Online Gambling: The Real Web 2.0?
November 15th, 2005 Posted in Web-based Services
A few years ago, I co-founded a dot-com called Blanketware Corp. that focused on helping people do things online - everything from booking vacations and planning gardens to buying books and making restaurant reservations. Sadly, we were a little ahead of the Web services curve - as well as woefully under-capitalized but that's another story for another day. We kick ourselves these days for not offering a variety of online gambling services given eMarketer expects the business will exceed $10-billion ($10.9-billion to be exact) this year worldwide, compared with $8.5-billion in 2004. eMarketer said the gambling market is being fueled by televised poker - which strikes me as exciting as watching paint dry - and the growth of broadband. Of course, online gambling is more than just poker. It also includes sports betting, betting exchanges, horse wagering, casinos, lotteries, bingo and for-cash skill games. Say what you will about selling books and music online but the real action - and money - is happening with gambling and pornography. I wonder how that fits into the Web 2.0 phenomena?
November 30th, 2005 at 4:03 am
As much as the Web 2.0 purists may not like it, the world of seamless integration, will also become the world of the global betting exchange.
The rise of Betfair clearly demonstrates the robustness of the betting exchange model, the existence of Yahoo betting, the willingness of the big search b oys to enter the gambling space, if and when the regulatory hurdles come down.
Cit: http://www.bettingmarket.com/bettingexchanges.htm
Cit: