Social gaming titan Zynga revealed its real-money gambling Facebook apps today at an event in Barcelona. According to VentureBeat.com, the company will initially launch the games in the United Kingdom, though the launch date is yet unknown.
Zynga already dipped its toe into the real-money gaming water in April, when it launched ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlus Casino, also in the UK. Though Zynga is best known for its social games on Facebook, its poker and casino offerings were downloadable products, totally separate from Facebook (they could also be accessed via web browser). The games use the bwin.party software platform and ZyngaPlusPoker is on bwin.party’s network, so its players instantly had access to PartyPoker’s tables.
The new Facebook apps are essentially extensions of ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino. These Facebook-based games will also use the bwin.party software. In order to avoid confusing play money players who do not wish to gamble real currency, ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino will stay totally separate from their play money Facebook counterparts. They will also have different looks and color schemes to further avoid accidental real money play by those who only want to goof around with virtual chips. Real money players will have to be able to prove their age and location as well as make a deposit with bwin before being allowed to gamble.
Though Facebook is the undisputed champ of social gaming in the Facebook world, it has already been beaten to the punch in real money gaming on the ever-popular social network. Last August, London-based Gamesys launched Bingo Friendzy, the first real money gambling app for Facebook. Assuming ZyngaPlusPoker launches in the near future, though, Zynga would be the first on Facebook to offer real money poker.
The launch of real money gaming for Zynga can’t come too soon. Despite its seemingly dominant position in the social gaming realm with mega-hits like Words with Friends, FarmVille, Mafia Wars, and CityVille, Zynga has been struggling financially. Its social games are all free to play, but players are able to pay real money to purchase in-game currency. This currency can then be used to buy items to enhance the gaming experience, such as power-ups to give a player an advantage in the game or even vanity items that serve no purpose except to dress up their character. This system works will to an extent, but the problem is that many of Zynga’s games cannot be played on mobile devices. And because people are accessing Facebook more and more on said mobile devices instead of their PC’s, Zynga is seeing its revenues decrease.
Zynga went public on December 16th, 2011, opening at $11 per share and closing at $9.50. The highest point its stock ever got was $14.69 on March 2nd, 2012. It bottomed out in November at $2.09 per share and is currently trading at $3.39, boosted last week by the resignation of its founder and CEO, Mark Pincus.