COVER STORY THINK MOBILE FIRST
he developments we come up with now are always based around thinking mobile ?rst. It is central to what we do. It is no longer an afterthought”, says Stephen Lovell, head of innovation at Paddy Power, who is charged with analysing and putting in place strategies and projects as a result of his work into what technology consumers will be using in ?ve years’ time – most of which is beyond mobile, he adds. Three years ago this kind of thinking, let alone his role, was almost unheard of, however the last two years have seen signi?cant traction in not only the amount of mobile products, but also the amount of revenue generated from mobile and tablet applications. Today, mobile gross gambling yield across all products worldwide has risen from €41m in 2001 to an estimated €3.37bn in 2012, according to H2 Gambling Capital, while mobile betting and gaming customers have been found to generate a higher gross margin than online punters. They may be more expensive to acquire, but in the long run they are more likely to lose and generate a higher lifetime value than if they were to play or place a bet with more traditional means.
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sportsbooks in particular – started taking serious interest and the money started rolling in. ‘Gambling on the go’ really took off with the content-driven iPhone, its intuitive ease of use and App Store enabling customers to download applications at the touch of a button but crucially allowing operators to offer optimised services online and the App Store to distribute those apps. Three years later, Betfair and Paddy Power (each claims to have been the ?rst) almost simultaneously launched the ?rst iPhone betting apps with both operators at the forefront of mobile and tablet products and innovation ever since, while at the same time seeing mobile betting and gaming usage increasing quarteron-quarter. In 2011, Juniper Research reported that mobile gambling netted $20bn that year, estimating this is projected to increase by ?ve times in the next ?ve years. More recently, research by Deloitte claimed that the smartphone is predicted to become a mass market phenomenon in 2013, with annual shipments soaring to one billion globally for the ?rst time. With more operators and service providers seeing their respective mobile offerings mature in recent times, and with smartphone and tablet devices becoming even more diverse and sophisticated, it is perhaps also unsurprising that 48% of eGaming Review readers suggested in a poll in January that 2013 will be the year mobile overtakes desktop as the egaming channel of choice.
Impressive results
For smart gaming companies that have invested in and taken the time to develop mobile-speci?c products that stand out, this has meant a boom in the amount of money deposited and wagered on smartphones, websites and tablet apps as well as tablet-
MOBILE GROSS GAMBLING
Yield by Region 1998 - 2015 CAGR Current EUR millions Total Mobile 2001 41.8 2002 400.3
The early years
Operators have been involved in mobile projects and products for more than a decade with William Hill and several other larger businesses ?rst offering services over Wireless Application Protocol or WAP. Back then, underlying technology constraints including limited data, bandwidth and hardware meant that there was little activity and even less return on investment as a result. It was not until the costs of handsets and hardware began to fall dramatically; Apple introduced its ground-breaking iPhone in 2007 and Google began rolling out Android smartphones some time later; bandwidth speed began to ramp up and household broadband became commonplace; and gaming suppliers began to embrace and invest in the latest trends that the majority of ?rms –
"Mobile is everywhere, while in the home it is no longer confined to the dusty corner of a spare room, it is in front of the TV, in bed, everywhere"
Mobile development expert
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