Poll results: Social gaming will never overtake egaming revenues
More than half of those polled believe egaming will always stay ahead of social.
This week eGaming Review asked whether social gaming revenues would outstrip online gambling, and the general consensus is that social will never overtake egaming.
55% of those polled believe that social revenues will never overtake online gambling, despite huge growth in the sector. Many may have thought that Zynga’s dominance of the sector, coupled with rumours that the company was set to embark on an acquisition spree following the US$180m purchase of OMGPOP in March.
However, in Zynga’s investor call following their Q1 results Mark Pincus yesterday denied that this was the case, saying that operator would continue its policy of organic growth, rather than focus on taking over rival social development studios.
The feeling that social will not become more important than egaming was reflected in the results of last week’s poll, when we asked how operators can best manage an increasingly complex industry. Despite operators like bwin.party announcing plans to invest in social, and today’s exclusive story announcing that Playtech have acquired CTXM and agreed to buy a stake in Viaden Gaming to develop social gaming products, only 12% of those polled believed that social investment was the way to drive business forward.
A minority of readers voting in this week’s poll did feel that social had the potential to overtake egaming, with 20% of the opinion that should this happen, it will take place in the next three years.
Some even believe that it will happen in just a year, with 17.5% predicting a shift in the next twelve months.