We need to talk about Google...

With gambling apps still restricted from the Google Play store what can the industry do to avoid losing out on the unstoppable growth of the Android platform? Julian rogers investigates

Originally envisaged as an OS for digital cameras, Android has certainly come a long way since first powering the rather drab looking HTC Dream phone back in 2008. This easily forgettable handset, with its quirky slide-out keyboard and cheap plastic body, eventually sunk without a trace. But its open-source software has been on an upward trajectory ever since.

Google, which acquired Android in 2005, recently reported that the milestone of one billion device activations worldwide was surpassed in September, which roughly equates to 1.5 million a day. Android now commands almost 80% of global smartphone shipments, but in the egaming world it commands no more than 40% of revenues.

The reason for this is simply down to Google’s aggressive antigambling stance in its Google Play store. Gambling apps are not permitted in the main shop window for Android apps and operators are forced to direct users to a download from their own site with instructions as to how to bypass the warnings Google fl ag up when downloading unapproved apps. Bearing in mind the market opportunity it’s a less than ideal situation.

In key European markets, Android dominates; according to Kantar Worldpanel, the OS accounts for around 78% of smartphone sales in Germany, 70% in Italy and 63% in France. A little over half of all smartphones sold in the UK are powered by Android, but in Spain it’s a startling 90%.

“Android has become a lot more important this year for us and the industry in general,” says Turlough Lally, director of mobile at BetVictor. “I’m not surprised by its recent success, due to the excellent handsets produced by Samsung, in particular, and the reasonable pricing points. Also, Apple has had a few recent hiccups and has lost some of their trusted followers.”

Yet despite the growing ubiquitous nature of Android and its two-dimensional green robot logo, this Linux-based OS tends to account for around 30-40% of a gambling company’s mobile user base in the UK. iOS still takes the lion’s share with around 60%, while the also-rans continue to be Windows Phone and BlackBerry OS.

It’s a comparable picture in the UK for bet365, albeit slightly closer between the leading protagonists. “In the UK, iOS is still the dominant mobile operating system, where we see some 50% of our bets coming from this platform, with Android making up 40% of the market,” says Alan Reed, head of systems development for the internet bookmaker.

There are geographic variations, however, with bet365 reporting some significant changes in Europe. “When we look further afi eld though and add in more European countries, this shifts to a larger Android percentage. In Spain, 75% of our mobile bets come from Android devices, with only 20% from iOS.”

Keep out

Android reigns in Spain, however, due to the local market being totally dominated by Android with over 90% of smartphones running an Android OS. But where iOS is on a relatively equal footing the lost opportunity due to the Google bar on RMG apps is obvious. It’s a massive handicap for the gambling operators and stymies the ability to reach and engage with customers, not to mention the revenue lost by Google’s stance.

The open-source nature of Android means these apps can be downloaded from outside Google’s app emporium, providing users have adjusted the device’s factory settings. But nudging customers to visit a gambling company’s website and download an Android app is easier said than done. Most customers just expect to find it in the store when searching for gambling terms or a specific company or product.

“Not being able to put the app in Google Play is the biggest frustration,” says Andrew Daniels, the former head of mobile development for Betfred and now managing director of Degree 53, which handles Betfred’s mobile sportsbook. “About 50% of the iOS users come through the app, but for Android this figure is absolutely tiny.

An app store is the first, and sometimes only, port of call for people when searching for a company’s app. If a user doesn’t find it then they will think you don’t have an app. I see and hear it all the time: ‘Why don’t you have an app’? We do, of course.”

This lack of app visibility and convenience for consumers hampers the development of Android gambling products. Paddy Power, for example, created the interactive Roller casino app specifically for iOS devices (rather than being a desktop port), harnessing the iPhone, iPad and iPod’s touch capabilities.

With roulette, players can launch the ball and spin the wheel with a swish of a finger. However, the Irish bookmaker eschewed creating an Android version, ostensibly because of access to Google’s store being blocked. “We wouldn’t have had any way of effectively distributing it and we would have really struggled to get users,” explains product manager Jamie Reeve. “It wasn’t worth the development effort.”

A brighter future?

For now, there appears little incentive for Google to give RMG apps the green light. Google didn’t allow gambling PPC ads until the search giant had a sudden change of heart in 2008. But they wouldn’t make any commission off these free-to-download apps.

