The World Cup starts June 11th and the sports betting operators should be working hard to get their portals in the best shape possible!
There are some that have some work to do to get there. Today I tried to search for bets on 8 different betting portals (Betfair, Betsafe, bwin, NordicBet, PaddyPower, PartyBets, Unibet and William Hill) and the results weren’t that good!
A good search function can be the difference between a placed bet and a lost customer.
I searched “England World Cup 2010″ on all the portals and if I …

Last month I wrote a blog post giving SkyBet a design advice (read the post here). And today when I tried going to SkyBet using my iPhone I noticed that they had implemented the solution I wrote about.
My design advice back in September was “The second solution is just to transfer the user to the “skybet.mobi” site when they are using and iPhone and comes to “skybet.com.” and that is how it works today! Well done SkyBet!
/Staffan

Sports betting is very popular and account for a big part of many gaming operators income. But the way people place bets online today is very similar. Is this because it is the optimal way to place bets or is everyone copying each other?
I think improvements can be made since I’ve seen many players having problems placing bets.
Investing in user experience activities will pay off many times the cost and improve loyalty.
I’m starting a study of current sportsbook designs and am looking for examples that work well, but also examples …

Sky Bet last friday launched an sportsbook for their iPhone users together with mkodo. I think it is great that more and more products and services are optimized for the iPhone and the upcoming iPad. You can read more about that in my previous blog posts.
Today
Today when you type in skybet.mobi you come to the iPhone optimized sportsbook, see image 1.

Image 1. Sky Bet’s iPhone Sportsbook.
But the problem with Sky Bet’s solution is that you have to type in the address “skybet.mobi”. If you happen to type in “skybet.com” then …

In a month I’ll be able to sit on my couch watching soccer with my iPad and placing bets on the game. Apple’s iPad will soon go on sale in the US and later next month in some European countries.
With the iPad there are new opportunities to give the user an experience better than just using the “normal” sportsbook. An iPad specific sportsbook will get a lot of interest and I am just sitting here waiting for the first operator to launch one.
So if you haven’t started looking into the iPad …

Today most gaming portals offer bingo, casino, games, poker and a sportsbook. Is this the best way? Look at Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and PartyGaming who promote brands for one kind of game.
For instance players go to PokerStars to play poker, but when you go to for instance bwin, Unibet, Ladbrokes and many more gaming portals it is difficult to know what the player want to play.
Almost all gaming portals offering many different games have a start page where they show their different offerings where the player have to make a choice …

Today Svenska Spel launched an iPhone app where you can get results from matches and events.
It is interesting and exciting to see that Svenska Spel are among the first operators to develop an iPhone app. You can see your current bets, but you can’t place any bets (probably because Apple wouldn’t allow it).
I’ll use the app for  few days and then write a review.
/Staffan

Gaming VC, an online gaming company with brands like Casino Club, Poker Kings and Betaland, said they will invest up to €7 million during 2010 to build the new businesses.
The have hired former PartyGaming marketing chief Jon Salmon and former Sportingbet head of sportsbook Jim Humberstone for the expansion.
It will be interesting to see if they will use some of the funds to design a great player experience around their offering or if everything will go towards marketing costs.
I believe focusing on the player experience and find ways that will let the …

This year’s International Gaming Expo (IGE), incorporating ICEi, is over and I’m back home. My reflections from the expo are mixed.
Most positive: I was impressed by Net Entertainment and  Betsoft’s games. The quality in their games is really good. It is especially interesting to see that Betsoft incorporate their controls as a part of the game.
Most negative: The Innovative Showcase (it was a new addition addition to IGE 2010 that gave exhibitors the opportunity to present to IGE visitors) was a major dissapointment! Many of the presenters didn’t even show up for their presentations, …