Zynga confirms real-money launch
Chief executive Mark Pincus reveals that social gaming giant will launch first real-money products in H1 2013, subject to regulatory approval.
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has confirmed his company’s plans to enter the real-money gambling market, revealing plans to launch products for international markets “subject to licensing approval” in the first half of 2013.
Speaking at a presentation announcing Zynga’s results for the three months ending 30 June 2012, with the company reporting a US$22.8m loss for the second quarter of 2012, and a $108.2m loss for the first six months of the year, Pincus said: “We are developing a new growth opportunity in real-money gambling to build on our strong casino presence with Zynga Poker “ the world’s largest free play poker game “ and our hit bingo and slots games.”
Earlier this week eGaming Review exclusively revealed that Zynga had opened a tender for a real-money poker platform, with the likes of GTECH G2 and Playtech confirmed to be bidding for the contract, with the announcement coming weeks after the social gaming giant’s interest in the bwin.party-owned Ongame poker network had been confirmed. However, Pincus refused to be drawn when asked whether Zynga would partner with another company or launch using its own software, only admitting that they would operate their products as an individually licensed operator:
“We’re not making more public announcements about how we’ll enter these markets today, but it is subject to us having a licence,” he said.
Despite speculation that Zynga would look to be one of the first entrants into a regulated US egaming market, Pincus explained that the company would look to enter regulated markets around the world, and that he currently had “no plans” for the US.
“We have our first products in development and intend to release them in markets which are regulated and open, subject to us getting licensed.
“The US is obviously an attractive market, but it’s not an open and regulated market today, so we don’t currently have plans for the US,” he said.
The heavy half-year and quarterly losses were attributed in part to changes to the Facebook platform, which COO John Schappert explained “favoured new games over live games,” resulting in a drop in player retention; the delayed launch of Zynga’s city-building game The Ville, and the continued decline of Draw Something.
Revenue for the quarter rose 19% year-on-year to $332.5m, though the fact that revenue for online games fell to $291.5m, down $1.2m from the first quarter of 2012, highlighted the increasing importance of Zynga’s mobile platform. With 33m daily active users playing Zynga games on mobile devices, the company operates the largest mobile gaming network in the world, with 56% of players having been reactivated from playing games online.