New iPad app from Betfair

Betfair plc launched its next generation iPad App into the Apple store Friday, announcing that the bespoke native application is a marked enhancement from previous products and is the first to come out of Betfair’s development office in San Francisco, where the company has recently relocated key parts of its mobile development under the leadership of Raj Vemulapalli, a former Yahoo exec.

The App offers a vastly improved iPad experience to Betfair customers, bringing fixed website functionality to a betting product that is specifically tailored to the tablet device. Its key features include:

* Intuitive landing page, with easy access to the most popular events along with live scores.

* Trader focused betting experience, with betting functionality mirroring that available on the fixed website.

* Seamless access to Betfair’s betting.betfair site, which includes insight and analysis from Betfair’s content team and ambassadors.

* Ability to deposit and withdraw funds from anywhere within the App- enabling easier betting.

Commenting on the launch, Vemulapalli said: “This App is a game-changer for our customers, offering them a betting experience that replicates the fixed web, whilst making use of the unique features available on iPad. Mobile is the coming force in the betting industry, and the shift from online to mobile is in many ways more exciting than the shift from offline to online.”

Tony McAlister, chief technology officer at Betfair revealed that the new app had been developed in just two months in the San Francisco facility, demonstrating that the decision to launch a US technology office in Silicon Valley has paid off.

“I hope this is the first of many US developed products which will extend our lead in the online betting space”, he said.

Around 10 percent of Betfair’s exchange activity is now conducted via mobile phones and this figure is set to rise even further. The company’s interim results announced in December 2011 reported that over GBP 800 million of bets had traded through mobile in the six months of the financial year, enabling the company to record first half mobile revenues up 88 percent.

A company spokesman said that the indications were that mobile usage leads to an increase in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and also that mobile customers have lower than average churn rates.

In October last year, Betfair launched a significantly improved iPhone app which has driven further increases in usage and ARPU. Around 40 percent of the betting company’s customer base has now placed a bet via a mobile device.