That’s more than just a gambler’s natural optimism. Despite the big losses that e-commerce ventures have racked up lately, analysts and stock pickers are betting on gambling sites. When Flutter was looking for second-round finance in June, its offer was oversubscribed fivefold. Among its backers: Swiss bankers UBS and French luxury-goods concern LVMH. This, after all, is e-commerce without the warehousing or delivery problems that have sunk other e-traders. Better still, there’s clear evidence of buoyant demand. Across Europe, revenues from Internet betting are forecast to rise tenfold by 2004 to $2.3 billion. The big cyberbookies (mostly British) have already watched turnover soar. For the summer’s Euro 2000 soccer tournament, Ladbrokes took £20 million in bets. “For 30 years the bookmakers have been trying to get new punters,” says Mark Finnie, a Deutsche Bank analyst in London. “Now the Internet has done it for them.”
For casual gamblers, the Net’s chief charm is 24-hour convenience. “I can bet before I leave the house in the morning or when I get home from work,” says Jim Dixon, a 25-year-old City trader with a passion for the National Football League. The Internet can already supply all the information that an overseas fan might need; wireless technology, such as WAP-enabled mobile phones, is bound to make things easier still. Two leading site operators, William Hill and Coral, have been promoting customer loyalty by offering free mobile phones. Although WAP mobile phones are a tad clunky, it won’t be long before new wireless technology makes it a cinch for gamblers on the move to track shifting odds. The interactive TV now arriving in British homes, which allows viewers to surf the Web without leaving the TV set, is another useful platform for gambling. The British couch potato can now stake his pay on the outcome of the Derby minutes before the race without even lifting the phone. “Betting is just made for the armchair,” says Martin Belsham, of Blue Square, which has launched a bet-as-you-view link with satellite broadcasters BSkyB. Don’t blink, because even the TV may soon be displaced by so-called broadband-transmission technology, which promises to bring the full sporting program directly to the PC screen.
So far, it’s the British who lead the cyber-betting field, thanks to an entrenched, national gambling habit. Every week 65 percent of the population bets on the national lottery; every year the British stake more on horse racing than all other European countries combined. At the same time, the government imposes few of the meddlesome controls that prevent European or American punters from squandering their cash. That’s helped to create a powerful–though well-regulated–gambling industry. “It’s a lot more sophisticated [than its rivals],” says Damian Cope of Ladbrokes. “It has been legal–and welcome–for a very long time.” So far, most companies have focused their marketing on the home market, but word travels fast in the frontier-free world of the Internet. Because of the popularity of soccer abroad, especially in Asia, some British bookmakers have seen their overseas-subscriber lists swell. Just 10 months after launching its online service, leading bookmaker William Hill has attracted new customers from 99 countries.
If the British example holds good, foreign clients may constitute a whole new breed of gambler. The affluent types who still make up the bulk of Britain’s PC users have for the most part stayed away from the smoky, litter-strewn betting shops found on most high streets. But screen-based gambling is both anonymous and free of murky associations. And these days, say analysts, its appeal has broadened to white-collar types, including women, with wider interests than soccer or horse racing. “There’s a new Internet-savvy customer who wants a bit of fun rather than a serious bet,” says Stewart Kenny of , an Irish Web site that is now offering 16-to-1 on Fergie to pose nude for Playboy by year’s end and 1,000-to-1 on Sinead O’Connor’s chances of making pope. Don’t overlook Blue Square’s Webcast of live snail races. For a quicker route to riches, you can always launch your own gambling Web site.
