Fresh on the heels of its mobile betting service offered during the World Cup in June, Siemens Information and Communication Mobile (IC Mobile) has expanded its live betting option for its mobile data services.
The company announced Friday that it was expanding its M.traction Gambling service. The expansion will allow mobile carriers to offer platforms for mobile betting all over the world.
The service enables the popular trend of in-game betting to be available through devices like PDAs and cell phones.
In a press release about the new venture, Siemens said M.traction would be based on "dynamic odds" and would allow wagers to be laid while a match or race is still in progress.
The Siemens solution is based on an application from scaraboo, a start-up company sponsored by Siemens Mobile Acceleration GmbH.
The company has decided to make the platform available after a successful trial run in Germany during the World Cup.
Soccer fans used their mobiles to put money on the outcome of any of the matches, even after kick-off and right up to the final whistle. The dynamic odds system allows for wagering until the conclusion of the match as odds are changed in accordance with the changing habits and desires of punters.
The company said in its press release that this service is the first, including those available via the Internet, to allow in-game betting. Those that follow the interactive betting sector closely realize in-game betting has been available for some time, but it is believed that Siemens is the first company to make the option available through wireless devices.
Volker Ziegler, head of the Solutions Division at IC Mobile, said in a statement that the expansion of the service was the right thing to do after seeing how many people in Germany used the system during the World Cup.
MSN, Microsoft's online service, and the mobile radio provider O2 Germany offered the betting service during the World Cup.
Using a credit of 100 virtual coins per day of play, soccer fans placed as many SMS bets as they wished up to their credit limit. Mobile phone users first registered as a player by sending an SMS with a dial-in number. Punters received an SMS message on the outcome of the match and their bet. Participants were shown in a ranked list, and the top finishers every day were awarded prizes.
Once the system was able to get payment transactions and security issues in place, it was ready for global-rollout, Ziegler said.
"Mobile betting is fast becoming a nice little earner for network operators," he said. "The important thing is that payment transactions, in both directions, are systematically organized: The wagers are lodged with the provider, the winnings go to the users. Another consideration when money is involved is that it must be ensured that the punters are of legal age. This can be done by having their date of birth specified on the card contract."
The company said the platform is ready for rollout and expects consumers to start using it by the end of the month.