Paddy Power has been a mobile bookmaker nearly since its inception. It launched in 2000, and it took its first mobile bet a year later, trying a variety of methods, from SMS to Java clients.

“But no matter what we did, mobile never made up more than one or two per cent of our bets,” said head of online Darren Lovern, speaking at the Mobile Gaming & Gambling Summit. 

That all changed in September 2010, when it launched an iOS app – making it the first bookmaker in the app store, according to Lovern.

Here in 2013, more than 60 per cent of Paddy Power customers place at least some of their bets via a mobile device. 

The company has moved its focus from bringing all the desktop functionality to mobile towards improving convenience and speed, and asking whats different about mobile and tablet and how people use them.

As Lovern puts it: “People want to transact in different ways and at different times, and you have to cater for that.”