The British betting agency Betfair claims a first in the online gambling industry with the launch of a betting exchange App via the AppStore for the Apple iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. The casino gambling application will initially focus on customers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The company says the new App provides more speed and performance than browser-related products. This allows customers to quickly and easily study and make bets. It also claims another first in the online casino market, which is the first casino online that uses the GPS location technology to check a player location before they are allowed to place a bet. Charles Palmer, Head of Mobile at Betfair said in an interview: “Betfair’s iPhone App takes advantage of the handsets’ multi-touch interface and high-resolution screen, offering our iPhone customers the same core exchange functionality as the main Betfair site. Thanks to Apple’s incredible innovation the iPhone raises the bar in terms of mobile gaming, which allows Betfair to deliver an industry first and demonstrates our ability to adapt to new technologies.” According to Palmer, Betfair had a 40% increase in the number of registered mobile casino users in 2009 and a 50% year-on-year increase in revenue from mobile betting. The introduction of the mobile App follows the launch of Betfair’s first bet program for Internet TVs. The TV application enables users to use internet content and services through Yahoo! TV Widget Engine. According to analysts in the industry, 20% of TVs shipped in Europe this year have Internet capabilities, and 15 million units are expected to be in use by the end of this year.