World Series of Golf is an annual golf competition that combines the high stakes play of Texas hold ‘em poker with the skill and gameplay of golf. It is a sister organisation to the World Series of Poker.
The event is a buy-in, and whilst it welcomes players of all skill levels, it is only available to a community of members. The brand and tournament offer high class, high stakes, and high octane games for players of the event, which is played for cash and prizes. The tournament attracts an all-star roster, such as Penn Jillette of Pen and Teller, and international poker personalities such as Phil Gordon and Danial Negreanu.
Caesars Entertainment is accelerating the brand to align with its sister brand (WSoP) by providing a high-quality digital experience for members in the form a new betting and score management app to be used during play.
There are currently no apps that remotely resemble the functionality required, so there are no existing competitors or market to observe and base initial decisions on. The user base is niche but varied, with widely differing levels of experience in golf and poker, as such the app must reconcile a wide range of entry levels with two complex gaming rule sets quickly and succinctly. Define the variables and interactions players will need to manage both before during and after play - such as managing their accounts, course locations, funds, scores, games and wagers through the app. Due to the nature of these interconnected systems and how integral they are to the game, many user journeys and interactions had to be considered and accounted for to meet baseline functionality.
Define and streamline journeys through the game and all points players will need to manage their funds, scores and betting stakes. Reconcile the complex user journeys, money management systems and turn-based interactions with a simple and intuitive interface. Create a system that educates newcomers and connects them to existing players and allows for simple player and course management. Bring WSoG’s digital experience up to speed with WSoP and provide a similarly premium interface and experience.
Sign in
The sign-up process was required to vet players as official and served to give a brief intro to the concept of the game, users could skip the tutorial cards at any point based on their knowledge level of the tournament. App feature tutorials were reserved for when users encountered them to prevent superfluous info cards clogging the sign-up process.
Community Hub
The community hub acted as the nexus where players would begin to interact with the app. We defined the core actions they would take from here, by observing the rules of play, along with interviews with both golf and poker professionals.
From the hub, users could manage their profile and funds, interact with their stats, search for courses, view historical games played, and start games. We determined that users would most likely have a core course, or, a set of courses they would play on. We decided on specific behaviour for when a course should be displayed on the hub (such as proximity and history) for easy access to the game start flow.
Game customisation
We gave players the ability to completely customise the difficulty and scoring styles during the game set up process. We chose a series of default options based on tournament data but gave players the chance to change these and provided brief overtures of each style of play.
From here players could set up a game, invite players, and set the minimum buy-in. We designed tools to remember settings users had previously chosen. I also added transitional states for each calibration process to prevent users thinking the app had frozen. These transition states acted as opportunities to give users small tutorials and information on the tournament.
Monitering play
Due to the tactics and complex systems that users would need to manage whilst playing, we created an ‘in-game’ hub that had a clear and regimented flow, and clear signposting at all points. From this hub, we learnt what information users would need to see to manage their game and created a dashboard to meet these needs.
This dashboard was vital to keep track of funds, game progression and course data. It was essential to signpost every stat which was achieved through overlay cards. These were filled with bespoke data per game and course. Due to the high stakes nature of the game, we opted for a system that was more intrusive to ensure that players where appropriately gated from accidentally performing actions.
Bet Flow
The bet flow was managed using these cards. This not only gave us a simple canvas to work with and make adjustments to wording and phrasing when testing but also created a uniform system of patterns when users progressed through the betting flow.
As this flow handled financial transactions, every action is gated by permission cards marking the action the user is about to take. From the tests performed, we learnt that users needed forward and return actions to be equally weighted. Users also needed info bites around each action to disclose the contents of the step in the flow. Without this context, users were hesitant about transactional actions.
Score Card
Once leaving or completing a game, players were presented with a scorecard which was automatically saved to the app. This served as not only a keepsake but also as a receipt for users, allowing them to check wins and losses and the money that had changed hands. This could be shared with other users, on social media, or via email.
By closely monitoring the onboarding and user pain points whilst playing the game, we were able to outline a framework to address these hurdles. By focusing on enabling users and giving them full access to the intricacies of the tournament style, we gave users the tools to manage and control their games. The result was a sophisticated scoring and money management dashboard and system that addressed users concerns on game clarity and having control over their style of play.
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