A bunch of esports nerds disrupting betting entertainment for a new generation of our fellow esports nerds.
A bunch of esports nerds disrupting betting entertainment for a new generation of our fellow esports nerds.
MY ROLE
Design Director
Lead UX/UI
Systems Design
MY ROLE
Design Director
Lead UX/UI
Systems Design
CREATIVE TEAM
Aaron Chartrand - Design
Brad Chong - Design
CREATIVE TEAM
Aaron Chartrand - Design
Brad Chong - Design
PROJECT DATE
2019 - 2024
PROJECT DATE
2019 - 2024
COMPANY
Rivalry
COMPANY
Rivalry
Rivalry was built on authentic love for esports and gaming. No one in the industry understood and respected the culture and community like we did.
Rivalry was built on authentic love for esports and gaming. No one in the industry understood and respected the culture and community like we did.
It all started in a Toronto basement with a simple goal: Build a betting entertainment platform by esports fans, for esports fans. It was easy for us to see this rising demographic of young fans being under served, because we were them.
We had an opportunity, and sought out to build a brand and a product like nothing else. We put passion for gaming and competition before everything else. We threw out the old tired traditions of sports betting and reinvented it for a new generation. We wanted to elevate the esports scene, not exploit it, taking athletes, fans and influencers with us on the ride to the top.
...And just like that 5 years had passed, and our little startup was a publicly traded company with 200 team members across more than 20 countries. We had millions of users. We were sponsoring teams, players and influencers. We were running our own tournaments and fan events, giving back to the scene that gave us so much. I was being invited to speak at the worlds biggest gaming conferences.
It’s incredible what a journey a little passion, creativity, innovation and a lot of hard work take you on.
It all started in a Toronto basement with a simple goal: Build a betting entertainment platform by esports fans, for esports fans. It was easy for us to see this rising demographic of young fans being under served, because we were them.
We had an opportunity, and sought out to build a brand and a product like nothing else. We put passion for gaming and competition before everything else. We threw out the old tired traditions of sports betting and reinvented it for a new generation. We wanted to elevate the esports scene, not exploit it, taking athletes, fans and influencers with us on the ride to the top.
...And just like that 5 years had passed, and our little startup was a publicly traded company with 200 team members across more than 20 countries. We had millions of users. We were sponsoring teams, players and influencers. We were running our own tournaments and fan events, giving back to the scene that gave us so much. I was being invited to speak at the worlds biggest gaming conferences.
It’s incredible what a journey a little passion, creativity, innovation and a lot of hard work take you on.
Design Pillars
Design Pillars
01 Never Be Boring
01 Never Be Boring
This wasn't your daddy’s betting app. Rivalry was, first and foremost, an entertainment company. Our product would be fun to use. It would be memorable and create viral moments. We poured our personality into even the simplest interactions to create a delightful experience.
This wasn't your daddy’s betting app. Rivalry was, first and foremost, an entertainment company. Our product would be fun to use. It would be memorable and create viral moments. We poured our personality into even the simplest interactions to create a delightful experience.
02 Keep It Simple AND Stupid
02 Keep It Simple AND Stupid
Building for new players let us ditch all the ancient gambling tropes, terms and patterns that have dragged down online betting since it made it to the internet. We could do things our way, making our product simper, smarter and more intuitive.
Humor was a huge part of the internet culture that defined Rivalry. Stupid fun was the name of the game. While designing a simple Cash Out feature, one of our designers said “These %$!@s are just chickening out of their bets!” which made us all laugh. Suddenly cash out had become Chicken Out.
Building for new players let us ditch all the ancient gambling tropes, terms and patterns that have dragged down online betting since it made it to the internet. We could do things our way, making our product simper, smarter and more intuitive.
Humor was a huge part of the internet culture that defined Rivalry. Stupid fun was the name of the game. While designing a simple Cash Out feature, one of our designers said “These %$!@s are just chickening out of their bets!” which made us all laugh. Suddenly cash out had become Chicken Out.
03 Be the Good Guys
03 Be the Good Guys
We were aware of the risks of mixing gambling and a younger, less experienced demographic. Our goal was to introduce them to betting in a transparent and safe way.
Unlike the vast majority of betting sites, we self imposed strict limits. We build industry leading technology to detect problematic play patterns. We invested heavily in educating our users on how to play responsibly, what to avoid, and even how the internals of betting products worked.
We forbid whales hunting tactics. We preferred a thousand people losing one dollar to 1 person losing a thousand dollars.
We were aware of the risks of mixing gambling and a younger, less experienced demographic. Our goal was to introduce them to betting in a transparent and safe way.
Unlike the vast majority of betting sites, we self imposed strict limits. We build industry leading technology to detect problematic play patterns. We invested heavily in educating our users on how to play responsibly, what to avoid, and even how the internals of betting products worked.
We forbid whales hunting tactics. We preferred a thousand people losing one dollar to 1 person losing a thousand dollars.
A live betting platform is one of the most technically complex products you can build. Turning that complexity into an elegant user experience is a feat.
A live betting platform is one of the most technically complex products you can build. Turning that complexity into an elegant user experience is a feat.
Imagine you have an online store. You sell hundreds of thousands of products. Now imagine each item is only available for a few hours, sometimes minutes, until it’s gone and replaced with a new product. Also imagine that the price of each item changes every second. Add in the fact that your site is regulated and scrutinized at the highest level by government regulators across multiple counties.
This is more or less how a betting platform works. The sheer quantity of data running through the platform at any given time is monumental, and because we're dealing with live sporting events, everything needs to be delivered to the user in precise real time. If a user misses the chance to place a live bet because your platform was a second too slow or too hard to navigate, you failed.
The biggest design challenge was to take this extreme complexity and make it seem simple, fast and elegant to the user. To the user Rivalry seemed so simple, but under it all was a massive effort in UX design, information architecture, data flow optimization, blood, sweat and tears.
Imagine you have an online store. You sell hundreds of thousands of products. Now imagine each item is only available for a few hours, sometimes minutes, until it’s gone and replaced with a new product. Also imagine that the price of each item changes every second. Add in the fact that your site is regulated and scrutinized at the highest level by government regulators across multiple counties.
This is more or less how a betting platform works. The sheer quantity of data running through the platform at any given time is monumental, and because we're dealing with live sporting events, everything needs to be delivered to the user in precise real time. If a user misses the chance to place a live bet because your platform was a second too slow or too hard to navigate, you failed.
The biggest design challenge was to take this extreme complexity and make it seem simple, fast and elegant to the user. To the user Rivalry seemed so simple, but under it all was a massive effort in UX design, information architecture, data flow optimization, blood, sweat and tears.