SportsGrid Roku: Reimagining Sports Broadcasting for the Living Room

While the SportsGrid mobile app was designed for the “lean-forward,” on-the-go user, the brand’s presence on Connected TV platforms like Roku required a completely different approach. This was about designing for the “10-foot, lean-back” experience of the living room.


The challenge wasn’t simply to stream the SportsGrid broadcast. It was to leverage the digital nature of the Roku platform to create an experience smarter and more interactive than a traditional cable channel. The vision was building a true command centre for the modern sports fan, complete with innovative features like multiscreen viewing and an integrated betting dashboard.

This type of challenge defines my work in sports media UX design, where traditional broadcast principles merge with interactive product thinking.

I was tasked with leading the design for the SportsGrid Roku channel from the ground up. My responsibility was defining the entire user experience for this new platform. This involved architecting the information flow for a remote-control interface, designing a compelling visual language for the TV screen, and conceptualising the innovative, data-driven features that would set the channel apart.

The engagement followed the same process I use in sports tech product design consulting: clarifying objectives, reducing complexity, and creating scalable design systems that can evolve with the product.

The final concept was a sophisticated platform that combined a traditional broadcast feel with powerful digital features. The design was built on three key pillars.

Navigation on a TV is fundamentally different from mobile or desktop. I designed an intuitive, content-first system that was easy to navigate with a standard remote.

• The homepage immediately presented the live broadcast, surrounded by a clear schedule of upcoming shows
• Users could easily browse dedicated pages for specific leagues, shows, and on-demand content, ensuring they could always find what they were looking for

To cater to the modern sports fan who tracks multiple games simultaneously, I designed a powerful ‘Multiscreen’ concept. This feature allows users to watch several live streams at once (from different games to different SportsGrid shows), transforming the passive lean-back experience into an active, multi-view command centre.

I considered a traditional picture-in-picture approach where odds would appear in a separate window. Instead, I designed an integrated overlay that sits alongside the main broadcast.

Here’s why: bettors don’t just want to see odds. They want to see odds in context with the game action. The overlay approach allows users to watch the game and track multiple betting opportunities simultaneously without losing immersion in the primary content. It’s cognitively easier to scan a side panel than to constantly switch mental contexts between windows.

The true innovation was the design of an integrated betting dashboard that overlaid the live broadcast with real-time, actionable data. This wasn’t just about showing video but making it smarter. I designed a system that could display live odds for up to 12 different games alongside the main broadcast, giving viewers the critical betting information they need without ever needing to look down at their phone.

My work provided SportsGrid with a complete design framework for a critical new platform, enabling them to expand their reach and deepen engagement with their audience.


It Opened a Critical New Distribution Channel: The designs provided a clear and actionable plan for SportsGrid to launch on Roku, one of the world’s largest Connected TV platforms, reaching a new and highly engaged audience in the living room.

It Created a ‘Smarter’ Broadcast Experience: The integrated betting dashboard concept provided a vision for a product that was fundamentally more valuable than a standard broadcast, increasing viewer engagement and session length by making the content more interactive and useful.

It Provided a Clear Framework for the CTV Roadmap: The comprehensive designs for the core navigation, multiscreen, and data dashboards served as a complete strategic guide, de-risking the technical build and accelerating the development roadmap for their entire Connected TV strategy.

Check out the SportsGrid app on the Roku Store