Online Gaming: Skill Games Will be Next Big Thing for Players and Affiliates

While the vast majority of those in attendance at this week's CAC Amsterdam Online Gaming Affiliation Convention were involved with poker and online casino marketing, the subject of skill games (outside of the poker realm) also came up.

RummyRoyal for example is a new gin rummy website that accepts players from the US. 

"Gin rummy is the third most popular family game," a representative of the company told Gambling911.com.  Inside one online gaming network, one can actually find 10,000 concurrent daily gin rummy players.

Another major entry into this market is none other than SkillGround which is promoted heavily by Gambling911.com.  The site offers various skill games that are more in line with today's Play Station.  LA Street Racing, Kung Fu, War Path, Close Quarters Conflict are included on the platform.

For affiliates, skill games might not be as appealing to promote if one were to consider how little revenue is perceived as coming in.

Christopher Smith of SkillGround agrees that this may be the case today but things are going to change drastically. 

Smith has been with Boyd Gaming and Cryptologic so he comes to SkillGround with a "casino" mentality.  That means he wants to ensure players as well as affiliates have an incentive too play with SkillGround. 

Specifically for affiliates, the average customer is likely to present excellent liquidity.

"For the car racing, players will want to upgrade their cars constantly and that costs money," Smith explains.  "It costs money to change tires."

SkillGround is very much like a virtual world in that sense.

And soon they will be adding exciting new  games including golf.  The site has already been integrated into already existing online casino platforms, including Paddy Power. 

"Millions of dollars have been invested in our company."

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com

Originally published May 4, 2007 4:42 pm ET