First 3G Betting Service is Balls

3, the 3G mobile network provider and Ladbrokes have launched what they claim is the first 3G video mobile betting service.

The service is called Balls!, and it’s a numbers draw game (like the Lottery, I suppose, but repeated every minute, and with less holding up of the queue in my local newsagents) – it’s apparently one of the most popular products on Ladbrokes.com. The company have ported the Flash-based game over to 3rd generation mobile networks, allowing punters to bet up to 1,440 times a day. Recent jackpots for the web game have been UK£54,000 and UK£94,000 (€79,580 to €138,538). Stats are available on which numbers come out most often, for those of you deluded enough to think that makes a difference.

Bob Fuller, Chief Executive of 3 commented: “3 leads the video mobile market with an unrivalled portfolio of content and Ladbrokes Balls! on 3 is yet another first for the UK’s leading 3G network. We are setting the agenda for 3G and are constantly challenging the UK market place with our range of innovative products and faster, better mobile services. With over 1.2 million customers in the UK, the potential for these types of services on 3 is very exciting.”

David Briggs, Commercial Director, Ladbrokes e-Gaming said: “We’re delighted to be working with 3. Ladbrokes Balls! is a game that lends itself well to the immediacy of video mobile. Balls! is already the most popular game on Ladbrokes.com and we expect the service to be equally as popular on 3’s video mobiles.”

Ladbrokes – NB Digital Lifestyles are not responsible if you’re daft enough to blow your lunch money on a gambling site

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Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people. Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon. At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC. After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video. These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?