App Store Submissions Expertise

Since 2011 our clients have benefitted from our knowledge of the app stores submission guidelines and processes. The more we utilise this expertise on their behalf, the smoother and faster their apps are available in store for their customers.

Although Apple’s App Store launched in July 2008, and Google’s Play Store 3 months later, Real Money Gaming (RMG) Apps have made a staggered appearance over the years across the two platforms, for example Google allowing these to be advertised on Play Store since 2015 in specified countries only. Over these years, we have helped our clients successfully submit over 350 app updates.

Starting back in 2011, mkodo worked with Rank Group to develop and bring their Mecca Bingo iOS app to store. This was the first RMG Bingo app to be submitted and approved on App Store in the UK. Since then, we have continued to work with Rank Group on this app, innovating the brand’s online mobile presence with over 100+ app updates successfully submitted to store for both iOS and Android.

Our next big milestone came the following year, in 2012, when mkodo helped launch the Atlantic Lottery Corporation’s (ALC) iOS app to App Store. Another first for mkodo, as this was notably the first transactional lottery app in Canada. Over the next 8 years we enjoyed working with ALC to innovate its service offering, allowing lottery players in the region to purchase tickets online and continue donating to good causes.

Three years later, we were honoured to work again with Rank Group to deploy their first, fully native Live Casino App under their Grosvenor Casino brand in 2015. With an App Store Rating of 4.3 stars, our successful collaboration was recognised by the industry when the app won Best Mobile Casino Product in 2018 at the EGR Operator Awards.

Over the years, we have continued to work across the lottery, betting and gaming space. New app clients included regulated Canadian lotteries: British Colombia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) and Western Canada Lottery Corporation (WCLC). Additionally, we helped games-of-skill experts Best of the Best (BOTB) to launch their iOS and Android app in the UK. Adding these clients and their apps to our portfolio has solidified our experience in submitting apps to store.

There is no doubt that mkodo’s expertise in this area has come into play when Apple re-enforced its submission guidelines in 2019. Guideline 4.2 required an app to be elevated above just a ‘repackaged website’, whilst guideline 4.7 meant operators needed to either build games natively or embed HTML5 games into their application code, since sideloaded content was no longer permitted. Stuart Godfree, mkodo’s co-founder, executive director, and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), was a strong voice in the industry, discussing the impact and challenges operators faced due to these changes. mkodo was able to help its clients overcome these changes by extracting and collecting so-called web bundles and packaging them into a format that could be embedded into the app through Apple’s On Demand Resources (ODR) solution. “We have been working together with our partners to address this and through a collaborative effort have made great progress in resolving many of these issues.”

An example of our work in this area includes our consultancy efforts with international sports betting provider Tipico, who were looking to ensure their iOS native apps illustrated best-in-breed design, particularly in light of these App Store submission guideline updates. Tipico were able to inject our expertise into their software development cycle and found it “extremely useful to work collaboratively with the mkodo team” to ensure they delivered a best in breed native iOS app for their customers.

This year saw the move from Google to allow RMG apps in 15 more countries. This news led to operators from all parts of the industry look to turn their previously non-transactional Android apps into real-money versions for Google Play, or to develop out a native Android app from scratch.

We aim to continue updating and expanding our clients apps, especially with every new iOS and Android update. We enjoy every aspect of creating engaging apps that adhere to iOS and Google guidelines and bring a unique source of entertainment into the hands of players globally.