“If Google did change its stance [on apps], it could enable a burst of innovation around native apps,” suggests Andy Burton, technology director at Sky Betting & Gaming. He adds: “Lack of Google Play support is still a major missed opportunity for the industry and it means we can’t engage with customers as we’d like to in the areas of app discoverability, push notifications and automated app updates.”

Likewise, Britt Boeskov, COO of Unibet, says: “Any restriction on channels to access our customers is frustrating – we would certainly be glad if Google would reconsider. But any app store poses a risk as we won’t know what rules will apply in the future.”

The reality from speaking to representatives from Google and mobile experts, is the situation is not likely to change in the near future. Despite Google changing its rules on PPC advertising, the world of Android and Google Play is a very different one with its roots very much in the US market. And the future for egaming rests more with working around this model rather than hoping it changes sometime soon.

Indeed, things could be worse. If the US headquartered Apple took a similar draconian view, the native gambling app would effectively be moribund. Even as it stands, Apple’s store is a saturated marketplace with countless real-money and freeplay gambling apps straining to be seen. Being at the mercy of an app store, combined with the travails of app visibility, partly explains why HTML5 web apps are a vital alternative, especially for Android.

Also, there’s only so much you can cram into an app in terms of megabytes before the customer is deterred from downloading it. “For Unibet, the lack of access to Google Play has definitely made the choice to focus on HTML5 easier,” says Boeskov.

Over at Sky Betting & Gaming, they recently launched Sky Vegas for Android, developed in-house with HTML5 games. “Looking ahead, we’re exploring the frontiers of what HTML5 can off er,” explains Burton. “The Google developers are working hard to make HTML5 apps fi rst-class citizens without being in the Play store.

The Chrome mobile beta [browser] allows developers to deliver a native app-like experience from an HTML5 site, including installs to the home screen, a full-screen experience and integration with the task switcher.” Moreover, Burton highlights how mobile browser improvements will soon “blur the lines” between HTML5 and native apps.

Higher value customers

An unavoidable reality of mobile egaming is that iOS users tend to consume more data and shell out more money than those on Android. In fact, iPhone users spend 55% more time on their phones compared with Android users, according to research released by Experian in June. Partly due to iTunes and Apple’s App Store, iOS users could probably be considered more au fait with ‘m-commerce’ – it’s more ingrained in the mindset of

Apple’s loyal followers. In fact, most gambling operators note that Android players wager less than those on iOS. “Broadly speaking, Android players do tend to spend slightly less than iOS players,” says James Goode, head of marketing and strategy at mFortune Mobile Casino. “However, this effect is counteracted by the high numbers of Android players,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Daniels says Betfred’s Android customers stake 25% less than those on iOS, and it’s a similar trend at Ladbrokes. “iOS customers are worth more than Android and play with greater frequency,” says Claire Barry, Ladbrokes’ head of mobile and tablet. She attributes this to the “longer legacy” of iOS and the “huge trust” in the Apple brand. “Apple made it simple and easy to download and transact and have always reinforced this using their TV campaigns – it’s innovation but in the simplest form,” Barry adds.

The fact that iOS users spend more on gambling, and more often, reinforces the view that they perhaps belong to a higher income bracket. While that may be true when comparing iPhone users with budget Android smartphone users, premium Android models like HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4, Sony Xperia Z1 and LG G2 are roughly the same price on a monthly contract or if purchased outright – around £500 to £600.

Indeed, Reeve says the difference between iOS and Android gamblers is negligible at the top end of the phone market. This wide choice of device to suit all pockets means wrestling with the constant bugbear of fragmentation on Android.

Data compiled by mobile signal mapping company OpenSignal in July showed that there are 11,868 different Android devices – up from 3,997 in 2012 – and a myriad of screen sizes (Apple effectively has just four different sizes of display). Plus, Android phones boast varying CPU performance and audio capabilities, while users may be running different browsers as Chrome wasn’t the default option until recently.

Hey big spenders

The fragmentation situation often leads to higher development costs for Android and, in some cases, a slightly poorer experience for users. Barry says: “An example of this would be live streaming, which is relatively simple to provide on iOS, but is far more complex on Android and, as a consequence, may be later to market or simply not offered at all.”

