Review of the Year: Facebook looks into real-money gambling
eGR looks at the 10 biggest talking points of 2011.
One of the biggest announcements of the year came when eGaming Review exclusively revealed that Facebook is exploring the possibility of offering real-money games through its platform in late 2012.
The signs that could be a possibility first arose after it relaxed its rules on egaming advertising in August to allow online or offline gambling operators to advertise through the site, as long as it does not contravene local regulations.
This was followed up by a series of meetings to discuss the possibility of real money gambling on Facebook between is head of games and new partnerships and several leading operators, with the likes of 888, Gamesys and Rank confirmed as being present. While much still remains to be done, with age verification, the development of apps on Facebook’s platform and revenue share agreements yet to be fully explored and developed, it shows a definite move towards opening up the social network to gambling from its virtual currency model that it has offered for the last three years.
With social gaming companies making tens of millions of dollars from virtual currency, and Facebook taking 30% of each transaction, it is unsurprising that operators are keen to launch on the social network. Zynga currently has 30m average monthly users across its games, and while it may be streets ahead of other competitors, a casino app like DoubleDown Casino draws 4.3m active users a month with a gambling-only offering.
Operators have already begun to examine setting up virtual currency offerings, with Gamesys already releasing a series of Jackpot Joy-branded slots that have attracts 1.7m monthly players. Bwin.party has also invested in social gaming, funding the development of the social poker game Aces High, which has entered the testing stage on Google+.
This is to be followed by Cozy Games releasing one of the first B2B bingo and slots products for the Facebook platform, suggesting that now the egaming sector has finally embraced mobile, it is turning its focus to social gaming.
The key stories on social media in 2011:
Facebook in exploratory talks to offer real-money gambling in the UK
No plans for real money, says Zynga