The game of lottery has reached almost every hand now with mobile is becoming ubiquitous, and SMS (also known as a text message) is available on every mobile phone. SMS betting enables everyone to play lottery right on their mobile just by sending a text message. Gone are the days when the players had to walk all the way up to the lottery store to get their tickets. The latest trend in the lottery industry is betting on the mobile devices. The lottery industry witnessed an explosive growth with a whole new set of customers who are mobile users and willing to play the lottery but don’t like to walk the mile towards a lottery retail outlet. Mobile betting is the second most popular form of remote gambling in the UK according to the gambling commission of UK.
Now the lotteries have reached all these players by expanding its reach to the mobile devices.
There are many varieties of mobile betting - SMS betting, mobile app, USSD betting and others. We are going to discuss SMS Betting.
SMS betting is the modern face of the lottery, where the player’s registered number is their identity. The learning curve for this modern form of lottery is almost zero as anybody familiar with sending SMS can start playing the lottery. Players can do various betting related activities from the registered mobile number just by sending a text. The activities range from checking the winning numbers to placing a bet. The SMS formats defined by the lotteries are user-friendly to attract new players. So whenever players feel they have the right share of luck and the right choice of numbers to place their bet on, all they have to do is to grab their mobile and send an SMS. A confirmation SMS will make sure that everything went fine and the bet was placed.
There are many varieties of mobile betting - SMS betting, mobile app, USSD betting and others. We are going to discuss SMS Betting.
SMS betting is the modern face of the lottery, where the player’s registered number is their identity. The learning curve for this modern form of lottery is almost zero as anybody familiar with sending SMS can start playing the lottery. Players can do various betting related activities from the registered mobile number just by sending a text. The activities range from checking the winning numbers to placing a bet. The SMS formats defined by the lotteries are user-friendly to attract new players. So whenever players feel they have the right share of luck and the right choice of numbers to place their bet on, all they have to do is to grab their mobile and send an SMS. A confirmation SMS will make sure that everything went fine and the bet was placed.
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| SMS Lottery by LocusPlay |
Who would have liked to abandon an on-going work to place a bet by walking all the way to the lottery store? Not many! And that’s what paved the way for SMS betting. The advantage of SMS betting is the leisure of betting from anywhere, anytime. Even a basic phone will work as the SMS feature is available in every mobile out there in the market. Players just have to send an SMS to place the bet. The ease of use plays a deterministic role in any technology adoption and it is the main reason for the exponential growth of mobile betting among the players. And since almost everyone is quite used to the SMS, there is no learning curve in this form of betting.
From the lottery’s point of view, SMS betting facility is an exposure to a huge customer base who were earlier left out just because of the time and long queue at the lottery store for a ticket. This is an expansion of business to potential players, leveraging the existing infrastructure and without spending much time and money. Think of the millions of players who can now simply place bets sitting at home. Wouldn’t they recommend it to others? By all chances, they will. And word of mouth promotion might be a decisive factor for SMS betting adoption among lotteries.
Overall SMS betting is well on-course to become an attractive channel for the players as well the lotteries. The players can now place the bets without much effort and even with the very basic phone they have. And because of the sheer presence of mobiles, SMS betting promises to be a dominant lottery distribution channel and lotteries can definitely rely on this simple but mature technology.