“Virtual Social Gambling” No Longer A Gamble For BIG Business
Multi- millionaires and even multi- billionaires have been made by the online gambling industry, and here we do no refer to players who have won big money. Although more than a few online multi-millionaires have been made when playing these games, the real winners are the people who dared to take a gamble, and offer casinos, bingo clubs, poker rooms, and sports-betting websites online.
Social gaming is a category that has long been popular online, but this popularity has recently expanded in to the online gambling arena. Basically this means that gambling-type games are being played on social media websites, and social media gaming designers are delving into the gambling genre. One of the latest of these social gaming developers – Playtika – has joined in the fray.
This Tel Aviv based developer is not to be confused with Playtech, also an Israeli-based online gambling game developer. Playtika aims to allow fans of their games a taste of what it might be like to enjoy gambling online, but at this point only for fun. In other words games will be developed in demo” mode where real money is not exchanged!
They are already creators of some of the most widely played social gaming titles – over five million people play these games daily – from one-hundred and ninety countries. Their online video slot title – Slotomania – is the current jewel I n the crown – introduced in 2010. It became an almost immediate hit, and immediately a big hit with web-based gaming enthusiasts. Its execution was soremarkable that Interactive Entertainment giant Caesar’s snapped it up just one year later. They became a 51% shareholder of the company in 2011, and we all know how big Caesar’s is.
Despite the fact that Caesar’s is a gambling brand, they are also predominantly a US land gambling brand. There are still currently all kinds of regulatory issues regarding the legality of Internet gambling in this country, so, Playtika, and their new major partner do not offer slots where money is involved. These games are considered to be normal online apps where the player accumulates points to earn virtual rewards.
Obviously there has to be some (rather large) money it in the system, or CIE would have never become involve. So, players effectively enhance their “freemium” gaming experience, by purchasing upgrades, but no player expects to win money. Playtika has essentially become Caesar’s Interactive Entertainments’ lynchpin in the social gaming industry. They even have taken the title of “largest in the world”, away from Zynga.