Problem: DFS Feels Broken
In the current DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports) landscape, no platform offers an environment where friends can play as a team, instead, they are all individually pit against one another or the house. Friends excitedly discuss sports, picks, and outcomes in group chats, creating social workarounds due to the lack of a way to harness this camaraderie. When users are compelled to compete against each other or the house, it undermines the natural team spirit that sports embody. This oversight leaves untapped potential in DFS gameplay and relegates users to isolated participation in an arena that should celebrate camaraderie and team spirit.
Solution: Propellor Sports Company— DFS With a Twist
Create a DFS space that meets sports fans where they already are—in existing groups of friends discussing strategy, sports culture, picks, wins, and losses. Celebrate their organic dynamic, incentivize their team's success, and restore the camaraderie to sports fan participation.
User
Demographic
The target is 50M 21-42 yr old sports fans in the US, 30% Gen Z and 70% Millennial.
53% of Gen Z bet on sports with friends and family, while the number of Millennials (34%) is increasing daily. 70% of these users will watch an entire game only if they've bet on it, compared to only 48% of those who haven't.
Key Interview Insights
76% of participants find their positive fandom experience is heightened, or purely due to the immediate circle of friends or family they engage in sports with.
84% of current DFS users interviewed resort to external methods of communication (e.g. Imessage group chats) to engage with their immediate circle on stats, picks, rivalries in the friend group, etc.
Market Environment
The market for online sports betting alone is expected to grow from $85 billion in 2024 to $233.6 billion by 2034, highlighting the significant shift towards digital platforms and the convenience they offer.
All existing platforms, DFS or otherwise, are player vs. player or player vs. house.
Many market themselves as "social", which in this case means following what bets another user is making (usually an influencer) so you can make the same one yourself, or "talking trash" to your competitors in their chat rooms.
The main draws for user acquisition are spending promos (first $100 bet on us) or deals on certain player markets.
Takeaways
The anticipated growth in the sports betting industry is huge, and there is little to no innovation in the space to properly socialize the experience.
Fans long for a more connected experience while (remotely) watching and betting on sports.
The end user is rapidly evolving into one that needs help supplementing lost social engagement in typically isolated DFS mechanics. Existing in a sea of single players is leaving a lot to be desired within these experiences, and the attempts at social game play in other cases misses the mark.
There is an opportunity to meet users where they already exist - in group chats, around the table, in front of the tv, at the game, etc. and to let their organic relationships be the driving force behind engagement in a world that is rapidly losing the sense of camaraderie that participation in sports embodies.
Vision
Celebrate Friendships
Focus on enhancing the social experience through prioritizing team participation.
"Fantasy Sports, for Real Friends" as the central theme and slogan - your friends are the realest part of this fantasy experience, and Propellor champions that.
Emphasis on genuine, memorable interactions.
Embrace Nostalgic Social Hubs
Inspired by pre-internet socializing culture: arcades, the mall, roller rink, garage hangs, game nights, concerts.
Create a digital space that replicates these connected environments— ones meant to reinforce engaging with peers.
Target a demographic that appreciates and remembers, or are attracted to these nostalgic settings.
Approach
Redefine DFS Mechanics
Users must create teams, invite friends, or accept invites in order to play.
Promote a sense of community among users.
Facilitate interaction and engagement through shared goals and activities.
Engagement and Celebration
Tools for users to cheer on wins and commiserate in losses together.
Build a supportive and interactive community.
Highlight user stories and successes to foster a realistic, intimate social environment.
Design Philosophy
Clean, Simple and Tasteful
Design for a frictionless experience and embrace a retro, nostalgic aesthetic.
Ensure the platform is easy to navigate for new users— this is a fresh breakaway from standard sports betting UI and mechanics.
Simple aesthetic to minimize distractions. This will help maximize social engagement, both in an outside of the product— outside being just as crucial as whats happening on the inside.
Innovative Features
The product is integrated with existing, native group messaging (IOS and Android) for easy communication and real-time updates. This seamlessly and subtly assimilates Propellor into existing group chat dynamics.
Restricted play period— game play can only happen within the time frame of the games happening that day. After the last game is over no further action can be made. This creates higher stakes for the betting period and encourages friends to put their phone's down and hang out IRL!
