Betting through the mobile phone has been a disappointment so far but a combination of three important factors coming together means that this neglected segment of the market is now about to lift off.
Warwick Bartlett Lead Partner of Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC) in his opening presentation to the M for Mobile Conference in London on Tuesday 22nd January said that a combination of three crucial factors was creating a perfect storm of opportunity for the Mobile Gambling Operators.
- He cited better mobile phone handsets and the innovative devices such as the Apple iPhone as being more functional and sophisticated with better screens and keyboards enabling better mobile gambling games and interfaces.
- The traditional on line and offline businesses has reached maturity and the gambling companies were in earnest looking for new products that would reach new consumer segments. Many and in particular the majors like Ladbrokes, William Hill and Bet 365 are investing in mobile gambling and their marketing spend will do much to promote this hitherto neglected segment of gambling and mobile sports betting.
- Finally the software providers had listened to their customers and responded with much more user friendly easier to navigate mobile gambling products.
Quoting from the GBGC’s latest report Mgaming for the Future, Bartlett predicts the market will grow at 26% CAGR up to 2012 with Asia representing 67% of the total market, the UK would take 11% with the Rest of Europe 22%.
However Bartlett warned that with almost 100% penetration of mobile phones in Europe social responsibility is a key issue. The industry must be mindful that a large section of mobile users are under 18 years of age and is not allowed to gamble. Figuring out a way to keep the under age crowd from accessing the mobile casinos remains the largest challenge.
Update: According to GablingCompliance One of the UK’s leading mobile gambling operators has criticized inadequate know your customer protocols, suggesting some mobile phone betting systems are “negligent” and “a scam” in terms of identifying their customers and ensuring they are over 18 years of age. Perhaps figuring out customer’s age will be a bigger problem than anticipated.
3 responses so far ↓
I can see where you are coming from there. Currently there is little by way of standardisation beyond the humble SMS and it’s not very exiting to spend money for a text that says, say, “[3H,5H,8C,QD,KD] you loose, try again”. With time the PC, palmtop, MP3 and phone sectors will merge until you have a single device that is phone, camera, pocket computer, remote control, portable internet client and games console all in one. Then mobile gaming will be as big as mobile porn and spam probably will.
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