Betfair embracing Google Glass

Betfair have this month signaled their intent to embrace Google Glass as a delivery technology.

During the Betfair spot on At The races, company spokesman Barry Orr was wearing Google Glasses, allowing him to quote real time odds as they were posted during a track side interview.

OK, not exactly brilliant stuff here. Well not from Betfair anyway…more from Google. But as well as just using the glasses as a presentation aid during TV spots, the tech-heads at Betfair have said they are working hard on leveraging the glassware product for better delivery of their betting products to customers.

According to the company’s director or product innovation, Alex Deacon,

“Glass has only recently arrived in the UK, so using it during our TV betting slots is just the very first step. Even more exciting is the potential that we see in understanding the usage and growth of wearable technology when it comes to improving our customers betting experience in ways beyond simply looking at prices on their phones, tablets or computers.”

The idea is to enable betting customers to be to stay connected seamlessly throughout the day, irrespective of location or activity. Not sure how the wife or girlfriend will react to your seamless connectivity to races/football games during dinner. Having them on all day at work may also be a career limiting move.

Whatever Betfair are planning, they’ll probably move pretty fast with it. They lay claim to being the first betting operator to offer a betting exchange product as an App for smartphones. They’ll want to be first to movers into this area as well.

For the time being at least, this intent is limited to delivery of their betting products and not live dealer games, but who knows what the future holds. If operators felt it necessary to squeeze a live dealer onto the screen of smartphones, customizing the games for play on Google Glass probably isn’t beyond the realms of possibility.

Punters in the UK wanting to impress their mates at the track with a pair Google Glasses, can now do so. The product became available for sale in the UK in June (2014), via Google’s Glass Explorer Programme.

To get a set you need to be over 18, have a UK address, a credit card and be willing to pay £1,000.