Following the saying that ”all great ideas grow out of others”, we decided, after years of collaboration with one of our oldest partners – SAZKA – to share some insights about some of our greatest projects, part of a more challenging industry. Grateful for the ideas they shared with us to turn them into betting and lottery apps, we took them as challenges and tried to make the best out of them before launching the projects into the market.
To follow the steps of crafting and growing these apps, we had to ask the one that led their way to the digital world from the beginning. And so we talked a bit with our colleague Adam Bock, Project Manager at Adastra.one, the head of the teams that worked not only to create but also to constantly improve everything about our SAZKA apps.
Can you tell us more about the main projects you worked on together with your teams for SAZKA, so we can get a broader view?
Overall, SAZKA wanted us to create for them three mobile applications: a lottery one, which is the oldest one of them, a sports betting app, and a casino application, that can be used by people to play casino games independently of their actual locations. All three of them are launched on the market and we are constantly improving them, by adding new functionalities and new parts of the apps. To be more specific, we are now working on the analysis of one task for the lottery app, that will take about two months of development before being added.
How different is this industry, compared to others that you have worked on? How much did it take you to do research and understand all the aspects of creating apps for this field?
I do not think the betting field is a difficult one; at least for our departments, the projects were more than ok. SAZKA is the type of client who is providing good descriptions of the features they want - they simply tell us in a very clear way what we have to do, and then we do it as best as we can.
It was useful for us to know who are the biggest competitors on the Czech market, for example, so we could observe what they were doing in terms of mobile apps for their services; and therefore we did not just analyze the users’ behaviors, but also predicted it and tried to add more features to the apps, in order to make them engage with our products.
What was the main problem the betting app was built to solve?
I think that if we consider what the client was facing, their main challenge then was to challenge their competitors, that existed on the market already from some years ago. The apps were created when our client realized that there is a huge need to move on a different channel, so they can actually compete with the other companies and gain more field in their favor.
Which one of the features that the app has now was the one you and your team worked harder in order to create it?
Looking back now, I can hardly mention something specific, but what I can clearly recall was that the hardest part happened while we were facing the beginning stage, the set up of the process. Then, we also had this feature that took us a little longer to create, while we were working in the medium stage, called Combinator. It actually means that an user can place more bets on one ticket and then combine them in some specific groups. It is the standard feature for sports betting, that usually does not require such an amount of time, but this time, due to the limitations on backend suppliers’ part, it was much more difficult to create than we expected.
Then, even if the application was launched without some specific features, we were working on them to be perfectly shaped and then, after some time, we implemented them, while the app was on the market.
What did you have to consider, in terms of software or design-wise, so the app will be scalable for the future?
The main conditions that will allow you to build a scalable application, if required, are having a package of good information – descriptions, searchings, and data – to start from. You will also need the application to be available on both platforms in a good state. If you do not have a clean skeleton and good, clear information to add to it, the whole developing process of the app will be a mess. It will, of course, work in the end but all the modifications that you are going to make after launching will be very difficult to make.
Even now, after almost two years since launching SAZKABET, the sports betting app, we are working to do some improvements. They will not be noticeable for the users, the app will look absolutely the same for them, but inside the app – in our backstage – the things will be better and we will operate even more easily when we will add new features.
Which app, out of the ones you created for SAZKA, is most popular?
The lottery one, but I believe this is also because it is the oldest one launched on the market and maybe the customers are just used to using it, not because the betting or the casino ones are not well-received by the public.
This happens only because the app is time-wise and accessible for the users - like all that were created, but also especially because, in this field, the betting business, the number of customers for the lottery is bigger. Let’s say that out of 10 people that are usually applying to the lottery, just one of them will play sports betting, for example.
All three of them are really welcomed on the market and we are more than happy we had the chance to work on creating them and participate in offering both a comfortable and a dynamic experience to the users.