Strategy and Planning
User Personas
Development of 3 personas based on initial research and interviews. Alex, Jessica and Michael cover a wide spectrum of expected user attributes that help to find a rough UX through line.
This helps qualify pain points on other platforms— complicated UI/UX and lack of genuine social engagement— while also illuminating areas that need more attention: how to structure payment /winnings (will start with free to play point system before the transition to real money, but it may be important to maintain free play even after the transition), and how to be sure that, however simple, the product still offers the amount of stats, live gameplay updates and in depth experience veteran users are used to.
Basic Mechanics
Users create a team or join one via invite— teams must consist of 2-7 teammates.
Users create or join tickets (parlay) for their teams— tickets must have 2-7 teammate picks (one player prop), each teammate can assign one pick to each ticket.
The more picks teammates add to a ticket, the higher the payout multiplier will be for the team. Payouts are split evenly among all participants in the ticket.
When a ticket is created, a team will receive a group text from Propellor (a thread that we create for everyone on the team at the time the ticket was created) notifying them of the created ticket. A link is provided which is followed to the most relevant stage of the pick assigning process for each teammate. The team will receive message notifications throughout the life of the ticket, e.g., "ticket created, add your picks", "ticket starting soon" and "your ticket has won, congratulations!".
User Journeys
Based on foundational personas and mechanics, basic journeys are created to identify critical touch points. The process begins with one user making a pick on an already established team and ticket— this fleshes out the highest priority journey in the product while leaving smaller details (actually creating a team/ticket) in the imaginative state. It is more natural to fill in the minutia once this primary objective starts to make sense.
From here every journey essential to the MVP is mapped out, from sign up, to team, ticket and pick mechanics, to toasts, modals, error handling and navigation.
UX
Assumptions
User will find there is a learning curve to Propellor's new, but familiar, DFS mechanics such as: team/ticket creation and parlay rules: Each teammate can only make one pick per ticket, and there must be a minimum of two teammates active on each ticket (regulation states a player can’t be chosen more than one time, and at least 2 teams must be represented.)
Integrating and engaging with native messaging, particularly relying on varying amounts of notifications, (as they will be crucial for game play,) could prove annoying for recipients.
Ideation
Payout multiplier- exponential multiplier for every teammate that joins a ticket
Each additional pick from another teammate on a ticket exponentially multiplies the teams total payout.
B. Individual entry fee, team payout multiplier, and individual payout represented on main ticket view.
C. Amount of teammates participating or needed to participate on each ticket is easily visible on Tickets page view.
Ranking system for teams / individual users
*Ranks page* See your overall and sport specific ranked position out of the entire user base.
B. *Ranks page* See where your team ranks overall.
C. *Teams page* See how you rank within a team.
24-hour game play period-"Doomsday Clock"
Once the last game happens in the days 24 hour period, there is no more action to be had. This creates a competitive urgency for gameplay throughout the day, but also stays true to brand positioning— a healthy social life outside of the product is just as important as within it.
B. Alternating messaging that stays on brand.
Favorites
Collect favorite players under an easily accessible favorited sub filter.
Propellor messaging notification types
A sample of tailored message updates sent directly to a teams native ios/Android group chat. Follow any link directly to the relevant section or stage of your teams process with a ticket.
Games Page
List of all games happening in the day— upcoming, and underway with live scoring.
B. A click on any game takes you to a pre-filtered search of all players in the two teams competing.
C. This makes placing a pick from insights gained on the games page exceedingly easy.
Edit Picks
For a multitude of reasons, a users may need (e.g. player is scratched from game) or want to withdraw/edit their pick.
B. Since tickets are possibly comprised of picks happening at different times in the day, Propellor can provide the ability for a user to make these changes up until the ticket is locked in for game play.
Multiple ticket creation/pick assignments at once
Create a ticket and share it with multiple teams at once, e.g., you might want to create the ticket "NBA Finals" for many teams you are a part of.
B. In the case where many tickets have been created for a user to join (from one or many different teams) they can make one pick and assign it to as many available tickets as desired in one pass (user will be notified if and why a pick may not be allowed on a specific ticket, e.g., "another teammate already choose this pick".)
Live Updates
Status of each teammates pick (picks may be happening at different times of the day).
B. Live updates on a users player prop as the game is underway.
Invites
Invite link is accessible in any team page. Teams can have up to 7 teammates.
