Betfair took £1bn of mobile bets in its last financial year

168k mobile users help the company's mobile revenues jump 88% in the last year.

Betting exchange Betfair took more than £1 billion of bets through its mobile apps and sites in the company's last financial year, the company has announced.

168,000 people placed a Betfair bet from their phone during the year, up 122% on the previous 12 months. Revenues from the company's mobile products were up 88%, and its iPhone and iPad apps have been downloaded more than 200,000 times.

"Betfair has had an explosive year in mobile and our sights are now firmly set on reaching even greater heights in the year ahead," says Raj Vemulapalli, VP of mobile engineering at Betfair.

"Developing new betting methods and experiences for the increasing amount of our customers who wish to access Betfair through their mobile phones is a key priority of the business. The surge in global smartphone sales represents a significant opportunity for us."

Betfair has launched HTML5 web apps for Android, and has made an API available for external developers to build its service into their apps, offering them a 5% share of resulting revenues.