Location Based Betting – Who will be first?
Mobile betting is the future
Mobile betting is becoming more and more popular among players. Betting companies have a large percentage of their bets placed on a mobile device.
Many mobile sports books looks very similar today. You find an event you like and place a bet. But what will the future bring? When will we take advantage of all the features available inside the phone?
Location Based Betting
One idea I think would be really cool is some kind of a location based betting which uses your current location and shows you what you can bet on that is close by.
Image 1. A suggestion for a location based betting application.
So will Location Based Betting be anything in the future? What do you think?
/Staffan
Location based already exists in the sense that you must have your mobile located in the UK to bet on the UK Betfair app for example. But as for granular locations, I agree its nice to know what you can bet on nearby, it’s something I wanted to make when I was at Smarkets. Maybe they’ll still make it! But remember, the data providers that most betting companies use are delayed by quite a few seconds and therefore people betting at the ground have an advantage over those watching TV. There is a data provider available that is based on legions of staff actually located in stadiums who are on mobile devices and can tip off your system much faster than a traditional data provider, but that’s by the by. This delay in data is why companies like Betfair have a 3-7 second delay when you place an in-play bet. Just something to bare in mind when you’re talking about market based rather than bookie betting.
It would be nice to know who’s in the same location as you and to be able to bet against them though. Like Foursquare for betting!
Hi Alex,
thanks for your insightful comment. I know that my suggestion comes with a lot of technical difficulties. But one should aim for the stars, and for something new :) Social betting is also an interesting topic for an upcoming blog post :)