O2 and Cantor Index bring gambling to PDAs

Punters now have another way of getting their gambling fix on the move thanks to Cantor Mobile, a service from Cantor Index made possible with a free xda device from O2.

The service provides share prices and sports betting directly from a user's PDA in real time. It enables those who fancy a flutter or dabbling on the stock market to make an investment on the move. The Cantor mobile service also offers news from Dow Jones Newswires and video content as well as constantly updated scrolling sports and financial reports.

To help encourage new users to make the leap from desktop to palmtop trading, O2 is giving away an xda to all those who register. Cantor's new and existing customers can get their hands on the hardware and a service subscription for nothing but will have to sign up to an O2 tariff.

Lewis Findlay, Cantor Index managing director, said consumers enjoy "the anonymity and think that we would give them a different price if we knew who they were". He added that users liked the option of playing the stock market without dealing with "aggressive City traders".

Findlay said he expects the service to be taken up by up to 10,000 users in the course of the year.

While it will naturally find a home with city execs who can't bear to be away from the trading floor while they’re on the train or at lunch, Cantor Mobile's creators say given that a large amount of sport is watched in the pub, they're hoping that Joe Public will fancy using the service for a crafty punt while at the local.

The service will run on O2's GPRS network using weComm's Wave platform and will eventually be rolled out across five countries in Europe.