While the word gimcrack might be a bit of a misnomer for devices such as iPhones, Androids and iPads, these portable devices are gewgaws of a sort. They are the latest zeitgeist for fans of fashion, and as a result are spreading all over the world. With the greater mobility, and fantastic technology, e-gambling activity is also increasingly on the rise.

Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC) are industry experts; it is their contention that the mobile industry is expanding rapidly. But they are not the only ones who see this, we can see it by just looking at how many online gambling firms are getting more and more mobile apps up and running, so, there must be a huge demand. We also see it in the numbers that the big companies such as William Hill, Paddy Power and others are releasing in terms of mobile growth. Honestly speaking, gambling analytics are great, but it is already clear we see increasing levels of demand.
Warwick Bartlett who is CEO of GBGC says that online gambling offers a good value for money entertainment option for millions of consumers. Something else we already know.

The powerhouses of online gambling are and have been enhancing revenues by adopting mobile gambling applications for a while; the evidence exists that what they are doing is good for business.
Smartphone gambling is transactional entertainment purely. Players are hugely excited by the fact that they can enjoy access to games with high prizes, switch from casino to casino with anonymity, and take advantage of great bonuses, as well as play lots of fun games. They also know that if they want a properly social casino experience, all they need to do is go to their nearest land casino. The online and live gambling business is two totally different channels; just with similar themes.

Betfair for example was one of the pioneers of mobile gambling, and they have reaped the benefits of their foresight – right from the beginning. They are the biggest online betting community globally – known as a betting exchange – and despite good earnings in the mobile market are showing a decline in share price. Core revenues for this company were up to £91.6 million, an increase of 13%, with the biggest growth trend showing in sports-betting. Apparently half of all their customers in the UK and Ireland have placed a bet by mobile during the first quarter of 2012. This is a volume of bet increase of a massive 114%.

It is like we said earlier, we just have to look at this type of performance and it becomes simple to draw the assumption that online gambling will go mobile for a large majority of fans. Rocketing revenues are not only being declared by Betfair; the biggest and many of the smaller brands in Britain and Europe are showing these increasing trends. Keep your eyes peeled too, there is strong evidence to suggest that things in mobile gambling are going to get a lot more interesting over the next couple of years.

Just like the Kindle has done away with the need for the paper-back novel (although books are still really nice, think of all the trees these devices save), dice and cards could also soon be a thing of the past. All you need to gamble online today is a mobile phone. Now iPhone together with Big Fish games, the very first virtual real money gambling games will soon be released on the i-operating system, and they are scheduled to be released in the UK.

We have all heard that Zynga is scheming its way into real money casino games online, but Big Fish has – believe it or not – beaten them at their own game. The UK debut will feature Self Aware Studio titles, powered by the Betable software engine. Big Fish acquired Self Aware in March of 2011, and also acquired one million (or thereabouts) active real money online gamblers.
The platform will be a first of its kind, features many familiar titles from Card Ace Casinos, and is slated to be available in the iTunes store, sometime in the next couple of weeks. Download the software and iOS devices will be able to give you Big Fish slots, Texas Hold ‘em, video poker, blackjack and roulette.

The company believes that being first in the market with their virtual product will give them the competitive edge. Betable have catered to the Europen market on mobile before, and this was a Betfair app. CEO of Betable – Christopher Griffin – said they couldn’t be happier with the Big Fish Casino app, but as well as these pay-for-play games, free version of Big Fish Casino will also be available for the non-gambling fraternity who like having a flutter without spending a penny. Also members outside of the UK will be able to play these games for free. It is available in 4 app stores including Amazon’s app store, Google Play, Facebook and Apple iTunes.

The online gambling marketplace is estimated to turnover approximately $32 Billion dollars, and is seriously growing. It is a massively lucrative market and more social gaming companies are looking into real money gambling. But by the same token, real money online gambling firms are taking a serious look at the social gaming marketplace.

Hasbro and Zynga have entered a partnership which sees the virtual and real world of gambling combine, and with this, the new Big Fish launch, we can only assume that Zynga will benefit from another company’s exploration of a newer and much wider horizon. Experts are of the opinion that social gaming companies should have explored this avenue far sooner. Zynga’s beleaguered share price might be indicative that the social gaming market could be bottoming out.

The bottom line at the end of this tale is that Big Fish is still a big fish, and if Zynga does not get something gainful going quite soon, they may well be left far behind.