Fast-Tracking Fan Engagement
with Free-to-Play Innovation

By launching Streaks with an agile approach, PrizePicks sped up releases and unlocked new market growth.

As the leading daily fantasy sports operator in the United States, PrizePicks has established itself at the forefront of the industry. The company continues to evolve, pushing boundaries with innovative new game types that attract and engage a rapidly growing user base.

The Opportunity

PrizePicks set out to expand beyond its initial service offerings by creating new products to drive growth and engagement. One of the first objectives was to design a free-to-play game that would attract new users and deepen daily engagement, all while maintaining the excitement and intensity of the paid game variant. The goal was to adapt quickly to the fast-moving Paid Fantasy Sports Market while staying responsive to user needs.

To meet this challenge, PrizePicks envisioned “Streaks,” a free-to-play game aimed at enhancing the overall user experience. However, despite having a strategic direction, the internal team faced bandwidth limitations as they were already managing other high-priority initiatives. Although there were plans to build a dedicated product team to oversee strategy, design, and development, the competitive pressure required swift action.

With these constraints, PrizePicks needed a development partner who could not only provide immediate support to accelerate development but also bring modern product discovery and delivery practices to the table. This partnership would ensure the success of “Streaks” and support PrizePicks’ ambitious scaling goals.

The Solution

Dualboot Partners stepped in to strengthen PrizePicks’ product team, not just by providing technical expertise, but by becoming an integral part of their culture. We worked closely with their existing staff, aligning with PrizePicks’ playful mentality and culturally relevant brand ethos. Our team adapted to their communication preferences and agile practices, such as regular huddles, to ensure we were fully embedded in their processes. This allowed us to provide both front-end and back-end development support while fostering strong collaboration, making the integration of our team seamless as we worked together to bring the product from concept to market. By meeting PrizePicks where they were and embracing their internal culture, we helped the team not only deliver the solution but do so in a way that felt cohesive and painless for everyone involved.

“Dualboot really worked with us as one big team – their communication, creativity, and execution was top notch.”

Brian Huss

VP Innovation PrizePicks

Initially we approached Design from a needs first standpoint, focusing on known pain points and the decision making of market leading Voice of Customer within the PrizePicks organization, however inevitably we hit impasses where no clear direction could be charted through uncertainty either due to differing perspectives, uncertainty in user preference, or changes to regulation. When this happened we pivoted towards iterative design sprints, ensuring that design, engineering and product teams were aligned on viability, desirability and feasibility, and that iterative feedback loops were in place. This modern, design-thinking approach replaced the traditional waterfall methods, allowing for quicker pivots and a more user-centric development process.

The “Streaks” game was developed as a free-to-play offering within the existing PrizePicks application. The game encourages users to build a streak by making daily picks, leading to the opportunity to place a free, paid entry for a chance to win real money. The game was designed to integrate seamlessly with PrizePicks’ existing user base while deploying to users in specific states via location-based feature flagging.

The Impact

“Streaks” has proven to be a game-changer for PrizePicks. The launch of the game resulted in a 10% increase in new users, contributing to significant growth in their total user base.

Moreover, the introduction of “Streaks” opened up PrizePicks to 13 new states, previously underserved by their offerings. This expansion not only diversified and grew their user base, but also presents the opportunity for new revenue-driving opportunities within the free-to-play space and provides a strong foundation for net new game variants and promotions in the future.

The successful deployment of “Streaks” exemplifies how modern product management practices, combined with a focus on user needs and iterative development, can drive meaningful business outcomes. As PrizePicks continues to grow, ‘Streaks’ stands as a testament to the impact of strategic product development in enhancing user experience and expanding market reach.

“I was impressed by the exceptionally high quality of Dualboot’s work, particularly on the creative development and design front. I was also thrilled by how strongly and frequently the team communicated with us – it really was a one team mentality throughout”