Fortuna

The Fortuna mobile app created for Fortuna Game a.s. offers users in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, and Romania the ability to place bets online from the bookmaker’s entire list of wagers, including live betting and e-sports, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The application runs on Android and iOS devices including iPads.

 

Functionality

• A list of all bets on offer
• Live betting
• Full / advanced statistics
• Quick and intuitive navigation
• Logging on using Touch ID and FaceID on iOS devices
• Quick bets
• Live statistics for ongoing events
• Live streams
• Push notifications
• Branch office map
• Full text searches
• Smartwatch-enabled notifications
• Replaces the loyalty card
• Checking betting tickets from brick-and-mortar betting shops using a camera to scan them
• A community of bettors
• Analysis of matches

 

The Challenge

The key characteristics stressed in the app’s design and development were:

Speed

The user must not spend an excessive amount of time on loading pages. The app has to be fast – both in terms of use and in terms of content.

Data Simplicity

The application must limit the amount of data it requires while maintaining the full betting offering so users will be able to use it on mobile data networks.

Large Data Volumes that Often Change

The list of bets in the app should be complete and constantly updated. This was a significant challenge in live betting where changes can happen several times per second.

Advanced Smartphone Features

Push notifications about open tickets are included, as are marketing messages, GPS searches for the nearest branch office, scanning paper tickets, etc.

Community

The ever-growing community of bettors that want to share their bets and their reactions to sports. This is one of the most-used functions in the online app. 

Entertainment

Users have to enjoy using the app and should not experience any interface problems when moving from the desktop website.

We used the speed and scope of the existing (hybrid) app from the previous vendor as our benchmark before setting more ambitious goals and using foreign trends as inspiration.

At the moment, the app is one of the most technologically advanced on the Czech market. 

 

Solutions

 

Workflow

Design Prototyping

Developing a new native application took more than a year. The coding itself was preceded by a series of meetings with the client about the app’s design. We began the actual programming after several months of work on the concept.

MVP

Great care was taken in the design phase to include all the new functions that went far beyond the scope of the original application. In order to cut development time and provide users with the application in the shortest amount of time possible, we decided to use the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) approach where the existing app was set as the most basic scope.

Agile

We used proven agile methods (Scrum) in the development, which took place in 14-day cycles where an under-production application was presented to the client and further development was planned.

In order to constantly improve the development process, regular full-team meetings take place after each sprint to look back and remove any glitches from previous iterations. 

Dual-track

The design concept needed to be adapted to individual parts of the app. We used the Dual Track Agile Process that allowed us to develop the design and interface parallel to the application itself.

The agile process was expanded by the discovery track where the design sprint (the iterative development of the visual design of individual parts of the application) took place. The discovery track was always at least one sprint ahead of the development of a certain screen or feature, meaning new development sprints were launched with an approved design.

Communication

The old maxim that there is no perfect brief proved to be true once again. Sometimes, it’s necessary to communicate with the product owner, in this case the client, and add specifications or propose a new solution.

It was necessary to directly communicate and cooperate with the client’s backend team when proposing and creating the API because they controlled the solution for the new application. The client thus created space for members of our team in their offices where the API was designed. This form of cooperation proved to be fruitful and we continue to use it to this day. 

 

Technologies

Websockets

The range of bets offered in the application is exceptionally broad and the odds change as often as several times per second in the case of live events. Updating data using periodic refreshes (polling) would mean downloading a large amount of data. We therefore used open websocket connections where the betting server “pushes” only the changes in offers as soon as they are available on the backend.

Push Notifcations

Fortuna’s mobile app has become another marketing channel for the firm, but push notifications also became a channel for sending information about tickets that have been evaluated and about matches beginning. The implementation of push notifications also underwent its own evolution from a separate cloud-based service (GCM for Android and APNS for iOS) to a firebase solution.

Touch ID & Face ID

Users don’t have to waste time entering long passwords, but simply use fingerprints to login. Face ID can be used on the latest iPhones.

Ticket Scanner

Clients who place bets at branch offices can use the app to check their tickets. A simple scan of the bar code with phone’s camera will instantly show the status of their ticket.

API

Together with Fortuna, we proposed an appropriate backend communication interface with an API designed to limit data downloads (FUP).

Bar Code Generator

The application also replaces the client loyalty card for interactions at branch offices. Users can display the bar code that corresponds to the code on their card.

Tests

All new features are subjected to individual UI tests that quickly discover any possible deficiencies.

 

Conclusion

The application was released to users after 14 months of development. Our proposed solution exceeded the previous version in both speed and functionality, resulting in a 24,2% increase in tickets.

• +24% Growth in Tickets
• +60% Speed Increase
• 1million Downloads

 

Further Development

The development of the application hasn’t stopped. We still have a dedicated team working to improve the app.

The application can be downloaded from the App Store or at www.ifortuna.cz.
 

 

References

Jan Horyna, Head of Online Development

I realize what a difficult client we are at Fortuna. Etnetera’s mobile division was able to fulfill all our expectations and demands. The result is an application that we are proud of, both in terms of the user experience and the technologies used. However, we’re not resting on our laurels and working on further enhancements.

 

Per Widerström, CEO and Board Member

Our strong growth was bolstered by online sports betting, especially over mobile phones, on all markets where Fortuna is active.