Paddy Power
Creating ‘Auto Withdraw’ — a safer gambling feature for Paddy Power
Overview
Auto Withdraw was designed as a safer gambling feature for Paddy Power, helping users take more control over how and when winnings were withdrawn from their betting account. The goal was to create a simple, low-friction tool that encouraged healthier gambling behaviours while maintaining a seamless experience within the wider sportsbook journey. This required balancing responsible gambling principles, customer trust, and business objectives within a highly regulated product environment
Discovery Phase
Project Definition
The primary challenge was to address excessive gambling behaviors by providing users with a proactive mechanism to manage their funds. Success metrics included reduced instances of high-risk gambling, increased usage of responsible gambling features, and positive user feedback.
User Research
Methods: Conducted surveys and interviews with a diverse group of Paddy Power users to understand their betting habits and attitudes towards responsible gambling tools.
Key Findings: Users expressed a need for non-intrusive tools that provide financial control without disrupting their betting experience. Insights highlighted a preference for customizable thresholds and periodic reminders.
Competitive Analysis
Methods: Analyzed similar tools from competitors like Betfair and William Hill to identify best practices and potential gaps.
Findings: Many existing tools were either too intrusive or lacked customization options. This provided an opportunity to differentiate by focusing on user control and seamless integration.
Regulatory Review
Methods: Reviewed relevant gambling regulations and consulted with legal experts to ensure compliance.
Outcome: Developed a compliance checklist to guide the design and implementation phases, ensuring adherence to all legal requirements.
My Role
As Product Designer, I worked across the end-to-end experience—from early concept and problem definition through to user flows, wireframes, prototyping, and final UI delivery.
I collaborated closely with Product Managers, Compliance, Responsible Gambling teams, Engineering, and stakeholders across the wider Flutter Group to ensure the solution was intuitive for users, aligned with regulatory expectations, and commercially viable.
I also contributed to shared design patterns used across the wider product ecosystem to maintain consistency across brands.
The Challenge
Safer gambling features often struggle with adoption because they can feel overly restrictive, complex, or disconnected from the core product experience.
The challenge was to design a tool that supported better customer behaviour without creating unnecessary friction or negatively impacting trust.
Users needed clarity, control, and confidence—while the business needed a solution that aligned with compliance requirements and responsible gambling commitments.
Designing for behaviour change without harming usability required careful product thinking and strong stakeholder alignment.
Process
I worked with product and data teams to understand user behaviour, identify friction points around withdrawals and spending habits, and define where intervention could create the most value.
This involved mapping customer journeys, simplifying decision points, and testing flows that made Auto Withdraw feel like a helpful product feature rather than a restrictive control.
Wireframes and prototypes were used to align teams early, validate assumptions, and ensure the final experience could be delivered effectively within technical and regulatory constraints.
Solution
The final design created a simple and accessible way for users to automate withdrawals and manage account behaviour with greater confidence.
The experience focused on reducing cognitive load, improving transparency, and making responsible gambling tools feel like a natural part of the betting journey rather than a separate compliance feature.
Clearer interaction patterns, improved content hierarchy, and simplified setup flows helped make the feature easier to understand and more likely to be used.
Outcome
Auto Withdraw delivered a safer, more user-friendly account experience that supported responsible gambling behaviours while maintaining product usability and customer trust.
The feature helped strengthen Paddy Power’s safer gambling offering, improved clarity around account control, and demonstrated how responsible design can support both customer wellbeing and long-term product value.
It also contributed to wider consistency across responsible gambling tools within the broader Flutter product ecosystem.
