ONE Blackjack was Pragmatic Play’s boldest step into scalable live casino products. Designed for unlimited players around a single hand, it redefined what a blackjack table could be: fast, immersive, and universally accessible. My role was to craft the product’s UI/UX to balance clarity, excitement, and trust — creating an experience that players worldwide would return to, hand after hand.
Context
The live casino market is highly competitive, dominated by a few industry leaders with strong offerings. To gain market share, Pragmatic Play needed a flagship blackjack variant that could differentiate itself while appealing to both traditional blackjack fans and new audiences. The solution was ONE Blackjack: a product with scalability at its core, premium branding, and innovative features like unique side bets and high multipliers.
This context demanded a design that could carry the weight of a commercial flagship — a game that was both operationally efficient (unlimited players, faster hands per hour) and visually compelling (studio presence, sleek UI, seamless mobile experience).
Details
Company:
Pragmatic Play
Time Frame:
Apr 2020 – Aug 2020
Role:
Senior Product Designer
Involvement:
UX Research, Game UI, Prototyping
Overview
ONE Blackjack introduced a new model for Pragmatic Play: a single scalable table where an unlimited number of players join the same hand. Combined with four classic side bets and the exclusive “ONE Blackjack” bet with multipliers up to 2000x, the game expanded both engagement and monetisation opportunities.
As Senior Product Designer, I was responsible for the UI/UX, flow design, and player interaction model, ensuring that the product delivered the excitement of innovation while respecting the core principles of blackjack that players trust and love.
Challenge
Designing ONE Blackjack meant reconciling scalability with usability. Thousands of players could join the same hand, so the interface had to remain clear, responsive, and trustworthy under pressure. At the same time, we needed to integrate multiple side bets and high multipliers in a way that added excitement without overwhelming the core game flow. Delivering this seamlessly across desktop and mobile — while maintaining the premium feel of a flagship product — was the central design challenge.
Process
The design process began with comparative research, analysing competitor speed and scalable blackjack products to identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for differentiation. Together with my manager and key stakeholders, we ran brainstorming sessions to align on business goals and player expectations before moving into design exploration. From there, I developed wireframes in iterative cycles, testing flows and refining layouts until the gameplay felt seamless at scale. Once the structure was validated, I crafted a UI palette that conveyed both clarity and a premium live casino feel, ensuring the product looked as polished as it performed. To maximise flexibility for operators, the design also incorporated a white-label approach, making it straightforward to reskin and adapt the game into bespoke branded experiences without compromising usability or consistency.
Solution
The approach focused on clarity, consistency, and engagement. I developed a modular betting interface that simplified decision-making while keeping advanced features easily accessible. Visual hierarchy and subtle interaction cues guided players through each step, ensuring confidence even at higher speeds. Prototyping and usability testing played a central role: by iterating on layouts, animations, and timings, we refined the experience until it felt both fast and intuitive. The end result was a polished, premium interface that preserved the essence of blackjack while elevating it with innovative features and scalable design.
Results
ONE Blackjack became one of Pragmatic Play’s heavy hitters, a flagship product that significantly boosted the company’s presence in the live dealer market. The scalable model removed table limits, driving higher engagement and longer sessions, while side bets and multipliers added new layers of excitement and revenue potential.
Commercially, the game was an incredible success — adopted by top-tier operators worldwide and played by millions of users across multiple jurisdictions. Beyond the numbers, ONE Blackjack established Pragmatic Play as a serious competitor in the live casino space, proving that innovative design and flawless execution could challenge even the most established market leaders.