The New York Racing Association (NYRA) recognized the need to modernize its online wagering platform, NYRA Bets, to better serve its users and remain competitive in the growing online gaming space. Partnering with Culture Foundry, the NYRA team embarked on a comprehensive redesign of the NYRA Bets website to address existing challenges and enhance user experience.
Before: A Challenging, Outdated Interface
Prior to the redesign, the NYRA Bets website faced several significant issues:
- iFrame-Dependent Architecture: The site relied heavily on iFrames to display wagering data from the core wagering application. This setup restricted the marketing team’s ability to present promotional content effectively and limited flexibility in content placement.
- Limited Content Management: Updates to marketing and customer service content were cumbersome, requiring coordination with external developers in different time zones. This led to delays and reduced responsiveness to user needs.
- Poor Mobile Optimization: With a growing number of users accessing the site via smartphones and tablets, the lack of mobile optimization hindered user engagement and accessibility and made important user conversions, such as account signups, more challenging.
After: A Mobile-First, User-Centric Experience
The collaboration with Culture Foundry led to a transformative overhaul of the NYRA Bets platform:
- Headless CMS Implementation: A decoupled content management system was introduced, allowing the marketing team to manage and update content independently without affecting the core wagering functionalities.
- Enhanced Design and Navigation: The website now features a modern design with an intuitive layout, making it easier for users to find information on handicapping, promotions, and live racing content.
- Mobile-First Approach: The new design is fully responsive, ensuring optimal performance across all devices, particularly enhancing the experience for mobile users.
The Result: A 28% Increase in New Registrations
NYRA Bets reported that the redesign produced immediate, measurable results:
“Horse racing is a business that is very resistant to change. I was worried that even though the new site was better, our customers would be resistant just because it was new. And it was the total opposite effect! We had no major customer complaints about the site.
“We’ve been able to publish so much content that can now be easily viewed on mobile. With the update to our landing pages, we saw a 28% uptick in new registrations during our Kentucky Derby campaign, which garners the most registrations of the year. The time the team has saved from the ease of the new CMS would also be considered a great success.
“The [Culture Foundry] team is very creative and about more than delivering a cookie cutter option. NYRA Bets has unique challenges, and Culture Foundry always comes up with an idea of how to suit our needs. Every concern is met and we’re never told ‘we can’t do that’.”
– Jennifer Bayer, NYRA Bets Director of Marketing
The NYRA Bets case exemplifies how strategic digital transformation can address legacy system limitations, rearchitect user journeys, drive customer conversions, and empower content editors to constantly evolve page content and calls to action, based on user behaviors and feedback. For the NYRA Bets team, this meant substantial improvements in both user experiences and business outcomes.
For a detailed look at the NYRA Bets digital transformation project and the capabilities and technology solutions Culture Foundry leveraged to make it successful, review the NYRA Bets Success Story.
