Just weeks after PartyCasino claimed to have handed out the largest slots jackpot ever won by a gambler using a mobile device, that £1.45m prize has been topped… and then some. Microgaming says a Spin Palace player has collected a £3.74m payday playing the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot slot. Microgaming CEO Roger Raatgever said a man identified only as Gabriel L (the ‘L’ stands for ‘lucky sonofa’) elected to receive the “staggering” jackpot in a lump sum payment.
Mobile was the only game in town at the inaugural Mobile Gaming & Gambling Summit held this week in London. Presented by the folks behind Mobile Marketing Magazine, the one-day confab featured such speakers as Colin Burrows from digital researchers comScore, who told attendees that 30% of mobile gamblers in the UK access gambling sites at least once a day, while 54% do so at least once a month.
Burrows also revealed that smartphones now account for 11% of pageviews, while tablets account for 6%. Burrows claimed 2.2m UK mobile gamblers – nearly half the UK’s total 5m mobile wagering audience – wagered exclusively via their mobile device. Leading gambling firms reported that 60-70% of mobile traffic comes from mobile-only gamblers, with some sites reporting that figure as high as 84%. comScore has Apple currently edging out Android for UK mobile gambling market share by a ratio of 47% to 42%.
Dara Nasr, Twitter’s head of agency sales, gave a presentation on social engagement and sports betting. Nasr noted Twitter’s reputation as a real-time news source, and the obvious synergies with the increasingly popular in-play wagering channel. Nasr said companies needed to focus on social reactive drivers in their marketing, thinking in terms of what drives social interaction among Twitter followers and the necessity to view their Twitter feed as a round-the-clock responsibility. Nasr singled out Paddy Power as a company that ‘got’ Twitter.
Siamac Rezaiezadeh of mobile payment and CRM outfit OpenMarket told attendees that apps that use push notifications have 30% higher retention after the first month. Textlocal’s marketing & communications director Rob Townsend said ignoring SMS as an engagement mechanic costs you access to the 40% of the UK market still using feature phones. Given that 95% of SMS messages are read within three minutes, Townsend suggested following up mobile wagers with an SMS highlighting similar upcoming betting opportunities. Betfuze CEO Paul McNea identified the 2010 FIFA World Cup as the event that effectively launched mobile betting, citing the 400% growth the sector witnessed during the event. McNea predicted that mobile would be the dominant access point for wagering on the 2014 footie extravaganza.
The conference culminated in an informal awards presentation honoring stalwarts in various mobile activities. Locus Gaming’s Jackgold.com won the Best Mobile Site award, while Rank Interactive’s Mecca Bingo won Best Smartphone App and Paddy Power’s Roller Casino won Best Tablet App. The Best App Marketing Campaign trophy went to Fiksu for their work in promoting social gamers Yazino, while William Hill and its mobile advertising partner Fetch took home the Best Mobile Advertising Campaign award for their work in promoting Hill’s sportsbook app during the Cheltenham Festival. Mobile gambling specialists Probability’s Probability Managed offering won Best White-Label Solution.
