Real-money poker is going to explode on the iPhone and iPad this year as more and more poker sites move into the space

Real money poker on the iPhone received a huge boost today when Bet24.com announced a huge expansion in its service.

The site was the first poker operator on the Ongame network to launch real-money poker game in France, Austria and United Kingdom in December.

And today it confirmed that, after a successful trial, they have made the real-money app available to poker players in 14 more countries.

From this morning, it can be downloaded in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

That means that 55 per cent of the EU population will now have access to at least one iOs compatible real-money poker client.

Lars Kollind, Poker Manager for Bet24.com, said: "Mobile has been a true success story for us with thousands of downloads since launch.

"I have studied the development carefully since launch and I am proud to say that mobile poker generates growth without cannibalizing on current poker revenues from PC and Mac, we are really glad that the customers like our product and use it on a daily basis."

A London-based app developer, who works in the gaming industry, told us: "This is a pretty big deal for a site like Bet24 who are trying to establish market share.

"They clearly feel the app route is a shortcut to building their player database, and that's a very shrewd decision given the regulatory problems elsewhere.

"Real-money poker is going to explode on the iPhone and iPad this year as more and more poker sites move into the space. Getting in first, especially in a wide range of territories, is the best way to get a foot hold."

Even though twice as many Android devices are sold in Europe, revenues tend to be larger on Apple products with nearly 90% of all EU mobile purchases taking place via an iOs device.

Real money poker on the iPhone has been available since October 2010, when Switch Poker first enabled its iOs compatible site.

Since then Microgaming's Android app and bwin's real-money poker app on the iPhone have both been hugely successful - but in a limited number of countries because of the ongoing legal wrangling about poker regulation.