Mobile sports betting market

The market for mobile sports betting is, potentially, a very large one, extending the traditional
"bookies", turf accountants and even the already successful online sports betting market to the
mobile world, where immediacy comes in to play to generate many more, albeit often small, sports bets as a sporting event is taking place. But while such services are already available in many European countries (the UK, Germany, Benelux) and large parts of Asia (Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong), they remain prohibited in others (China, the US). However, the rapid proliferation of mobile services in Asia, combined with an increasing tolerance of sports betting (cricket is now the second most popular sport for betting, thanks primarily to Indian gamblers) should see the percentages using these services rise markedly in the medium term. Overall, this means that the number of individuals placing bets via the mobile phones should rise from its current level of around 4.6m to more than 100m by 2009.

Mobile lottery market

The sudden proliferation of mobile lottery has already provoked a surge of interest in countries where such services are operational, and it is not unreasonable to expect the user bases to increase as mobile brands become more established and customer awareness increases, and as interfaces become increasingly user-friendly. However, against this must be set the opposition within certain countries (most notably the US) to the introduction of mobile lottery. Nevertheless, some analysts envisage that a number of US states will begin to introduce some form of lottery via mobile phone by H2 2006, leading to a more widespread adoption of the service nationwide by the end of the decade. Overall, growth will be strongest in the Asia-Pacific and European regions, where there is already a significant lottery culture substantial revenues will be derived from early mobile lottery services that are already being rolled out.

The market for mobile casino-style gambling

Casino gambling services per se are popular, perhaps even surprisingly so. If we include slot
machines, around 14% of UK adults currently undertake some form of casino-style gambling; the figure rises to 29% in the US and 36% in Australia. In Japan, Pachinko – a form of pinball - is a national pastime, with an estimated 45m players (41% of the over 15s) playing the game; in Korea, the numbers of casino gamblers is thought to be as high as 50% of all adults.
However, regulatory proscriptions are likely to hinder or prevent the launch of casino-style services in many countries. Accordingly, countries such as China and the US, which have contributed (and will continue to contribute) significantly to the increase in penetration of a number of mobile services, are unlikely to do so (at least in the short and medium term) for casino style services. Furthermore, unlike lotteries, which have mass market appeal, casino style gambling is the preserve of a relatively White Paper – Gambling on Mobile dedicated few. With that in mind, some analysts believe that the actually percentage of the mobile gamblers who will play casino style games is relatively low, at least initially.
As might be expected, strongest growth will be experienced in the Asia-Pacific market (the Chinese absence notwithstanding), with Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea and Australia all at the forefront of expansion, with India and the Philippines latterly enjoying surges in their user bases as 2.5G services become more prevalent.