Barry Dennis hits the phones Betting Betfair
updates £1bn bet mobile products
Some firms would have been happy enough with breaking 10 figures for mobile stakes, but Betfair is not resting on its laurels.
MOBILE B
etting exchange Betfair has updated its mobile product range, despite
the fact that over £1bn worth of bets were placed via the company’s mobile products in the last financial year. The firm has made key upgrades to Betfair Touch, the company’s mobile web application, and the launch of updated native iPhone and iPad applications into the Apple store. Betfair Touch has been ‘significantly upgraded’ to enhance in-play betting, fea- turing faster response times, live scores and a dramati- cally enhanced search capa- bility, while the iPhone 2.3 app features the ability to deposit and withdraw funds to a registered card solely via a mobile phone. The upgraded app also features account loss and deposit limit features, in line with Betfair’s commitment to player protection and social responsibility.
Betfair’s new version of its native iPad app is espe- cially tailored for the device’s specific dimen- sions, displaying full Betfair market depth across all application screens as well as allowing the user to place a bet whilst simultaneously viewing a market and their betting position. The app also features improved use of geo-verification - identi- fying a device’s location based on GPS co-ordinates - bringing it in line with Betfair’s iPhone app. Betfair’s head of mobile product Richard Hewitt commented: “Having pio- neered betting via mobile, Betfair now has a highly evolved customer proposi- tion in this channel and we believe all three of these applications will bring an enhanced user experience to our growing band of mobile customers. We are looking forward to really growing out this key plat- form with more innovation over the coming year.”
Betfair was the first company to launch a betting app in the Apple Store in May 2010 and thanks to its deci- sion to build in controls which deny access to players in countries which ban gambling meant that its app became the first to be approved by Apple.
During its annual results, Betfair revealed that 168,000 people using their mobiles to place a bet in the last year - a year-on-year increase of 122 per cent. In a year in which over 900m bets were matched on the Betfair Exchange - on major events such as the Cheltenham Fes- tival and the football and cricket World Cups - rev- enues from mobile products jumped 88 per cent. Raj Vemulapalli, Betfair’s recently appointed VP of Mobile Engineering, said: “Betfair has had an explo- sive year in mobile and our sights are now firmly set on reaching even greater heights in the year ahead. Developing new betting
methods and experiences for the increasing amount of our customers who wish to access Betfair through their mobile phones is a key pri- ority of the business.” As well as releasing its own in-house applications, Betfair enables third-party developers to build their own mobile products off of the Betfair Exchange through its API (Application Programming Interface). In an effort to further stimu- late innovation in the mobile betting sphere, Betfair offered mobile developers a new revenue-share deal in March which sees 5 per cent of the revenue generated through applications returned to the developers. Vemulapalli added: “The surge in global smartphone sales represents a signifi- cant opportunity for us, and we’re confident that our track-record of delivering cutting-edge technology for our customers will enable us to capitalise on this trend.”
Arena aims to attract suitors R
ACQUISITION
acecourse operator Arena Leisure is mulling over how to ‘increase value for share- holders’ and has launched a strategic review and is thought to be encouraging offers from interested parties.
The firm has already been linked to The Reuben Brothers, Northern Racing owners and existing Arena shareholders, but has also been associated with broadcaster SIS. The talks over a potential offer for the firm has been continu- ing against the backdrop of Arena’s latest interim results, which saw total revenue decrease by £1.9m to £28.2m and profit before interest and tax decreased by £0.6m to £1.4m.