It often boils down to playing a numbers game, which means keeping costs down and focusing on the most popular Android devices, rather than worrying about optimising a product for the more obscure or outdated devices. “It’s impossible to keep up completely and you’ll never be able to test on every device,” says Reeve. “You can usually group phones into their operating systems and screen size. And a lot of them behave in similar ways, so it’s getting easier.”

These device similarities mean that fragmentation headaches are easing to a certain extent. It was far worst in the past, Goode recalls. “Today’s fragmentation is actually a lot less of a challenge than when mFortune first started developing casino games. In those days, we supported around 400 different phones, and every single one of them required a different app, which had to be manually tested by hand for compatibility.”

There are still quirks, though, says Goode. “With Android, the technology itself differs between phones, so you can have two almost identical Samsung phones requiring vastly different apps. This will undoubtedly continue, and remain a challenge for our developers.”

Developers also have to ensure they support customers’ phones running a multitude of Android versions. The newest Android devices come loaded with Android’s latest update, 4.3 “Jelly Bean”, although 4.4 “KitKat” (originally given the sobriquet “KeyLimePie”) is in the pipeline. Yet egaming companies have to cater for a significant proportion of players still using the ageing “Gingerbread”. OpenSignal says there are eight versions of Android in use simultaneously. Furthermore, the manufactures and carriers tend to add tweaks here and there to the software.

But ditching support for older iterations of these confectionary-themed updates isn’t really a savvy business decision, as Daniels explains: “iOS 7 came out and took about three days to overtake iOS 6, so within a matter of weeks you can drop support or iOS6. For Android, we still have been supporting Gingerbread 2.3, which is two or three years old now. Up until recently, it was still the most popular version of the operating system, so you are just stuck and you can’t progress past that. You can’t cut off a massive percentage of your customer base.”

The internet of things

Android’s proliferation isn’t limited to just mobile devices; wearable tech is very much in vogue among technophiles with the launch of Google Glass and Android smart watches, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Gear and Sony’s SmartWatch. But quite whether gamblers will choose to have a flutter with on a wrist device or hi-tech eyewear remains to be seen.

The jury is out, according to Reeve. “People will develop apps for watches and glasses but whether they prove to be as popular is probably unlikely because of the screen size. A watch isn’t going to quite cut it. Mobile gambling existed on the older phones with their small screens, but it only really took off with feature phones and their larger screens and richer experience.”

Android is fast becoming an omnipresent OS packed inside all manner of gadgets (there is even an Android game vending machine in Japan), but the status quo of smartphones, tablets and ‘phablets’ dominating mobile gambling looks set to continue for the foreseeable future. Armchair betting on a second screen has become de rigueur. And with richer content, streaming of live sports and live dealer casinos for ever-powerful Android devices, there’s even less reason to retreat to the desktop PC.

Reeve says gambling on the living room TV interests him a great deal. The largely ignored Google TV has been around for three years, however this is to be phased out and rebranded “Android TV”, which Google hopes will resonate more with Android device owners. It comes hard on the heels of Chromecast, Google’s $35 dongle which plugs into any compatible TV and allows users to stream content and TV shows from the cloud, using a phone to control proceedings.

“The large display and easy control would definitely enhance gameplay,” BetVictor’s Lally says. Sony, too, has got in on the act and released its Bravia Smart Stick, which allows access to Google Play on TV sets. “TV is very interesting and presents many exciting opportunities,” says Barry, “however they are very often communal devices and having a bet can often be a personal experience. But there is a big opportunity for casino applications on televisions,” he adds.

Perhaps the TV will be the future opportunity for Android and present a rich source of revenue, but the present remains a minefield for online gambling operators hoping to capitalise on the market. Android is the platform of both the present and the future and with little change expected in the Google Play policy simply waiting on positive progress seems like no strategy at all.

A migration to a more platform agnostic HTML5 approach and a renewed focus on the mobile web is an undoubted by product of the continued Google policy. And with the increasing fragmentation of the market due to Windows mobile gaining more market share, perhaps this could be a blessing more than a curse. Google certainly seems to be keen to push the mobile web, and a re-focus on HTML5 and the mobile web may lead to a greater opportunity than opening up the Play store could ever present