Mobile betting stands on the back of a successful smartphone and tablet industry. Early smartphones were expensive and quirky, limited mostly to those who could afford to throw a little extra money at the novelty of the idea. The same also applied to early tablets. But as we can see, the mobile industry has experienced explosive growth, and now it seems that everyone has at least one smartphone or tablet.

People are now searching, shopping, and Facebooking ever-more frequently on their mobile devices. We’re also starting to see increasing amounts of real money mobile online betting. All the major betting websites now offer mobile betting as a standard feature.

Every major form of betting (sports, casino, poker, and racing) has some mobile access. Sports betting and casino games earn the lion’s share of betting action, but poker and racing betting also have seen some success. Some betting websites offer a greater selection of mobile betting options than others, so let’s begin with a list of the best mobile betting sites.

Every betting website does it differently, but the above sites seem to offer the best all-around experience. Something else to keep in mind is that some sites do not let you sign up for a new account on their mobile interface – they only let you log in with existing accounts. For that reason, it’s best to sign up first from your regular computer and then visit the site on your phone.

Types of Mobile Betting Apps

All the major forms of betting and gambling can be found in a mobile form somewhere. Of course, some things work better in the mobile form than others. Sports and racing betting make for fairly simple transitions to small screens and quick transactions. Poker and casino games require a bit more work because of the importance of the visual side of things.

The odds are we’ll see improvements in all areas of mobile betting. Smartphones and tablets are always improving, the internet itself is improving, and people, in general, are becoming more comfortable doing things on mobile devices. Here’s where we stand right now in each area.

Mobile Sports Betting

Mobile sports betting works great on mobile devices because it doesn’t require much in terms of graphics and visuals. All you need are the latest lines and a way to place your bets. Most sports betting sites have a pretty decent mobile interface – it’s hard to get wrong.

One major improvement that we’ve seen in the last couple of years is mobile in-play betting. If you’re out watching the game with your friends (or even at the game), you can place bets in real-time as the game plays out in front of you. This makes for an awesome experience that you cannot recreate at home.

Mobile Casino Games

Mobile casino games have also improved dramatically in recent times. In the early days of mobile casinos, it was a nightmare for casinos to develop something that worked on every phone. They faced a fractured industry and could barely get their mobile apps approved by the major phone manufacturers.

Thankfully, it’s easier now, thanks to mobile devices becoming more computer-like in their ability to surf the internet and run the software. Most casino sites now set up a mobile website that uses your browser to view and play the games. Mobile internet speeds are now sufficient enough that they can run most casino games without trouble.

The selection of mobile casino games is still somewhat limited, but it is improving. If you visit any mobile casino website, you’ll probably find about a dozen real money games. In most cases, this includes a selection of classic table games (blackjack, roulette, etc.) and a few slots.

Mobile Poker

Mobile poker had the hardest time getting started simply because of the nature of the game. A real money poker game requires quite a bit of information to be displayed clearly on the screen. That, plus the buttons required to bet, choose bet size, and so on, made it a technical challenge to develop a feasible mobile poker app.

It took a while, but the biggest online poker sites have finally gotten it all figured out. Now the best poker sites have full-fledged apps for Android phones, iPhones, and iPads. These games actually look and work well on the mobile interface. It still feels a little crowded on the phone, but mobile poker works great on the iPad.

The one thing you may or may not miss about mobile poker is that you’re going to have to play without any of that old poker tracking software that many of you are used to. PokerTracker and Holdem Manager don’t work with mobile poker software. If you play mobile poker, you’re going to have to play without all those extras.

Mobile Horse Racing Betting

The big online horse racing betting websites have done an excellent job in keeping up with the times. In fact, I’d argue that horse and greyhound racing have done the best in going after mobile users. At the top horse racing sites, you can log in with any mobile device to place wagers, watch live horse racing videos, add funds to your account, and much more.

I really like the big mobile racing sites because they make maximum use of screen real estate. They use tabbed browsing to help you create complex wagers and include simple search functions to help you find specific tracks. There’s a lot of information to sort through, but my favorite racing websites have managed to make it work.