KingMakers
Reducing friction in cognitive heavy journeys
KingMakers builds and operates multiple consumer products serving sports fans across African markets (BetKing is the main one, operating in Nigeria). My focus inside the Sportsbook vertical is increasing users' confidence and control while helping them discover relevant content. The work draws on discovery research, behavioral analytics, and experimentation.
The core journey requires users to make multiple decisions before committing. More actions mean more revenue, and the process is cognitively demanding. This gets harder when most users operate on low bandwidth networks and entry level Android devices, where friction compounds across the entire journey.
The system allows exploration while making commitment easy to postpone. Users browse extensively then delay their first action. Drop off spikes after that first action. Navigation patterns add cognitive load. Network instability causes state loss. Social sharing happens outside the product entirely.
My work targets three leverage areas where small improvements compound across the journey.
Guided entry: lowering initiation friction
The problem
Users were browsing extensively but delaying their first action. Starting required navigating across competitions, opening individual events, validating information, and manually assembling combinations. Each step added cognitive load, made worse by slow network conditions.
Nigerian users also shared selections socially, and the product had no structured entry point for this behavior. The system enabled exploration and did little to reduce the effort of getting started.
What we shipped
We introduced a structured entry point with pre assembled combinations. This reduced the number of steps before a first action and folded sharing into the flow.
Impact
Double digit increase in first selection rate and multi selection starts. Users entering through the new entry point also showed higher average selections per session and a meaningful uplift in completed actions. Organic journey conversion held steady.
Decision support through information: reducing cognitive load
The problem
Users did not lack options, they lacked decision confidence. Statistical information existed but was fragmented across event pages and secondary tabs. Validating a choice meant jumping between multiple screens, adding navigation fatigue to an already high-choice environment.
The challenge was not adding more insights but structuring them to reduce cognitive overhead and support faster commitment.
What we shipped
We embedded contextual statistical insights directly within the browsing experience, so users could validate decisions without leaving the page.
Impact
Double-digit increase in first-selection rate among users exposed to contextual insights, with higher average selections per session and a measurable reduction in time to first action. No increase in page load time despite the added data layer.
Multi-Select Optimization: reducing expansion and completion friction
The problem
Users could only access one competition at a time. To explore matches across leagues, they had to repeatedly navigate back and forth between competition lists and fixture pages. On low-bandwidth networks, each transition introduced loading delays, increasing navigation fatigue and making exploration mechanically expensive.
What we shipped
We enabled users to browse multiple competitions simultaneously, removing the need for constant back-navigation. We also simplified how selections accumulate and improved state persistence during network drops, so users wouldn't lose progress mid-journey.
Impact
Meaningful increase in multi-selection depth, faster progression from first to second selection, and reduction in abandonment during cross-competition exploration.
Deep dive
Want to go deeper into the problem framing, hypotheses, experimentation, and results? Happy to walk through any of these in a call.