Breaking news: 888 second operator to launch real money Facebook offering
Gibraltar-licensed company will initially launch the real money Bingo Appy game " casino games and possibly also poker to follow.
London-listed egaming operator 888 has announced an agreement with Facebook which will see it become the second company to launch a UK-facing, real money gambling offering on the social network.
The company follows Gamesys, which became the first to go live when it launched Bingo and Slots Friendzy in August this year, described at the time by COO Lee Fenton as “a huge opportunity” for the company.
As with Gamesys, 888’s offering will be covered by its existing Gibraltar licence and will be operated by the company’s existing social casino subsidiary Mytopia, which was relaunched in April after effectively being written off in a “non-cash impairment charge” of $20.2m in August 2011.
Itai Freiberger, 888 chief operating officer, said of the deal: “888 has long recognised the potential for social gaming. Our Facebook freemium offerings have found a significant audience, and we are very excited by the opportunity money gaming on Facebook provides. We are working closely with Facebook ensuring we introduce the best of both worlds of real money and social gaming.”
The company will first launch Bingo Appy (which also features a free-to-play variant), and will follow up by rolling out a casino offering including slots, and possibly poker according to a source within 888.
Facebook’s head of games partnerships in Europe, Julien Codorniou, added: “Facebook is a great platform for playing games with your friends and we are really pleased to be working with 888, who have a strong reputation on both the quality and safety of their games”.
Mytopia’s assets were originally acquired by 888 from Real Dice for $18m in June 2010, with then-CEO Gigi Levy saying at the time: “The acquisition extends 888’s reach and market share in the fast growing social networks and smart mobile devices, such as iPhone and Android-powered handsets, and leaves us well positioned to take advantage of this growth.”
The division was previously headed up by current bwin.party social gaming chief Barak Rabinowitz, before 888’s senior vice president of business operations Eran Gonen took over the role in January this year. Bingo Island currently has around 630,000 monthly active users according to Facebook, though only a small percentage of these will be UK customers.