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Core Product Evolution
Player Picks EvolutionPlayer PicksEvolution
Transforming a constrained pick’em game into a more flexible, engaging, and scalable product with greater market selection, configurable lifecycle promotions, and faster expansion into new sports.
4×
Market inventory
+32%
Monthly active users
+25%
Monthly ARPU
At a Glance
- Challenge
- Limited markets and differentiation
- Approach
- New pick types, incentives, and architecture
- My Role
- Led strategy, mechanics, and delivery
- Impact
- 4× inventory, +32% MAU, +25% ARPU
OVERVIEW
A broader vision for Player Picks
Player Picks was a core OwnersBox product, but its growth was constrained in three important ways: users had too few markets to choose from, Marketing lacked flexible tools for driving repeat play, and the underlying architecture made expansion slow and engineering-intensive.
I led a multi-phase evolution of the product focused on three strategic priorities: expanding selection, creating new engagement levers, and building a more scalable foundation for growth.
EXPANDING SELECTION
More players. More markets. More ways to play.
THE PROBLEM
Users repeatedly told us they were not satisfied with the number of available projections. They often could not find markets for the most popular players or the players they cared about most.
The fixed payout model limited us to projections within a narrow range of market odds. When a projection fell outside that range, we could not offer it, restricting inventory and weakening the experience compared with competing pick’em products.
THE PRODUCT RESPONSE
Rockets & Aliens
I led the introduction of configurable risk tiers that allowed a much wider range of projections to be offered while keeping payouts aligned with the probability of each outcome.
Alien
Safer projections
Greater chance of hitting and a smaller contribution to the entry payout.
Standard
Balanced projections
Retained the familiar Player Picks risk and payout experience.
Rocket
More difficult projections
Lower chance of hitting and a larger contribution to the potential payout.
Players could combine all three projection types within an entry, giving them more control over risk and reward while allowing OwnersBox to surface markets that previously would have been unavailable.
DRIVING LIFECYCLE ENGAGEMENT
Turning promotions into a reusable product capability
THE PROBLEM
Marketing lacked flexible promotional tools for influencing user behaviour across the lifecycle. Creating new offers often required additional product and engineering support, limiting how quickly the team could respond to major events, engagement opportunities, or signs of churn.
THE PRODUCT RESPONSE
Discounts & Tokens
I led the development of configurable promotional tools that gave Marketing the ability to drive engagement and repeat play.
One configurable framework
Discounts
Lower a market line
Free Play
Remove the cost barrier
Sweat-Free
Protect a losing entry
Profit Boost
Increase winning upside
The framework included configurable eligibility rules and was integrated directly with Braze so Marketing could distribute offers globally or target specific user segments based on lifecycle stage and behaviour.
SCALING THE PRODUCT
Making sport expansion repeatable
THE PROBLEM
Player Picks had been built around its original sports, leaving key game logic tightly coupled to the existing implementation. Adding a new sport required significant custom engineering work, making expansion slower and more costly than it needed to be.
THE PRODUCT RESPONSE
Refactoring for growth
I prioritized and led the product side of a foundational refactor, partnering closely with Engineering to separate shared game mechanics from sport-specific requirements.
This changed sport expansion from a largely bespoke development effort into a faster, more repeatable process. With the new foundation in place, we expanded Player Picks into PGA and professional soccer, including the English Premier League and UEFA competitions.
COMBINED IMPACT
A more flexible, engaging, and scalable core product
The evolution of Player Picks addressed selection, engagement, and scalability as connected growth challenges rather than isolated feature requests.
4×
Market inventory
+32%
Monthly active users
+25%
Monthly ARPU
Player Picks evolved from a constrained pick’em experience into a broader product platform: one that gave users more choice, gave Marketing more control, and gave the business a faster path to expansion.