Inspiration
Gambling apps are engineered to maximise engagement and take advantage of addictive habits. Platforms such as Stake, Rainbet, Bet365 use visually appealing and dopamine inducing games to incentivise consumers to spend more and ultimately mismanage their finances. Research reveals that 44% of adults aged 18+ in Great Britain have used some form of gambling in the last 4 weeks, and 140,000 are considered to have a gambling problem, putting them in financial peril. Current solutions offered by gambling firms attempt to restrict consumer access through deposit or time limits without addressing the root behavioural cause of addictive habits or helping them make smarter financial decisions.
What it does
We built a gamified savings platform, which mirrors the psychological reward of gambling, while guiding the consumer to more responsible habits. The games gradually de-escalate in stimulation level, helping weaken the behavioural patterns of gamblers. The financial literacy feature redirects recovering addicts towards positive financial outcomes in the long run. Instead of wagering money, users allocate money towards “tickets”. These essentially emulate the concept of premium bonds, and have probabilistic outcomes. These outcomes are presented through minigames which become less visually intense as the user engages more with financial literacy material or saves more. Tickets have an expected annual return of 4%, so users will see savings which mirror a regular savings account over time. We are able to provide rewards as user deposits (ticket purchases) are pooled and allocated into short-term government bonds, which generate interest income. The interest earned from these investments is used to fund ticket-based rewards and platform incentives.
How we built it
When deciding on our brief, we knew we wanted to tackle the unique challenges faced by gambling recoverees. We realized the most engaging approach wouldn't be a strict budgeting tool, but rather a mobile betting-style app that safely replaces financial risk with a prize-linked savings model. To bring this vision to life across both iOS and Android, we evaluated various mobile tech stacks and chose Flutter and Dart for their seamless cross-platform compatibility and rapid development cycle. From there, we took a modular approach to development, independently building out individual pages and components, like the dynamic odds engine, the educational hub, and the rewards store, before weaving them together into a cohesive user experience.
Challenges we ran into
Bringing this concept to life certainly came with its hurdles. Since it was our first time working with Flutter and Dart, we faced a noticeable adjustment curve as we adapted to its widget-centric architecture and state management. Setting up our local testing environments added to the initial friction, requiring us to download and configure mobile emulators just to get our code running. Furthermore, integrating our Firebase backend introduced unexpected roadblocks, forcing us to troubleshoot system path variables and install multiple CLI dependencies on the fly. Ultimately, balancing the ambitious scale of our project with the tight hackathon time limits meant we had to make some strategic compromises, resulting in a few simulated backend shortcuts and UI promises to ensure we delivered a functional, high-impact prototype.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Re-purposing premium bonds for a more modern use, tackling a real world issue which tears families apart. We aim to help gamblers in an age where the world is designed to take advantage of their addiction, and this is something to be proud of. Building an app in a short time was something we are proud of, and we have plans for further features.
What we learned
We learnt how to develop a mobile app, how to develop with an emulator on different platforms. Learnt how to search for a new idea in a crowded field, including bridging the gap between modern gratification economy and addiction recovery.
What's next for Rainsave
Personalised notifications based on user activity data, aimed at preventing gambling abuse, facilitated by a more developed backend. Increased variety of games for a more gradual de-escalation process. More brand partnerships for the store, increased ways to spend user Raindrops. Expanded learning modules, leaderboard feature. Developed integrated chat feature with gambling helpline. Using customer feedback to tweak UI, ensuring theme is preserved while not being a replacement.
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