Betting and gaming app supplier warns of stricter App Store guidelines

Apps and digital experience agency mkodo has warned that brands could soon have their apps rejected by the Apple App Store.
The firm, that supplies some of betting and gaming’s biggest names, noted that the tech giant has pledged to start enforcing a guideline requiring apps, including those operated by sportsbooks, casinos, bingos and lotteries, to have a minimum level of native functionality.
The 4.2 update in the Apple Review Guidelines requires apps to be sufficiently different from a Safari browsing experience and must ‘include features, content and user interface that elevate it beyond a repackaged website’.
Apple has been enforcing the updated guidelines and clamping down on new apps being submitted as so-called ‘wrapped websites’, as well as proactively targeting and rejecting updates to existing apps with minimal or no native functionality.
According to mkodo, this is likely to affect brands both big and small in the betting and gaming industry, where it has been common practice for apps to be wrapped versions of an operator’s website.
Stuart Godfree, Managing Director and Co-founder of mkodo, said: “Apple is now ensuring that all apps offer something different to a web experience which will really affect both new and existing apps across our sector.
“Rejections can be hugely costly both in terms of resubmission work and time to market, not to mention loss of revenues, and can easily be avoided if an app is native and developed and optimised to respect the Apple Guidelines.”
As a mobile technology specialist, mkodo has over a decade’s experience in submitting mobile apps to the App Store and advising on App Store Optimisation and Apple Review Guidelines for the betting, gaming and lottery market.
Godfree added: “This should not be underestimated. It is very important to work with a partner who understands what the App Store and Google Play Store require to ensure your apps are not rejected.”
Clients of mkodo currently include Rank Group’s Grosvenor Casino, Mecca Bingo and Enracha brands, Danske Spil and Canada’s Atlantic Lottery Corporation and British Columbia Lottery Corporation.