Closing Line
How I reimagined the sportsbook experience by blending intuitive UX with video-game-inspired features, live chat, and a more engaging way to bet.
Overview
Closing Line is a sportsbook concept designed to bring a fresh, game-like feel to sports betting.
The goal was to explore how UX, UI, and interaction design could make wagering more intuitive, social, and rewarding. I designed the full experience from concept to prototype, focusing on clarity, engagement, and features inspired by modern gaming.
Loves watching sports with others, but betting alone on typical sportsbook apps feels isolating and lacks the fun of a shared game-day atmosphere.
Goals: Interact with other fans and see what others are betting on.
Pain Points: No community features or live chat; betting feels like a solo activity.
What They Need: Real-time social tools that recreate the feeling of watching games with friends.
Enjoys placing bets but quickly loses interest because most sportsbook apps feel dry, transactional, and lack anything to keep them engaged.
Goals: Stay engaged during live games, track bets in a exciting way, and feel rewarded for playing.
Pain Points: Experience becomes boring after placing a bet; no progression or incentives.
What They Need: Dynamic live features and rewards that keep the experience exciting and engaging.
Research and Discovery
To understand how users interact with modern sportsbook apps, I analyzed common betting behaviors, engagement patterns, and gaps in current platforms. My research focused on how bettors navigate odds, manage live bets, and what motivates them to stay active beyond placing wagers.
Key Takeaways
Research showed that while users enjoy placing bets, the experience quickly falls flat afterward. Most sportsbook apps offer little engagement, no social interaction, and no reason to stay active during live games. This revealed a clear opportunity to create a more dynamic, community-driven experience that keeps users involved before, during, and after each bet.
Fan Duel
Clean layout and fast navigation, but the experience becomes passive after placing a bet with little to keep users engaged.
Twitch
A highly social platform where fans chat together in real time and build shared communities around live events.
Draft Kings
Feature-packed sportsbook with strong live betting tools, but the interface feels crowded and overwhelming during busy games.
Competitive Analysis
The Question:
How might we design a sportsbook experience that feels active, social, and genuinely fun, giving users meaningful ways to stay involved across the entire journey rather than letting the experience become passive, forgettable, or isolating?
The Goal:
Create a sportsbook experience that keeps users engaged before, during, and after betting by adding social interaction, live features, and light gamification, while preserving the simple, familiar betting mechanics users already trust.
The Problem:
Sportsbook apps make placing bets easy, but the experience becomes dull and isolating once the wager is placed. With nothing to engage users during live games, the journey feels passive, disconnected, and far less exciting than it should be.
Define The Problem
The Solution
Closing Line introduces a more engaging sportsbook experience by combining clean, intuitive UI with community-driven features and light gamification. The redesigned flows keep users active before, during, and after placing a bet through live chat, progression systems, and perks that enhance the overall journey without complicating the core betting process.
Prototype
I translated the betting flow into low-fidelity wireframes to define the core interactions, then refined them into high-fidelity screens that introduced the full visual and social direction. The final prototype brings the gamified, community-driven sportsbook experience to life through clean layouts, intuitive navigation, and engaging live features.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
High Fidelity Wireframes
Launch
The final concept showcases how a sportsbook can feel more social and engaging without changing the fundamentals users already know. By combining familiar betting flows with live interaction and progression features, Closing Line demonstrates a fresh take on what the experience could become.
Reflection
This project was a valuable exploration of how UX can transform a passive activity into a more engaging, community-driven experience. It highlighted the importance of layering new features—like live chat, progression systems, and perks—without disrupting the simplicity users expect from a sportsbook. It also reinforced how meaningful hierarchy, clear flows, and intuitive UI patterns can reduce friction and keep users active throughout the game. Moving forward, I would explore real user testing and data-driven insights to refine which engagement features resonate most, but overall this project strengthened my ability to blend usability, social interaction, and gamification into a cohesive mobile-first product.