Ladbrokes

Thanks to cutting edge call handling software from C3, bookmaker Ladbrokes saw exponential growth with regard to the number of bets placed via mobile phones for this year’s Grand National which was won by the favourite Hedgehunter. The Grand National is without doubt the race industry’s biggest event, attracting record crowds at Aintree, over 10 million UK viewers and another 600 million worldwide.

To ensure ample capacity for the massive number of telephone bets expected immediately before the race, Ladbrokes contracted C3 Ltd in Cambridge to provide additional call-handling facilities for the bets placed by mobile and fixed line phone calls.

C3 Ltd specialises in call-handling software for calls from fixed and mobile phones, including premium rate services. The company is geared to scale its call-handling capacity up to process large numbers of calls coming in all at once. Ladbrokes Mobile Betting Service uses WAP technology with a betting slip on the mobile phone, so that its registered customers can place bets wherever they may be.

The service was available to Ladbrokes telephone customers between midnight and 4pm on Saturday 9th April. These came from all four mobile phone networks, Vodafone, O2, Orange and 3 in addition to fixed telephone lines. All were processed by C3's interactive voice processing software.

A spokesman for Ladbrokes says:

“Being able to bet quickly and efficiently via mobile is proving popular with our customers and helps to provide a best of breed service to complement our regular telephone, internet and retail operations.”