William Hill unveils iPad app

The app lets users bet on over 1,000 football league and cup matches from nearly 100 countries across the globe as well as UK and Irish horse racing meets.

The bookmaker also intends to offer incentives for using the service such as refunding stakes on accumulator bets when only one outcome wagered on doesn’t occur or if a chosen “first goal scorer” scores the second goal in a game and increasing returns on horse racing bets when the victor wins by a large margin.

William Hill describes online betting as having “soared in popularity” with football and horse racing ranking at the two most popular sports for punters using such devices with in-app betting accounting for 30 per cent of digital bets placed.

Up to 2,500 bets are made each minute via digital channels with mobile as the leading platform in the run up to this year’s Grand National race according to the bookmaker.

Juergen Reutter, William Hill, director of mobile, says: “More customers are using our service as a second screen solution to watch sport at home or on the move.

“We anticipate the service becoming even more popular over the festive period and are sure the simple, easy and convenient functionality of the app will become a favourite way for many of our customers to bet.”

Last month, Andy Lettings, Ladbrokes head of new channels, told attendees at an IAB event that it would to start exploring using new technologies such as tablet apps and NFC as it looks to encourage younger customers into its business as it evolved into a “mobile first” organisation.

Speaking at the time, he said: “Mobile is really important because our demographic is becoming younger and we’re increasingly bringing new blood into the business…the new customers that come in are not customers that come in to our shops.”