Sky Bet has admitted they took a hit with the release of the new iPad sending punters home happy. Apple’s latest piece of kit was released at a press conference yesterday and Sky Bet spokesperson Helen Jacob explained their first tech betting experience was one they’ll hope to learn from.
“It was our first foray into tech betting and there was a huge amount of interest in the markets but with two out of the three most heavily backed markets duly coming in, it’s safe to say the ‘ipunters’ cleaned up! No doubt they’ll be heading straight down to the Apple shop with their winnings!” Jacob said.
Betting was suspended by Sky Bet after techophiles had gotten wind of the specifications and wanted to earn some extra cash to buy the new toy.
“The odds of the new hardware not having a carbon fibre back plate had been backed into 1/16 from 2/7 and we took a hit with it not being called the iPad2s, which was a 100/30 shot initially. The only surprise was that the new ipad doesn’t have 128GB of storage, which had been backed in from 6/1 to ½!” Jacob added.
Mobile payments made through one medium will hit unprecedented levels by the middle of the current decade. Juniper Research has calculated that transactions using Near Field Communication (NFC) will reach $74 billion and the online gambling industry is one of those getting excited. More and more in-store payments are being taken using the technology with mobile devices increasingly being relied upon as a form of payment.
“Our report demonstrates the spectacular growth we see across all segments of the mobile commerce market. Four of these segments (money transfer, physical goods, NFC and coupons) will more than treble in transaction value over the next three years, whilst digital goods, banking and tickets will still on average, double over the same period,” said report author David Snow.
NFC could make it very easy to deposit and withdraw from an online gambling account. For now it’s unlikely it will be allowed to happen but at some point in the future it’s inevitable.
