The technological revolution of the past few decades has found some of the more traditional industries struggling to adapt, with many fighting for their lives. Despite being one of the world’s oldest, the gambling industry has suffered no such fate, in fact it has ridden the information tidal wave with huge success.
Morality asides, few can find fault with the way that companies like Betfair have innovated and provided; a fact that the current weekly turnover of over $75m testifies to. It was only a matter of time before the potential of the smartphone in this arena was seized and acted upon.
Dermot Desmond, the Irish Billionaire and founder of Betdaq (the globe’s second largest betting exchange after Betfair) has been eyeing up Android smartphones as the ideal platform for the extension of online betting to mobile. Already 3% of digital flutters are placed by phone but Brian O’Sullivan, Betdaq’s CEO, is gambling on this rising to 50% over the next five years and both he and his boss have good reputations for predicting the future; Desmond correctly predicted, and dodged, the 2001 dotcom fall.
O’Sullivan says the company are very excited about Android and the ability the platform gives them to run their software across a range of handsets. Add to this the prudish attitude taken towards adult pastimes by Apple and its easy to see why Betdaq’s apps will be just the first mobile gambling services coming to our handsets, at least in states and countries where you can bet on sports activities in the first place. I’m betting that if you don’t, then you won’t have read this far.