It may seem strange, something of a paradox even, that in this day and age with pretty much everyone holding a mobile phone, an online bookmaker would pass on having a mobile app available for its customers. While a lot of operators do have one, in particular, large established ones, there is a set of online bookies that have chosen to forego releasing a separate mobile app.
Many betting experts will tell you that a well-designed bookmaker app is a genuine advantage. For example, you can find trusted UK bookmakers at Legalbet.uk, where sportsbooks are ranked and compared, and you’ll notice that plenty of operators now have an app in place. And that’s hardly surprising, given how many people instinctively open the App Store or Google Play whenever they want to find a service like music streaming, financial budgeting or sports betting. But some bookmakers still decide not to release an app at all. Why? There are reasons for that.
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The Economic Impact
Creating an app is an expensive thing and newer start-up bookmakers may not be prepared to throw a lot of financial resources at this. It’s important to understand that developing a sports betting app isn’t just a one-time investment either. A business couldn’t just develop the app, launch it and then forget about it. As all mobile phone users will know, apps have to be regularly updated for simple maintenance, to bug fixing and security.
That’s a lot of on-going coding and development time that a company therefore has to put towards an app, so the economic impact of going down this route is substantial. This is an on-going problem which is also out of the hands of the app developers too. Any time iOS or Android gets updated with a new version, the betting app would have to be rigorously tested to ensure that it’s fully compatible.
But there’s also a further point to be made about how costly this could potentially be for an online bookmaker, because it’s also not just developing one app. It would require the development of one app for iOS and one for Android, which involves different coding, different updates and checks, which is an awful lot to keep track of.
The Easier Solution
The easier and more economically sound solution, therefore, is for bookmakers just to stick with creating a high-quality and responsible mobile website. That will then immediately be accessible to any mobile user, with no compatibility issues (unless potentially on a really old version of Android for example) and that one resource will be readily available across a range of mobile browsers as well.
So there is sound reasoning for online bookmakers to skip on developing a mobile app, as they can be costly and time-consuming to upkeep. Not all bookmakers have the financial backing to push into this area.
Publishing Problems
Publishing gambling applications is not as easy as it looks either, because of the way that app stores operate. A bookmaker can’t just publish on Google Pay for example, because it may not be licensed to operate in all regions where the app itself will get distributed to. This is a complicated area and betting apps have to implement strict geo-fencing so that wagers can’t be placed outside of the jurisdictions they are licensed to operate in.
Then there’s updates. Once an app has had some bug fixing done for example, then it has to get republished to the stores. That update will then have to be reviewed by the App Store or Google Play before getting released, which can be a hindrance for the bookmaker, especially if they are trying to fix a security breach or attempting to meet new regulatory changes in time.
Website Advantages
Even though most people automatically turn to apps, there are some advantages for a bookmaker just existing with a good website. Apps involve a barrier to access, because a user has to find the app and wait for it to download and install, compared to calling up a website immediately in a browser, or having that done automatically by clicking on an advertising link, for example.
That instant access can be a huge advantage for customer retention and acquisition and websites are far more efficient at getting organic traffic than apps are. SEO techniques can leverage a website’s advantage over apps, which aren’t indexed by Google Search.
No App, No Problem
Just because a bookmaker doesn’t have an app available, shouldn’t be a knock against them. Yes, once installed, apps are convenient and in some instances, have more user-friendly interfaces. But a high-quality, well-designed website can still deliver a tremendous online betting experience, without all of the extra overheads that are involved in app development and maintenance.