Trinity Mirror to expand betting portfolio
Media group plans to redevelop rugby app following Paddy Power-driven Mirror Football launch
UK media group Trinity Mirror is planning an overhaul of its Rugby Addicts app that will see it include a betting platform ahead of next year’s rugby union World Cup.
The move would replicate the Group’s recent re-launch of its Mirror Football app, which saw the newspaper owner team up with Paddy Power to provide football betting to its readers for the very first time.
Speaking to eGaming Review, Matt Colebourne, Trinity Mirror’s director of new business development, said it was “highly likely” the company would expand into other sports with rugby high up on the agenda.
“We already have a Rugby Addicts app so we would just do an update to that,” Colebourne said.
“We’d probably have to invest money into making it a better app with a focus on the content and then add betting to it, similar to what we have done on the football side,” he added.
The expansion into other sports is likely to be good news for Paddy Power which would be in the box-seat to provide the betting platform for a revamped Rugby Addicts.
According to Colebourne, the back-end technology required to bring Paddy Power’s football betting to Mirror Football was complex therefore selecting an alternative bookmaker would present further technical issues.
“We’ve invested a lot of money in building the [Mirror Football] app and building the backend systems which then integrate with Paddys’ back-end systems – we could go with a different bookmaker but then we’d have to integrate with another API,” Colebourne said.
“We are not saying never, and our deal with Paddys is just for football, but we may well extend it to other sports and I expect Paddys would be our first port of call,” he added.
Mirror Football went live in the Apple Store at the end of April with its release coming amid a flurry of media organisations entering the sports betting fray.
Earlier this year the Guardian 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.