purpose.
What I learned
Let customer evidence challenge the vision.
People already had homes for sports content. The win was knowing what to keep.
What I’d do differently
Bring engineering in from the start.
Working more closely with engineering early would have brought the vision and the platform’s limits together sooner.
The Betfair app today
Building a bet
01
Home
Sport shortcuts and a promotion up top, quick links to today’s matches, then popular bet builders.
02
Popular bet builders
Each bet builder shows how many times it’s been backed, and goes on the bet slip in one tap.
03
Featured Football
The day’s big matches with match result prices, grouped by competition, with a market switcher.
04
Form at a glance
Form and league position open under the match, so you can check without leaving the list.
05
Build the bet
Picks collect in a slim bar at the bottom with the running bet and returns, so you keep browsing.
06
The match
OddsBoost, popular picks and bet builder sit at the top of the match page.
07
Bet slip
Multiples and singles side by side, with a stake and returns for each bet.