The Guardian (Main)

14.04.09

Deal gives mobiles access to more gambling games

A deal struck between two technology companies could see hundreds of thousands of mobile games made available to punters as the gambling market continues to boom.

UK-based mobile betting technology firm Mfuse, which is backed by Sportingbet founder Mark Blandford, has struck a deal with Aim-listed Probability that will see games developed by the company made available to hundreds of thousands of gamblers.

Probability, which has developed more than 30 mobile games, is the first company to use Mfuse’s mobile gambling platform, which links directly to betting firms including Betsson, Bet365, Gala Coral Group, Ladbrokes, Sky Bet, Sporting Index, Sportingbet, Paddy Power and William Hill. In the past, mobile game developers had to spend months designing games and tailoring them to work with the billing and online systems of individual betting companies. But the Mfuse platform makes it much easier and faster to get to market once a developer has had its game accepted by a betting firm.

Mobile gambling is booming despite the recession and legal issues in some markets such as the US. Independent experts Juniper Research estimate that the global mobile gambling industry will be taking $16.6bn (£11.3bn) worth of bets – ranging from casino betting and lotteries to sports betting – by 2011, up from $1.35bn in 2006.

London-based Mfuse, founded in 2002, has spent years building its system, called NOVO Open API, and it is now open to any game developer who wants to pitch games to the firm’s partners. Probability, for instance, recently signed a deal with TV production house Fremantle to develop slot machine games based on some of its programmes including The X Factor and The Price is Right. It markets games to consumers through the Ladyluck brand, which has more than 400,000 UK users.

Last May Mfuse received £2.55m of funding from existing backer Bestport Ventures as well as new investors including Blandford, who became a non-executive director of the firm.

“The sports betting market is growing very rapidly and shows no signs of stopping.” said Marcus Wareham, chief executive of Mfuse. “As a result, we know the appetite is there for mobile gaming products. Opening up our platform allows us to rapidly deploy already successful mobile content to a huge client base.”

“The partnership with Probability provides us with a strong base from which to start due to their large portfolio of original and branded content.”