Mobile Betting

As preparation for my research about mobile gambling I assembled 5 collections of internet excerpts with a special focus on http://www.777mobile.com/:

http://qtsaver.blogspot.com/2005/11/mobile-gambling.html
http://qtsaver.blogspot.com/2005/11/roulette-research.html
http://qtsaver.blogspot.com/2005/11/poker-research.html
http://qtsaver.blogspot.com/2005/11/black-jack-research.html
http://qtsaver.blogspot.com/2005/11/research-777mobile.html

In this collection I'll try to broaden the view by presenting internet info about mobile betting (synonym for mobile gambling that I found on Clusty).

Collections were powered by QTSaver.

Contents:

Introduction
Market
Legislation
Innovation


Introduction
http://www.777mobi.com/
Mobile betting has completely changed the way people think about betting. Once, you had to go to the racetracks or the different games in order to place bets.
However, then came mobile betting and changed all that. Today you can place bets on any race or game that you like, without having to trouble yourself to go to the tracks.
Sounds simple, but technologically speaking, mobile betting is far from that. It is the culmination of years of developments, and now it all comes to this.
There will come a day in the not so distant future that people will not go to the races anymore, or to see the games. It will suffice for them to watch the games and races on television, and to place bets via mobile betting for their cellular phones. http://www.marketresearch.com/land/product.asp?productid=1083186&progid=3602
The traditional methods of gambling such as casino gaming, betting on sports events and playing lottery games are increasingly being augmented with electronic forms of gambling, most notably using the Internet, where casino services and betting services are already generating substantial revenues. The next progression in this process is to transfer these and similar services to the mobile handset.
http://www.mobilemonday.net/mm/story.php?id=3471
Betting on advanced phones
This new service does not require additional software download to the phone. Phone interface is not just a plain money transaction application but it gives the punter access to results services, future start lists, scratches, tips, news, game history, customer profile and of course the possibility to play. At the moment users of the mobile systems need to register and open their betting account and transfer money to the account via mobile internet.
http://www.thefeaturearchives.com/101042.html
Betting On Mobile By Carlo Longino, Sat Sep 04 01:15:00 EEST 2004
These certainly aren't the first moves into mobile betting, which has been around since the early WAP days, and the famous Hong Kong Jockey Club now takes more bets from mobile devices than it does online. Most UK carriers have some partnership with bookmakers, an industry that tends to stay on top of technology.
Gamblers are a good fit for mobile content and services -- they're generally devoted customers, they're likely to be looking for improvements in service and their activity, of course, generates money. Freeing punters from having to get down to the betting shop to gamble seems like an easy way for the companies to increase their potential revenues.
Chances are if mobile betting proves lucrative in the UK and elsewhere, carriers will look to protect their own partnerships and revenues to do something to try to block the third-party Java apps and services.

Market
http://www.onlinecasinonews.com/ocnv2_1/article/Article.asp?id=4728 To gauge the potential, EMC calculates there were some 16 million users of European GPRS networks and 38.5 million i-mode subscribers in Japan alone, all of whom are potential customers of mobile and Internet gambling operators. While the legal issues related to mobile and tele-betting is yet to be ratified, the infrastructure and awareness is now maturing.
http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=12509214&postID=111479753754762778 However, the rapid proliferation of mobile services in Asia, combined with an increasing tolerance of sports betting (cricket is now the second most popular sport for betting, thanks primarily to Indian gamblers) should see the percentages using these services rise markedly in the medium term. Overall, this means that the number of individuals placing bets via the mobile phones should rise from its current level of around 4.6m to more than 100m by 2009. http://telephonyonline.com/mag/telecom_intelligence_broadband_economy_73
Apr 25, 2005
According to a separate Juniper report, the market for mobile sports betting is set to explode from current levels of 4.6 million wireless gamblers per year to 100 million high-rollers by 2009, spurred by an Asian market. Mobile betting in all forms is currently prohibited in the U.S., however, although Juniper says the market — currently projected to generate revenues of $19.3 billion by 2009 — could be worth much more should U.S. legislators loosen the reins.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-15-2003/0002036501&EDATE=
J., Oct. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Interactive Systems Worldwide Inc. (Nasdaq: ISWI) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Global Interactive Gaming Limited (GIG), has launched its play-by-play mobile wagering product in conjunction with its betting partner ukbetting plc. This product is to be initially offered to one of the world's largest mobile operators with over 13 million UK customers. The SportXction(TM) System will be made available through an existing suite of products offered by ukbetting plc to its WAP enabled users. The new mobile platform now enables users the ultimate freedom to play SportXction(TM) during a live match from anywhere. Users can now watch live sports at home, at sports bars and cafes or even at the Stadium and make real-time wagers through their mobile phone on events as they happen. The mobile market in the UK is one of the most sophisticated in the world with four major suppliers providing services to over 47 million users.
http://www.thefeaturearchives.com/101418.html
The Guardian cites a research report saying mobile gambling will be an almost $20 billion-per-year industry by the end of the decade, and reports that mobile phones are quickly supplanting the Internet as punters' tool of choice. One particular aspect of mobile gambling that's expected to fuel its growth is the ability to make "in-running" bets -- wagers made after the events have started. In addition to gambling offerings from operators as well as traditional bookmakers, a new style of bookie -- the betting exchange -- is emerging. It's tech-saavy and has no offline presence such as betting shops, but most importantly, it only matches up gamblers' bets.

