Super Group is the holding company for leading global online sports betting and gaming businesses Betway, a premier online sports betting brand, and Spin, a multi-brand online casino offering. Headquartered in Guernsey, the business comprises a worldwide workforce of more than 3,500 colleagues across 17 countries.

Creating the canvas for a contemporary and compelling space

The principal aim of this workplace design project was to support Super Group’s high-growth strategy and transform the employee experience to boost productivity and enhance wellbeing.   

POS had previously delivered the successful fit out of Betway’s offices on the top floor of Bordeaux Court, St Peter Port, Guernsey, in 2015. This 2021/22 project was focused on the Super Group’s expansion into the first floor of the building.   

One of the first challenges we faced was that the first floor office space needed extensive modernisation.   

With little investment over the duration of the previous tenancy, the fixtures, fittings and decorative fabric needed updating and the property comprised low ceilings and lacked raised access flooring, which minimised the flexible use of the space and its appeal.   

This gave us the opportunity to rethink how best to strip-back to the core shell of the property to provide the canvas for a contemporary working environment and to allow us to embed modern well building standards into our design recommendations. These ranged from the specification of lighting solutions to improve energy, mood and productivity, strategies to optimise air flow and quality and acoustic comforts and a zonal design to allow for spaces to support mental and emotional wellbeing and spaces to support the variety of functional requirements that underpin highly productive work.  

We installed a raised access floor for practicality and removed the suspended ceilings. We painted this in the Super Group brand colours and installed bespoke Autex acoustic panelling throughout the building to subtly create different spaces and reduce noise transference. 

Understanding people's functional and emotional needs to inform and inspire the design 

Super Group understood our people-centred approach to projects. We knew that employee engagement would be essential from the start to inform the successful design of a compelling workplace that would support flexible, productive and modern ways of working.   

Whilst we already understood the brand’s ethos, as workplace design experts, we know that it is only possible to create the best space to inspire people by taking a deep dive into how people and teams really work and by learning about a company’s culture and vision for the future.   

Our unique ‘Knowledge Worker’ survey and deep dive workshops with the management team helped us to understand people’s functional and emotional needs.  We were able to identify the extent and type of spaces and resources required to support people when needed to collaborate, contemplate or concentrate, and how this may vary depending on their role and working patterns in relation to the type of Knowledge Worker they were. We identified that, while two-thirds of the workforce presented as ‘Anchors’, spending most of their time at their desks, a third were ‘Connectors’, spending more time interacting with other team members in various parts of the building. To support this finding, the ‘Competing Values Framework’ we conducted depicted a strong emphasis in the ‘Collaborate’ and ‘Create’ quadrants, suggesting that an abundance of versatile spaces would stimulate and foster innovation to develop and support staff the most.   

Wellbeing was also identified as vital for staff positivity, with nature, social interaction and nutrition ranked as the top factors for impacting employee productivity.  

These findings were crucial in informing the design, making it clear that an open-plan 'hoteling’ concept would meet the needs of a hybrid workforce by providing areas for desk-based high concentration work and areas for collaboration and interaction. 

'Hoteling' - a new approach to planning the working day

We designed what would traditionally be considered as the reception area as the focal point of the office, rather like a hotel lobby area.  

Reflecting the concept of ‘hoteling’, we designed a compelling and welcoming space, not just for visitors, but for staff to start their daily work ‘journey’ and the opportunity to pause and plan in a relaxed environment, rather than the historic tendency of going straight to a desk. The design incorporated a lounge and dining area, with comfortable break-out spaces for solo planning or social and collaborative interactions. 

We introduced biophilic design with real and artificial planting to uplift mood through the positive connection with nature, and used Super Group’s branding to guide visual design and decoration, utilising their various brand logos, product visuals and colour scheme to provide a fun, distinctive feel.   

To further support hotelling, new technology was introduced to allow people to book meeting pods, rooms and workstations as part of planning their day and the desired resources to enhance productivity.   

Innovative spaces to work, meet and collaborate

With creativity and interaction so crucial to the working day, we designed a main collaboration area with stand-up desks, adjustable stools and a moveable acoustic wall for flexibility. With tech at the forefront of the business, we also connected an innovative Avocor touch-screen display for internal meetings and collaborating with colleagues in other offices.   

Sound-absorbent pods and phone booths were installed for private meetings, which we finished off with distinctive, backlit natural images of Guernsey, such as Fort Grey, helping to convey the feeling of nature and bringing the outside in.   

Meeting rooms were designed with flexibility and practicality in mind. Moveable walls allow the space to be opened out and used for different functions. Here, again, acoustic ceiling panels minimises noise transference and aid privacy while bespoke LED lighting helps to lift the space for a positive working environment.   

All of these spaces can be booked out via a central booking system, part of the ‘hoteling’ concept, offering staff the flexibility to plan their days or weeks at the touch of a button.   

We also used bespoke digitally printed wallpaper, distinct to each brand, to split the work areas and give a fun, contemporary feel. In the main collaboration area, we installed a large-scale digital image of the company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange for a positive, striking impact.  

To support employee’s desire for active travel and daytime exercise, we also installed personal lockers, showers and changing rooms. 

A fun place to work that everyone is proud of 

The fit-out has been extremely well received across the organisation and the global leadership team. The project has met the brief by providing a fun, energetic and productive space for employees to work and collaborate with wellbeing at its heart.   

It has also set the precedent for the design concept to be rolled out across Super Group’s global offices.