eGaming Review March 2013 | Page 10

M ONT H I N M I NUT ES RIGHT TO REPLY WHAT ODDS A ‘MOBILE ONLY’ BRANDED BOOKIE? Mobile and betting have gone together like peas in a pod, but ask yourself how long it will be until we see a newcomer to the sportsbook world which promotes itself strictly as a mobile-only operation? This newcomer will add the word ‘mobile’ to the end of the brand name and the business model will simply focus on providing a mobile and tablet betting platform designed to ful?l each and every mobile punter’s need, supported across every major mobile operating system. This mobile-only ?rm will not even offer a traditional website for betting, but with nearly 50% of the top sportsbooks’ user bases placing bets through their respective mobile devices each month, it’s a good starting argument to go into the boardroom with. You will still need support from every other department within the ?rm, so much of the fabric wouldn’t change. You’ll still need telephone betting for those periods of downtime. But think of the saving to a business in time and cost if you excluded the traditional web-based betting platform. And the focus you could put into leading mobile innovation! No one in the sportsbook world has mastered the perfect mobile betting platform. I personally don’t think anyone ever will. Constantly changing technology ensures it will always be a work in progress, never ?nished, just continually improving. The mobile space is the best, most ?tting thing to happen to the gambling industry since it started to take bets from punters. Its rapidity, its portage, its discreteness knows no bounds. MONTH IN NUMB3RS US$1.5bn fee agreed by Scientific Games for slot manufacturer WMS Industries. P16 E AG ICE at ear , ICE ut y entre th eb l C i e ts d d tw In i s ExC ell ou -base ' on as a s land in the d Lon 13 w e and rged 20 nlin ve the con l for ho bot bitors ic hal e. i t exh gigan rst tim ? > JACK SANGSTER > MOBILE MARKETING SPECIALIST 5% Gambling Commission chief executive Jenny Williams admits to a DCMS Select Committee that she is only able to “guess” the size of the UK egaming black market saying it represents “well below 5% [of money]”. P24 50% to 33% Nik Zugic, co-founder, Latest Casino Bonuses on the affiliate portal’s shift from largely US traffic to users from other emerging and regulating regions. P44 1YR Length of time spent by Ignacio Martos in his role as CEO of Betclic Everest Group. He is replaced by CFO Isabelle Andres. P18 FAMILY TREE POKERSTARS MARKETING & COMMS TEAM In the last two years, PokerStars has seen a number of personnel changes on the PR and comms side of the business. This month we take a look at some of those new faces. 10 www.egrmagazine.com