Legislation
http://www.heingartner.com/msnbc-html.htm
LEGAL POSITION UNCLEAR
Beyond text messaging, the latest multimedia phones open more possibilities. A few years from now, mobile phone users might be able to respond to live streaming video of a match. Mobile betting could still face legal challenges in Europe, which doesn’t have legislation addressing the growing phenomenon. “There aren’t specific laws that really forbid it here, so the lotteries have to push regulators to either clarify the law or sort of nod and say it’s OK,” said Tymen Selman, chief executive of Openlot. “In most European countries, from a legal point of view it’s not a problem.” In the United States, though, interactive betting is illegal.

Innovation
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=271715
NEWBURY, UK, 21 September 2004 - Mobile Streams, the global mobile content company, announced today the launch of a range of innovative Pay-to-Play mobile betting games including a choice of three reel slots and scratch cards.
Simon Buckingham, CEO of Mobile Streams said: “We are excited to be the first company to offer a really compelling range of Pay-to-Play betting games. By enabling players to pay through reverse SMS, we are opening up the services to the mass market.
http://in.tech.yahoo.com/050127/137/2j9j9.html
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Betting agent Ladbrokes has introduced fancy casino games for mobile phones aimed at a new market which will grow to billions of euros in the next few years, the company said on Thursday.
Spin3, a mobile phone software company that works with UK-based Microgaming, provider of the betting engine, also competes with rivals such as Casino Phone Technologies, Cometa Games and vsGaming, which have experience in Internet betting services and want to take that business to cell phones.
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/11-01-2005/0004205595&EDATE=
Coral Eurobet, one of the leading gaming operators in the world (recently been acquired by Gala Group Limited -, operator of 166 Bingo clubs and 32 casinos in the UK and Gibraltar - has recently launched the mobile casino service, developed by Zone4play. The service is available through the Coral website http://www.coral.co.uk, and is being distributed by iTouch UK Ltd, one of the world leading mobile content distributors, using newspapers, SMS campaigns and soon TV advertisements. Zone4Play has developed its Mobile casino product during the last 2 years.
http://goliath.ecnext.com/comsite5/bin/comsite5.pl?page=description&purchase_type=ITM&item_id=0199-463405&words=Victor_Chandler_Launches
10-JUN-04 Victor Chandler is launching a full mobile sports betting service this week in one of the most ambitious wireless moves by a bookmaker. The firm says its sports book will work across all networks, initially for Java phones and then for any WAP-enabled handsets...
http://www.netimperative.com/2004/09/03/Stanleybet_launches_mobile_betting_service Bookmaker Stanleybet is to launch a new mobile betting service at the Sprint Cup at Haydock Park this Saturday. The service enables UK mobile phone users to bet on sporting events, including horse racing and football.
http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/Sept2004/8260.htm Europe : 3, the UK's first video mobile network, and Ladbrokes, the world's number one bookmaker, today announced the launch of the first video mobile betting service.