Introduction

Grosvenor Casino is part of The Rank Group, one of the UK’s largest gambling and entertainment companies.

The digital platform serves 1.7M customers annually, generating over £200M in digital revenue.

What is a first-time deposit?

For new players, the first-time deposit is the step where they add money to their account to begin playing.

How it works?

The journey typically follows a simple flow:

The Problem

Internal data and customer support signals showed consistent confusion around promotional rewards during the first-time deposit.

Bonus-related queries averaged 2,200+ support cases per month, with many users believing their reward had not been applied correctly.

The issue was not with the payment flow, but with how bonus value was understood. Users were unclear about how bonuses related to their deposits, what they would receive, and when they would be available. As a result, many reached the point of payment without a clear understanding of the value exchange.

How might we make the value of the first-time deposit clear and predictable, so users feel confident to deposit?

Discovery

While the data highlighted confusion around promotional rewards, it did not explain where or why this breakdown was occurring within the journey.

The goal of discovery was to understand how users formed expectations around bonuses, where those expectations broke down during the first-time deposit flow and how rewards were applied in practice.

To explore this, discovery combined support insights, journey analysis, behavioural observation and system review.

The issue was not a single point of friction, but how value was communicated across the journey. Users formed expectations early but lacked clarity at key decision points, leading to hesitation at the point of deposit.

Addressing this required making the value exchange explicit, clearly linking deposit, bonus and reward.

To pinpoint where this breakdown occurred, the experience was analysed across three perspectives: support insights, journey analysis, and system understanding.

Why we created it: To understand how users experienced and described issues with promotional rewards, using real support interactions.

This was complemented by collaborative sessions with product, engineering, and operations teams to align on how rewards were intended to work versus how they were perceived.

What it highlights: Support case data was analysed to identify recurring themes in bonus-related queries, focusing on how users understood reward eligibility, application and timing.

Across an eight-month period, 18,160 support cases were recorded for the sign-up bonus, averaging 2,270 cases per month.

To deepen this, patterns were explored through:

• Theming and clustering of support tickets to surface common language and behaviours

• Workshop sessions with stakeholders to map how rewards were expected to work

• Card sorting exercises to understand how users grouped and interpreted bonus concepts

Understanding where confidence breaks

To identify where users lost confidence in the deposit experience, I facilitated a cross-functional workshop with product, engineering and CRM teams.

The goal was to align on how the journey actually works, where user expectations diverge from system behaviour and why support demand was being created.

What we explored

During the workshop, we mapped the journey across three key layers:

• User expectations → what users believe will happen

• System behaviour → how the platform actually works

• Observed signals → where confusion surfaces in data and support

This helped uncover where clarity drops, where decisions are made under uncertainty and how system logic is often hidden from users.

Workshop output

The workshop produced a detailed journey map capturing:

• Each stage from offer exposure to reward outcome

• Points where understanding breaks down

• Supporting evidence from user behaviour and support queries

• Opportunity areas across the experience

Why we created it: To understand how the system applies and delivers rewards, and how this compares to what users expect to happen.

What it highlights: The bonus logic was analysed to show how deposits, eligibility conditions, and rewards are processed behind the scenes.

This was explored through:

• System mapping to break down how deposits connect to rewards

• Logic walkthroughs with engineers and product teams

• Rule tracing to follow how different conditions affect outcomes

1. Clarify the bonus before deposit

Help players understand the value and conditions of the bonus before they decide to deposit.

2. Maintain visibility during payment

Keep the selected bonus visible during the payment flow, reinforcing how the deposit will trigger the reward.

3. Confirm the outcome after payment

Clearly show what the player received and what happens next once the deposit is complete.

Rather than redesigning the full onboarding journey, the focus was on improving the key moments within the deposit experience itself.

This allowed the team to address the most critical confidence gaps at the point where players make their decisions.

The solution focused on reinforcing confidence across three key moments:

These moments sit within or immediately around the cashier, making the deposit flow the highest-impact area to address first.

SOLUTION

The final experience focused on the three key moments where expectations broke down.

Design decisions were structured around the deposit journey itself before the transaction, during payment and after confirmation.

Problem:
Players struggled to understand what the selected bonus meant before committing money.

Key conditions, such as wagering requirements and reward activation, were not always clear during selection.

Design decision:
The bonus selection experience was redesigned to make reward value, eligibility rules, and wagering conditions easier to understand before entering the cashier.

Outcome.
By clarifying reward mechanics at the point of selection, players could make more confident decisions before moving into the deposit flow.

Problem:
As players moved into the cashier, visibility of the selected bonus weakened, creating uncertainty at the point of payment.

Design decision:
The cashier experience reinforced the selected bonus throughout the flow, allowing players to verify the reward while entering payment details.

Outcome.
Maintaining visibility of the active reward reduced uncertainty during the transaction and reinforced trust in the outcome.

Problem:
After completing the transaction, players often struggled to confirm whether the bonus had been applied.

Design decision:
Confirmation screens were redesigned to clearly show reward status and what happens next after the deposit.

Outcome.
Clear feedback helped players understand the outcome immediately, without needing to contact support.

Impact

The redesign focused on improving clarity and confidence at the moment of commitment. Success was measured across behavioural outcomes, user understanding, and operational efficiency to ensure the changes delivered meaningful impact beyond interface improvements.

Behavioural impact.

A four-week A/B test targeting 10% of new sign-ups validated the approach before full rollout.

Key outcomes.

+7pp increase in first-time deposit completion
-6pp reduction in abandonment
+8pp increase in bonus activation

These results confirmed that improving clarity directly influenced user behaviour at the moment of commitment.

Experience impact.

Users required fewer interactions to understand bonus mechanics, and post-deposit uncertainty decreased substantially.

Key outcomes.

• Users unsure if the bonus was applied reduced from 26% → 12%
• Time to complete deposit decreased by ~19%
• Bonus help interactions reduced by ~30%

Together, these changes showed that the redesigned experience improved users’ understanding of both value and outcome.

Support data showed a sustained decline in bonus-related queries following rollout, particularly in the largest category of confusion-driven contacts.

These reductions demonstrate that improved clarity translated directly into operational efficiency and reduced support reliance.