B. Copy the link and send away. The team's page will be populated with new teammates as they log in or sign up via the link.
Design Process
Medium-Fi designs and Prototyping
Cross-Device Compatibility
Ensure the platform functions seamlessly on mobile, tablet, and desktop devices.
Adapt layouts and elements to provide an optimal user experience across different screen sizes.
UI
Design System
At Propellor, I've leveraged a robust design system that I have built over time, selecting and customizing only the necessary components to fit the product. This approach prevents the common pitfalls of early-stage builds being bogged down by an overly large design system, which can hinder agility due to maintenance and synchronization issues with development. This streamlined system ensures the team remains nimble and responsive, while still benefiting from a solid, well-established foundation. This balance allows us to maintain high design standards and efficiency, driving forward innovation and seamless execution.
Iconography- a mix of sourced and custom icons.
Engaging Aesthetics
The UI is indistinguishable from the brand, creating an impactful experience based on the playful and nostalgic visuals that resonate with the target demographic.
Visual Storytelling
Throughout the product, users encounter branded mascot placement, consistent tone of voice and personality that, overtime, strengthens the users interaction with the product narrative.
Testing
Moderated (Guide shareholders and advisors through tasks to collect feedback)
Overall great first impression— impressed with how frictionless messaging integration is.
Discussion on how to further expand on sticky moments: a veto function within team picks, and live feed of platform wide picks being made.
Unmoderated (Closed Beta)
Users love the design aesthetic and respond well to the simplicity, messaging garners more positive impressions.
By sharing the platform with friends and colleagues that are sports fans but not DFS users, it becomes apparent that the hook of this product still mainly appeals to those with former experience in similar platforms. However, it can be noted that there are still a fair number of first time DFS users out of this bunch that are grabbed by the social approach and unique mechanics of the Propellor ecosystem, and have become some of our fondest early adopters.
Veteran users struggle with search format— they prefer filtering top down, from sports, to games, to players. Our "search anything" format requires them breaking their search habits and adopting a more fluid, ambiguous approach— search any sports, game, player, even team colors and player nicknames, and start there. This ultimately inspired the addition of the Games page and more robust filtering, leaving users with options for both familiar and more fluid navigation.
Open Beta
More positive feedback on design aesthetic and messaging- receiving regular comments on just how engaging and helpful message notifications are.
New users, even those familiar with other DFS/parlay platforms, are hitting roadblocks understanding what to do after they create a ticket (a ticket will exist even if no picks are assigned to it, which is necessary for users creating a ticket for multiple teams at once). An onboarding flow is added to walk new users through ticket creation and pick assignment, as well as the addition of a notification bubble on the ticket page nav icon to ensure users navigate back to finish the task if forgotten.
Identity
Core Values
Friendship: whatever it is, it's better with friends.
Teamwork: Teamwork isn't just working with others; it's how collaborating with them creates enjoyable work.
Design: Create with emotion, and leave space for users to experience their own.
Brand Positioning
"At Propellor, we bring friends together through the joy sports. Our mission is to amplify the camaraderie and excitement of fandom by creating a platform that celebrates friendship and collaboration over everything else. Intuitive design and heartfelt experiences ensure that every game is not just about the competition but about the moments shared and enjoyed with friends. We evoke the nostalgia of simpler times, bringing the focus back to genuine, shared experiences. Because at Propellor, it's [always] better with friends."
Visual Identity
The logo gets straight to the heart of the aesthetic that first introduced friends to electronic gameplay. The pixelated design also speaks to simplicity, and just how fun it can be.
The color palette is minimal, emphasizing our core aesthetic- Arcade console displays. We replicate the familiar warmth and glow of CRT screens and the colors that appeared on them.
The typography is a blend of Volksans by Ramdir Volk: a versatile, yet tech forward primary typeface, 35 Segment Display by moontr3 on FontStruct: a highly stylized secondary font to be used sparingly in situations that require leaning on the retro aspect of the brand, and Owners XNarrow by Jeremy Mickel at MCKL, used for compact , information dense moments.
Tagline and Slogan
Tagline: "Fantasy Sports, for Real Friends"
Slogan: "It's better with friends"
Tone of Voice
Propellor speaks as a friendly and approachable character with a witty, competitive edge. The tone is encouraging, energetic, motivational, and a bit spicy, keeping users on their toes while they engage.
Social
Ads
