Monty's Gaming and Wireless Outlook - Issue 190

Everybody knows the best ideas are the simple ones and this week it was the turn of www.helpwinthisbet.com to be such an example.

For those of you who can't be bothered to click through, a guy told his girlfriend that anybody could set up a website that received two million hits. She called him an idiot, he said he wasn't, and bet her he could do it. If not, he WAS an idiot, if so she would take part in a threesome with a girl of his choice.

Naturally, this sped across the web faster than Vodafone pulling its business out of Japan. By the time I'd gone to the site yesterday to help out this poor chap (as every male I know did), it had received 172,000 hits. About ten minutes ago it was up to 3,709,681 and rising.

Hurray! If this chap has any sense (which he plainly has) he'll immediately bring in somebody to sponsor the site and make some money. So not only does he get his dream, he gets somebody to pay for it as well! Somebody should make a movie about this guy.

This type of viral content, however, has yet to spread to the mobile arena and certainly hasn't been monetised. When was the last time you forwarded a SMS to somebody that wasn't a joke? And as for video, forget it, it's hard enough to set up a handset that can send and receive pictures.

What's more, the kids are spreading mobile content virally in the best of old-fashioned ways. The school playground (otherwise known as the most competitive bazaar on earth) now sees kids trading mobile videos instead of football cards. Apparently the going price is about 50 pence for a video that is then sent by Bluetooth.

And that's where it's going to be at for a while unless our bet-winning friend decides to take his online operation mobile and stream the threesome experience he is about to enjoy. But there again, there's riding your luck and pushing your luck, so maybe he'd better quit while he's ahead.