Some people believe that betting and gambling will be one of the
major parts of mobile commerce (m-commerce). Many betting situations are
dependent on correct and timely information. This information does not
necessarily have to be formalized. This is one of the reasons why people who
bet at a trotting track is an interesting group to study. One other interesting
aspect of this is that the track is a mobile context, which the player visits for a
limited time and during this visit wanders between different places. The
purpose of this master thesis is to answer the following question: is a mobile
information service a way to lower the transaction costs for retrieving
information connected to gambling at a trotting track. The theoretical framework
is based on theories from e-commerce, marketing and mobility and mobile IT
use. In order to answer our question we have conducted an ethnographical
inspired study at the Åby Trotting Track in Mölndal. Our results have indicated
that there are two general types of information, official and unofficial. It is also
possible to divide the players into two general categories depending on the
number of information sources used and how this information was used in
order to make the betting decision. One another important finding is that there
is a need for a personalization of the information that origins from official
channels. Based on our findings we have conducted the first two steps in
developing a prototype. A web based trotting service (Trotting Pal) designed for
Ipaq handheld computers has been designed. The development of this
prototype will continue after this master thesis has been completed. From our
results we draw the conclusion that a mobile service can lower the transaction
costs that arise in connecti...
