Mirror Football: the Paddy-Powered app
eGaming Review gets an insight into the Trinity Mirror sports betting app ahead of its imminent release
Trinity Mirror will focus its soon-to-launch sports betting app on in-play betting and tight integration with its football content, the media brand’s director of new business development revealed.
Speaking to eGR about the make-up of the Mirror Football app, Matt Colebourne said the product would lean towards in-play betting, with markets linked to live text commentary of football matches.
“The focus will be on in-running betting but as we are focusing on the connection between the content and the bet, and due to the majority of our content being derived from live match reporting, it’s a natural outcome,” Colebourne said.
“The app will tie together content with markets so, for example, if we were to report that Manchester United had been awarded a penalty, we could then offer a price on whether they will score that penalty or not, with the customer able to place a bet in two clicks.”
Last week eGaming Review revealed that Paddy Power had signed a deal to integrate its sportsbook pricing with Trinity Mirror’s soon-to-be released sports betting app, which is expected to be available on iTunes within the next week.
The move comes amid a flurry of media organisations entering the sports betting fray after the Guardian earlier this year released its FSB Technology-powered Go Wager sportsbook while the Sun is currently closing in on a deal with BetVictor for its own sports betting service.
Colebourne said Mirror Football is intended for the “casual” punter “ the app will recommend stakes of around £2 to £3, although the customer can enter higher amounts “ with the addition of betting intended to complement the editorial content.
“We are a media company so the objective is offering entertainment and enhancing people’s enjoyment – not encouraging irresponsible gambling,” he said.
Those wishing to place bets through via app must first sign-up for an account, which will be opened through Paddy Power and accounts will also enable customers to log in and place bets though Paddy Power’s own channels.
According to Colebourne, the process to select a betting partner kicked-off last summer with the media company speaking to a wide range of interested parties before deciding upon the Irish operator.
“We talked to all the usual suspects “ and some of the less usual ones as well “ but the key thing for us was the ability to use a programmatic interface so that we could offer the end user a seamless integration rather than jumping between sites and platforms,” Colebourne said.
“Paddy Power had the most advanced API to facilitate this,” he added.
With the app out imminently, a desktop version is now under consideration however this will depend on the success of the mobile version. Immediate plans revolve around the release of an updated version of the app ahead of this summer’s World Cup.
“We’ve built into our budget room to launch a version 2.0 before the World Cup “ we have lots of innovative and fun ideas that we’d like to incorporate into the app but we wanted to get version one out there in the market first and get a reaction to it,” Colebourne said.
Trinity Mirror has an extensive media campaign planned for Mirror Football which is scheduled to get underway in the next few weeks.