Callum Broxton Of Checkd Group On 5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Highly Successful App

Thank you so much for joining us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you grew up?

I grew up with the Nokia brick phone, and had my first one when I was 10. And then, by the time I was 14 or 15, the iPhone had come out. It all changed very quickly. I think I was part of that sort of rare crossover period where we literally grew up with no smartphones.

In my role as Head of U.S. Operations with Checkd Group, I am part of a team that produces some of the most popular apps within sports betting, including our flagship, FlashPicks.

Most of us have been around a lot longer than apps have. What were your hobbies and interests in your youth before anyone knew what an ‘app’ was?

I enjoyed playing soccer and hanging out with my friends. I still do those things in the post-app age, to be fair!

It has been said that our mistakes are our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?

One of my first mistakes in the industry was when I was super new to social media and didn’t understand what affiliate marketing was. Rather than using a tracking link for a post — which is the method by which the affiliate’s work is tracked and recognized — I just used a generic “betfair.com” link, which ultimately did nothing for tracking purposes. Someone caught on within 5 minutes, so luckily, it was not too detrimental. Still, it taught me what affiliate marketing was and why what I did was so damaging to an affiliate business. To this day, I have never made that mistake, and the lesson stuck with me.

I tend to meet two types of app developers; people who are passionate about app development and technology and people who started an app because they saw it as a means to solve a problem. Which camp would you put yourself in, and how did you arrive there?

From my standpoint, it is simple: successful apps are all about solving problems that users have and making their lives easier.

Entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint — though I suppose sometimes it’s both at the same time. What kept you motivated to develop your first minimum viable product, and how have you kept your momentum since then?

We built a product that tracked the results of your parlay bet. When you put them in, the app provides live score updates. Primarily, now that’s all within the ‘My Bet’ section. However, back then, it was hugely popular because we’d solved the biggest problem pundits had: that there needed to be a way of directly matching up your bets to the scores.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. Can you tell us a bit about your app? How does it help people? What do you think makes it stand out? What are you most proud of?

The app stands out for many things, like the accessibility aspect for the customer, how quick it is, and how intuitive it is. There are no barriers for entry because it’s got all things covered. There is so much depth to our app. I’m most proud of how quickly it’s been taken up and how we’re seeing results without pushing it on people too much. We’re basically getting people onto the app through marketing means, and then natively, they’re finding the tool, and they’re using it themselves without much of a push, which is ideal because that’s how we could use the success of it.

Approximately how many users or subscribers does your app currently have? Can you share with our readers three of the main steps you’ve taken to build such a large community?

Number one is just tapping into the active betting community on social media. Number two is paid app store optimization- the more traditional way to increase your app rankings. Number 3 is making the app customer-centric.

Can you tell our readers about the most unconventional tactic you’ve used to test, market, or gain feedback on a product? What did you try, what was unique about it, and what was the outcome?

The most unconventional tactic we use at Checkd is putting our products onto everyone and anyone, even if they are not in tune with the betting industry. Promoting the product to all audiences is important because those are the 1% of customers that we rope in by just demonstrating our services.

What are some of the strategies you have used to improve your products and build on their success?

We are adding new features, seeing what the audience uses, and how we can double down on it.