Irish and UK gaming giant Paddy Power has launched a new iPhone web application specifically for users with either an iPhone or iPod touch just in time for the World Cup. The company will follow this up with an app for Android devices.
The new app, which can be downloaded at www.paddypower.com has all the functionality of the regular site optimised specifically for the iPhone/iPod touch including opening a new account, depositing and withdrawing, betting and full transaction history and is one of the few iPhone sites that allows full functionality to place multiples.
The app was developed in collaboration with Swedish mobile company Mobenga.
Speaking with siliconrepublic.com, James Grimes, online sportsbook product manager at Paddy Power explained: “Every year for a number of years people have been coming up to us saying ‘this is the year of the mobile’ but, with the onset of smartphones and in particular the iPhone,2010 is definitely the year of the mobile.
“We’ve seen magnificent growth in mobile channels over the last 12 months so the time was right to do an iPhone app. So we have released an iPhone web app allows anyone with an iPhone to go to the Paddypower.com website and get an iPhone optimised version of website.
“This was after a couple of trial runs with selected users whom we gave a preview, got informative feedback from and we took this on board and made several improvements to the app. The app went live on Monday to uniformly positive feedback.”
World Cup
Grimes explained that Paddy Power was particularly keen to get the app out to the marketplace in time for the World Cup in South Africa.
“We are driven by what the market dictates, and the iPhone has driven internet on mobile and we’re seeing emerging devices like Android phones and the iPad as doing much the same.
“Our strategy is following what the market is dictating and we’ll be bringing out new services and apps in the future.”
I asked Grimes why the company is releasing the app separate to the Apple AppStore. He said that in the near future the company will be putting a free app on the Apple AppStore and that an iPad version is currently in development.
“Until recently Apple had shown a reluctance to accept any betting based apps into AppStore, now the seal on that has been broken in recent weeks by an app put on the store by competitors.
“We have an app that will be ready to go in a couple of weeks. We don’t plan to charge anything for it. We wanted to get something out particularly in time for the World Cup and that was what has been driving us down the web app route. There is nothing handier than mobile and placing your bet with Paddy Power,” Grimes concluded.
By John Kennedy