Social Gaming

Social Gambling & Gaming Summit Kicks Off in LA Today: Gambling911 is in the House

Gambling911.com is here in beautiful Marina Del Rey, California to take part in this week’s Social Gambling & Gaming Summit that kicks off this morning (Thursday December 13) with keynote speaker Niranjan Nagar, Head of Games and Apps for Facebook.

The Social Gaming & Gambling Summit is a conference focused on the intersection of mobile gaming, immersive worlds, real-life brands and social networking.

Submitted by Payton on, Dec/13/2012

888 Launches Real Money Facebook Platform

888.com, which operates the 6th largest online poker room in the world, has announced the launch of “real money” online poker on Facebook in the UK.  They are the second operator after Bingo Friendzy to do so.

888 Holdings’ shares rose 3.7 per cent to 113.25p in morning trading.

Itai Freiberger, 888’s chief operating officer, said: “888 has long recognised the potential for social gaming. Our Facebook freemium [play for fun] offerings have found a significant audience, and we are very excited by the opportunity that real money gaming on Facebook provides.”

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Dec/12/2012

Zynga Shares Soar Thursday on News of Real Money Online Poker Move

The world’s largest free-to-play online poker company announced in after hours Wednesday that it had applied for a license to operate real money online poker with the state of Nevada.

Thursday, stocks shot up to 5 percent by mid afternoon Thursday.

Analysts remained cautious regarding the news nonetheless.  

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Dec/06/2012

Bally Technology Looks to Acquire Online Poker Game Developer 3G Studios

(Reuters) - Slot-machine maker Bally Technologies is exploring a bid for online poker game developer 3G Studios, in what would be the latest deal to combine online gambling and casino gaming on social media, said two sources with knowledge of the talks.

One source said several Bally Technologies executives were scheduled to visit 3G's offices in Reno, Nevada on Tuesday to determine whether to make a formal bid.

Submitted by Reuters on, Dec/06/2012

Zynga Applies for Nevada Online Poker License

The world’s largest free-to-play online poker site, Zynga, has applied for a Nevada online poker site that the company said could take up to a year before they are up and running to accept real money from US customers, or at least those in the state of Nevada.

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Dec/05/2012

Trophy Vegas Social Gaming Site Takes Plunge Into Real Money Casino Space

Trophy Vegas, in conjunction with its Facebook application Trophy Slots, is the latest social gaming site to begin offering real money casino play.

Trophy Slots was launched earlier this year as a social slots game, featuring 10 popular slots titles.  To date, the Trophy Slots Facebook page had 37,803 likes.

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Nov/28/2012

Free-to-Play Casino Playsino Surpasses 1 Million Install Mark

Social casino website, Playsino.com, has reached the 1 million install mark this week.

"The overwhelmingly popular response to our social and mobile casino apps is further evidence of the strong growth potential in the social casino gaming sphere," said Brock Pierce, Playsino's CEO. "This space is only going to get hotter and provide better entertainment for users and higher revenues for developers."

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Nov/27/2012

Facebook Exec Niranjan Nagar to Speak at Social Gambling Conference

Niranjan Nagar, the Head of Games & Apps for Global Vertical Marketing at Facebook, is slated as the keynote speaker at next months’ Social Gaming & Gambling Summit in Los Angeles (taking place December 13-14). 

Nagar is responsible for managing Facebook's marketing strategy for the vertical and for architecting programs to build the category globally. He was most recently the COO at Outspark, a publisher and operator of free to play RPGs.

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Nov/17/2012

Gambling911.com to Attend Social Gaming & Gambling Summit in Los Angeles

One of the biggest events in social gaming is taking place December 13-14 in Los Angeles, the Social Gaming & Gambling Summit, and Gambling911.com, the worldwide leader in Gambling news, has announced it will be in attendance.

The two day event will feature some of the biggest names in social gaming including Facebook, Rocket Play, Bunker Mode, Abode, Bees and Pollen, Blitzoo and so many more. 

Submitted by Payton on, Nov/14/2012

Social Gaming & Gambling Summit to Take Place in Los Angeles Next Month

The two-day conference will explore the convergence of social gaming and gambling, as well as its impact on the industry.

