A new way of parting iPhone-totting City slickers from their bonus payments
is just about to hit – spread betting. One of the leading proponents of spread
betting – IG Index – will launch a new service on March 21st. IG is proposing to
offer a browser orientated version of its Puredeal spread betting service which
will be mobile-friendly and thus ideal for web browser mobile phones such as the
Apple iPhone. To date, IG Index has offered this service to mobile handsets via
a Java app download. This runs on a wide range of handsets and can be obtained
by texting 'mobile' to 80800. Or by visiting
www.igmobile.com from the handset's browser. The iPhone is something of a
gift for the spread betters since the previous alternative – a Blackberry –
frequently encounters problems. City slickers find they can't get through the
company firewall to place their bets on a corporate Blackberry. Currently the
market for mobile originated bets is quite tiny. IG recently told the FT that it
gets around 25,000 trades a month from handsets compared to around 1.25 million
trades placed over the standard internet. That could easily change thanks to the
iPhone and IG's rivals – such as City Index – are thinking of following suit and
launching more mobile friendly versions of their services. Spread betting is, of
course, quite a dangerous pursuit. It's actually possible to lose more than the
value of the original bet if you get it badly wrong. But then buying an iPhone
is a bit of a gamble in the first place, isn't it?
