{"id":255,"date":"2017-08-02T09:12:14","date_gmt":"2017-08-02T09:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog-staging.cdn.persona.ly\/blog\/?p=255"},"modified":"2022-01-20T15:03:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T15:03:51","slug":"gambling-and-betting-apps-are-coming-to-the-play-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog-staging.cdn.persona.ly\/blog\/2017\/08\/gambling-and-betting-apps-are-coming-to-the-play-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Gambling and Betting Apps Are Coming to the Play Store"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Android\u2019s market share <\/span>keeps increasing<\/span><\/a> compared to iOS, it\u2019s expected that Google would consider changing some of their policies in order to meet the needs of users who are brave enough to put their iPhone away and <\/span>make the switch<\/span><\/a>\u00a0one of the policies that comes to mind is the current ban on gambling and betting apps on Google Play, And Apple, well, they never <\/span>completely <\/span><\/i>banned gambling.<\/span><\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s current policy requires that gambling and betting app developers comply with their state\u2019s or country\u2019s laws, and Apple doesn\u2019t handle the transactions – not because they wouldn\u2019t want a piece of the pie, but mostly due to the fact that if they would\u2019ve taken a share, like they do with in app purchases, most if not all of the economic models these apps employ today wouldn\u2019t work (since they would reduce or eliminate the developer’s profit margin). <\/span><\/p>\n

Currently, even though we weren\u2019t able to find any statistics to support our assumption, it feels safe to say that most of mobile gambling is happening in iOS, since installing an unauthorized APK on an Android device can be quite the adventure for a non-\u201dpower user” compared to clicking \u2018install\u2019 on the App Store. Yeah, you could say \u201chey, it’s just downloading an APK to your device, then going into your settings to approve unauth\u2026\u201d did you just say something about settings?<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this month, reports started surfacing regarding lifting the gambling ban from Google Play from quite a few sports betting news sites such as SBC, saying that <\/span>Google has been in touch<\/span><\/a> with a few \u201cbetting related companies\u201d about an upcoming policy change, that is expected to go into effect <\/span>today<\/i><\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

How is this going to affect the mobile app ecosystem?<\/span><\/h3>\n

While it\u2019s reported that the ban would only be lifted in UK, France, and Ireland in August, it’s safe to assume the ban would be gradually lifted worldwide (wherever gambling is legal). Here\u2019s what we think this means for the mobile app ecosystem in general and mobile gaming specifically:<\/span><\/p>\n

\f<\/span>More high-value advertisers with massive budgets<\/b>. Players like William Hill, Bwin, and Ladbrokes that are currently spending huge budgets on iOS alone are certainly already preparing to start advertising aggressively on Android as soon as the ban lifts until they learn how and when to target their potential users on a different platform.<\/span><\/p>\n

These players know what converts and are always looking for new channels and trying newer methods and ad formats. For example, here\u2019s a playable ad we created for William Hill, promoting a specific horse race that drives traffic to their betting app:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n