Arena chairman David
ARENA HAS SEEN DROPPING LEVY REVENUES BUT INCREASED MEDIA RIGHTS PAYMENTS
Thorpe commented: “Despite the challenging back drop of reduced indus- try funding and the slow economic recovery, the consumer-driven opera- tions of Arena’s business
10 BettingBusinessInteractive • AUGUST 2011
have performed exception- ally well; most notably, posting attendance growth of over 11 per cent in the period. Our trading per- formance since 30 June 2011 is in line with the company’s expectations.” Arena also took the opportunity to complain about the drop in Levy
revenue, which fell by £4.9m to £5.7m for the first half of the year. As with many other stakeholders, Arena is keen to see reform of the Levy. It said: “Arena is fully participating in this consultation process and is optimistic that a beneficial solution can be found that involves either a restruc- tured Levy mechanism or a long-term commercial alternative.” It added that both alternatives would ‘need to address the flaws in the current mechanism’. However, Arena did acknowledge that the media rights ‘uplift’ from 2012 onwards is now on the horizon - although it wasn’t acknowledged that funds from the Levy and for media rights essentially emanate from the same source -
bookmakers.
The company said: “From January 2012 the new media rights contract from SIS commences with its estimated £10.0m per annum uplift. The board believes that the nature of the racecourse estate, in particular the all-weather assets, will be advanta- geous to Arena in the event of a Levy replacement that is predicated on a commer- cial relationship with book- makers. The recent pronouncements by the government on licensing and taxation of overseas bookmaking is seen as extremely encouraging with regards to a precedent for a potential solution to the Levy’s structural defi- ciencies in regard to over- seas operations.”
BETFAIR’S IPAD APP IS ESPECIALLY TAILORED FOR THE DEVICE’S SPECIFIC DIMENSIONS
ANALYSIS
The fact that Betfair has continued to innovate its mobile products despite attracting £1bn+ worth of bets is an indication as to why the
exchange is one of the leading proponents of mobile gambling. However a plan to slow down the investment in
technology over the next few years in order to appease shareholders could allow some firms to overtake the betting exchange in this fast moving area, but the majority of the pack are still playing catch- up when it comes to exploiting the
potential of the new series of smartphones and their market penetration.
High profile bookmaker Barry Dennis has launched a telephone betting service, in association with Star Sports, offering both credit and debit telephone betting to both serious high stakers and to smaller players. He said: “Now is the right time for me to launch this exclusive credit and debit telephone betting service for those that can’t make it to the course. I’ll be betting on other sports as well, so you can now bet with me before, during and after the racing. We look forward to welcoming everyone to what will be a top-class service.”
BETTINGBRIEFS
CENTREBET SIGNS UP FOR POOLS
Football pools operator Sportech has furthered its distribution network ahead of the new football season. During its latest trading update, in which the firm revealed it had seen a 30 per cent increase in EBITDA, Sportech said: “The group continues to invest in modernising its Football Pools business and extending its distri- bution network, whilst focusing on costs and cost effective customer acquisition. In addition to those already announced, we are pleased to have secured a further distribution agreement with Centre- bet, a major Australian bookmaker, which will go live prior to the start of the new football season.”
‘GAME CHANGING’ MOBILE INTERFACE
William Hill has launched its ‘game changing’ new mobile site -
mobet.williamhill.com - which is available to use on all mobile devices with internet capability and features some new developments. The new site gives punters access to over 500,000 markets every week, the Racing Post App, Shake- A-Bet, Match Predictor and Mobile Casino. “We’ve taken time to develop our new mobile site, and we believe it’s now the best in the mar- ketplace,” explained William Hill’s head of mobile Michael Byrne. “The new site has already received rave reviews in the media and we believe it will be a big hit with British punters.”
WORLD CUP TARGET
Gaming VC has revealed that it is investing in its emerging markets brand Betboo ahead of the next World Cup. It revealed: “Betboo has shown strong growth in Net Gaming Revenue and the group is committed to make significant invest- ments in the Betboo business; we com- menced an aggressive marketing campaign in Latin America in Q2- 2011, The aim of this marketing campaign is to achieve a step-change in the revenues ahead of the 2014 FIFA World Cup which is being held in Brazil. The Group also successfully launched Betboo into other emerging markets during the half year with better than expected initial results.”
ACTION IMAGES / JULIAN HERBERT
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32