William Hill in iStore quest

The latest major online gambling group to seek an Apple iStore presence is UK gambling giant William Hill, which has submitted an application to Apple to make available a downloadable predictor app. in time for the football World Cup in South Africa next (June) month.

The app. will allow customers to make bets via the Will Hill website and its iPhone service, and follows similar moves by Bwin, Betfair and Tabcorp last month (see previous InfoPowa report).

Ladbrokes and Paddy Power may also be exploring the possibilities – according to a report in e-Gaming Review, remote gaming chief John O’Reilly says: “It’s one thing having a web application, another thing having one through the iPhone Store – it has a different functionality. Our web app. is popular with our customers, but launching an application through the Store is a whole different kind of market and customer base.”

The online sports book head at Paddy Power is quoted as observing: “We’re definitely thinking about it, ideally before the World Cup. There can be problems getting the application through [Apple]”.