Submitted by Press Release on, Nov/14/2012

Former Zynga VP Ya-Bing Chu Joins Betable

A former Vice President of publicly traded social gaming company Zynga has been hired by startup Betable, it was announced on Monday.

Ya-Bing Chu will be placed in charge of building Betable’s real money platform, which will be available in most countries except for the USA, at least for the time being.  He will also focus on mobile growth for the company.

“This is an opportunity to pioneer this business, and this was too good to pass up,” said Chu.

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Nov/12/2012

Social Gambling News: Conference Speaker List Expands With Dean Takahashi, More

Today, the organisers of the Social Gambling Conference have announced that Venture Beat's Social Gaming lead commentator Dean Takahashi, Hussein Chahine, Founder & CEO of Yazino, Brian Morgan, Executive Director Online Gaming at WMS, Vaughan Lewis, Analyst at Morgan Stanley and Joost van Dreunen, Co-Founder & CEO of SuperData will be joining the elite line up of speakers at November's conference.

Submitted by Press Release on, Nov/09/2012

Bunker Mode Joins Growing Social Sports Betting Field With ‘High Limit Sports’

Bunker Mode, which is looking to become a leader in worldwide mobile sports gaming, has just introduced a new social sports betting app, High Limit Sports

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Nov/04/2012

Social Gambling Conference in London to Feature Panel of Legal Experts

Legal experts in the social gambling space will add their opinions to the Social Gambling Conference on November 16th at Dexter House, London.

Submitted by Press Release on, Nov/04/2012

Zynga Introduces Sports Betting With Las Vegas Style Sportsbook Game

Zynga has teamed up with developer RocketPlay to deliver a “Vegas-like” sportsbook experience for its customers just in time for the new NFL season. 

According to a release, Sports Casino offers "an authentic Las Vegas-style sportsbook experience" wherein players can bet on live sporting events like baseball and football as well as play video poker, slots, and blackjack.

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Sep/05/2012

Zynga Hires Former 888 Poker Exec in Sign They Are Moving Towards ‘Real Money’ Play

Zynga, the world’s largest free-to-play online poker social gaming company, has reportedly hired Maytal Ginzburg Olsha, the former Senior Vice President of Corporate and Regulated Markets at 888 Holdings, the parent company of 888 Poker. 

Zynga fouder and CEO Mark Pincus told analysts back in July that the company intended to have “real money” play ready for early 2013. 

Zynga has seen its stock price plummet in recent months as a number of high ranking executives have chosen to leave the firm.

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Aug/31/2012

Zynga Chief Creative Officer Mike Verdu Exits to Start New Gaming Co, Backed by Zynga

Zynga’s Chief Creative Officer Mike Verdu may be on his way out the door, but his new online gaming venture will have backing from none other than….ZYNGA.

Without revealing the name of his new venture, Verdu disclosed that Zynga will be a primary investor. 

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Aug/28/2012

Thiel Sells 20 million Facebook Shares After IPO Lockup Expired

NEW YORK — (Associated Press) - Peter Thiel, one of Facebook’s earliest investors and a member of its board, was among the insiders selling stock in the social network after a lockup expired last week.

A regulatory filing on Monday said that Thiel, a former CEO at PayPal sold about 20 million shares of Facebook through affiliates such as his Founders Fund and other entities last week. The shares were sold on Thursday and Friday for between $19.27 and $20.69, for a total of about $396 million.

Submitted by Guest on, Aug/20/2012

Zynga Adds Real Money Gambling: Spends $75k on Lobbying Efforts

The Wall Street Journal late Wednesday reported that Zynga, the publicly traded social gaming behemoth, has spent upwards of $75,000 lobbying in the United States to legalize online gambling.  The primary focus up to this point appears to be in the state of California, where a current measure to legalize Web poker in the Golden State is expected to die by month’s end.

Submitted by Aaron Goldstein on, Aug/16/2012

More Headaches for Zynga as EA Lawsuit Claims Farmville Game Violates Copyright

NEW YORK — (Associated Press) - Electronic Arts Inc. has sued online game maker Zynga saying that its new game “The Ville” infringes its own game, “The Sims Social.”

EA said Friday that “The Ville” is “unmistakable” in its similarity to “The Sims Social,” which launched more than a year earlier. EA says the games are “largely indistinguishable” to a casual observer.

Submitted by Guest on, Aug/04/2012

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