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James Moore: Ladbrokes’ price looks wrong for a return by Flappy Birds

Outlook:

James Moore
Monday 10 February 2014 22:41 EST
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Don’t get in a flap if you’ve missed out on the latest maddeningly addictive computer game featuring our feathered friends. Dong Nguyen, Flappy Birds’ frustrated creator, will surely be back.

Mr Nguyen might have lived up to his promises by taking down a free app that was making him more than £30,000 a day in ad sales by some estimates over the weekend. But it tells you all you need to know that Ladbrokes’ price on him developing a similarly addictive piece of software this year stands at just evens.

The odds on Flappy Birds itself returning in some format at some point are a little longer. Your view on the 10-1 Ladbrokes is offering on it being back in an app store somewhere this year depends on your view of how long it will take a big company to pony up the right amount to persuade Mr Nguyen to perform a volte face.

The owners of phones containing it are already asking for silly money on eBay, and the higher prices go the more likely it is someone will knock on the door of the developer’s Hanoi home.

Everyone has his price, but Ladbrokes’ looks wrong. The bookie may soon feel as much pain as those offering to pay the earth to fly with Flappy Birds.

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