Ladbrokes & Coral // In-Store Terminals Research

Ladbrokes & Coral was looking to migrate from the self-service Sportsbetting kiosk solution provided by a 3rd party to their own in-house platform. This is a project that Ladbrokes & Coral had attempted many times over the past decade, but continuously failed. However, two years ago, the decision was made to propel the project with customer insight; therefore, UX Connections were brought on board as the official research partner.

We needed to ensure the new system was on par with, if not better than, the third-party system. This entailed the goal of improving the UX and user journey of the in-house solution, with the vision for it to be industry-leading and surpass the third-party solution with a smoother user experience.

Throughout the project, UX Connections was responsible for research whilst the in-house team focused on the design. The insights we gained were fed back to the design team so that the system could win users’ hearts and minds. To inform the design with precise recommendations, multiple rounds of usability sessions following set user journeys were conducted. A benchmark survey was carried out in 50 shops with GBS and 50 with the third-party solution, alongside expert reviews of the two systems. We scheduled visits shortly after a shop changed over to the new system to have informal recorded interviews with customers, to see how they interacted. As the design was informed by rich customer insights, the in-house system finally met the standards to be rolled out en mass.

53.53% of customers deemed their overall experience on the new system to be ‘Very good’, compared to 48.57% on the third-party system. When compared head to head, the betting experience on the new system was preferred by 48.79% of those asked, with only 18.30% having a preference for the third-party system. Besides, the user journey was improved as customers experienced fewer issues when navigating to a bet, choosing odds and placing a bet. This means that after many failed attempts, Ladbrokes & Coral has achieved their target to build a self-service Sportsbetting terminal that could be commercially on par with the mature, third-party solution.

This is an award-nominated project, receiving a nomination in the category of Best Customer Insight Strategy from the Modern Retail Awards.