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back to article Billionaire's betting exchange backs Android

Irish billionaire and betting man, Dermot Desmond, is looking to Google's Android to boost the fortunes of his core business, Betdaq, not least because it's impossible getting a gambling app in the iStore. Betdaq is expecting mobile betting to fuel its expansion and reckons that though the iPhone has been useful to mobile take …

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  1. David Edwards
    Stop

    Web shortcut Icons ?

    Re You have to have a shortcut on your browser. The iPhone lets you have a shortcut, complete with fav.ico on your home-screen.

    BBC iplayer is a good example of this, despite NOT being an App Store App. With the shortcut on your homescrene and the iPhone specific browser experience, it "Feels" like an App even though it isnt.

    This is one of the odd things about the iPhone App store bubble, everyone wants an App, because "thats what you do", but in many respects its totally unnecessary when you can develop good multi-mobile-platform sites (or even a decent mobile stylesheet for you normal site).

    3 0
  2. Alan Bourke
    Thumb Up

    You have to wonder

    why anyone would bother implementing anything business-related on iPhone given the appStore palaver, the fact that Apple could yank it at any time etc.

    7 2
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      @Alan Bork

      Yeah, I'd hate to have access to a captive audience of consumers for my products given the rate of "yanking apps" is closer to 0% than 100%. Play the odds and stop buying into this media hyped bullshit.

      2 6
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        @Anonymous Coward

        "Play the odds and stop buying into this media hyped bullshit."

        Exactly what I say to the businesses who want to role out iPhones to their staff!

        4 2
      2. Alan Bourke
        Reply Icon

        Bork ha ha

        Genius. Well, we'll see which platform wins out in the long term.

        0 0
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not that true..

    The Apple AppStore has several betting apps on it. It isn't impossible to get them on there... Betfair have their own on there as well as others.

    Apple seemed to relax their stance last summer.

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  4. Kebabster
    FAIL

    What a load of ol' Tosh

    Can't you be bothered checking your sources at all El Reg?

    There's been gambling apps on the AppStore for months, maybe even years. This entire article is built on the typical anti-Apple stance.

    "not least because it's impossible getting a gambling app in the iStore."

    "Apple is an anti-gambling organisation (like the US, apart from the obvious states), "

    Try searching for "City Index" or "Finspreads" or "Betfair" (as you point out)... there will be plenty I've never heard of as well I'm sure.

    "Users will have to be relied on to set Betdaq as a favourite in their browser. “In the Google Android world we'll have a little bit more flexibility – having the icon at the end of your thumb on the home page of your phone is a help."

    - What? So it's impossible now to put an icon to a webpage on your iPhone Home Page? What a load of rubbish! It's been possible since the very first iPhone!

    Nah, what you've got here mate is a gullible journalist who's fallen for Irish Blarney and in the process provided him with a heap of free advertising.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    iBet

    It's all well and good until Apple decide to release their own gambling app then yank all the competitors without warning.

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    1. Daniel 1
      Reply Icon

      Hmm, this isn't the sort of behaviour you'd expect from Google, of course?

      Hey, I'm only saying - I'm no fan of the iPhone monoculture, either - but Google do have a habit of taking someone else's business model and re-engineering it as a vastly superior 'free' service, that they host. (I wonder, is "Google Porn" out of beta, yet?)

      In fact, if anyone could reinvent the bookmaking business as an advert-financed enterprise, it would be Google!

      0 0
  6. Patrick O'Reilly

    HTML5 Anyone?

    As the first poster pointed out, why build an app for one platform only.

    A good HTML webapp should be everything they need. Plus has all the security handled by the browser.

    0 1
  7. MarkOne
    FAIL

    What Apple owners don't get about Android.

    You don't have to use the Android Marketplace.

    If you want to write apps specific to your business, and load them directly onto a Android handset, guess what, you can.... You want to use somes else's marketplace that hosts Android apps, you can.....

    No Jailbreaking nonsense required. All android phones are Jailbroken from the outset (well almost, you need to tick the box in the settings that allows you to install apps from unknown sources).

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