UNIÃO EUROPEIA: Bwin imprime impulso de 50 milhões de dólares a jogos sociais

30/05/2012 by admin in Notícias, Operadores Online, União Europeia No Comments

Bwin launches $50m social gaming push

Bwin.party, the online gambling group, is to spend $50m over the next two years to broaden its reach into social gaming.

The FTSE 250 company on Wednesday announced it had agreed to pay a total of $23m to Velasco and Orneon – two eastern European gaming developers – to buy out the contracts of 300 software engineers, accelerating its push into social gaming.

“Social games, in general, are games whose fun is derived from the social interaction of the users, or games that are distributed on social networks such as Facebook, smartphones and other platforms,” said Barak Rabinowitz, head of Bwin’s social gaming strategy.

“The market today has about 750m users around the world, growing to 1.5bn by 2015, and it’s currently an $8bn market, expected to grow to $15bn over the next three years.”

Bwin.party said that the $23m in cash paid to Velasco and Orneon covered several existing business-to-business social gaming contracts, and about 330 software engineers.

The online bookmaker added that it would launch its first social gaming product – a poker-based game – followed by a casino and sports book application by the end of the year.

The $50m investment by Bwin.party, which was formed last March when sports specialist Bwin merged with PartyGaming, the online poker and casino company, will include the establishment of a social games unit called “Win”.

The division will develop and launch social games, tapping the customer base that already uses Bwin’s poker and sports betting services, and launch an eponymous online social gaming destination portal.

“Most of the players never pay anything to play the games – 98 per cent in a good game. Two per cent do pay, and they are paying real money to buy credits that allow them to accelerate faster through the game, use special features or send gifts to their friends,” said Mr Rabinowitz.

New content will be added every fortnight and revenues will be bolstered by banner advertising or in-game sponsorship, Bwin said. It added that it expected its Win division to become profitable within two years.

“Bwin.party’s move into social gaming has been well flagged and if the strategy fails it’s not going to be through lack of investment. Only time will tell if the gambling companies can make social gaming work,” said Nick Batram, analyst at Peel Hunt.

The news follows Bwin.party’s decision last week to pay Spanish authorities as much as €33.6m in taxes and interest to comply with two historic laws previously not applied to online bookmakers in the country.

Bwin.party is also facing regulatory worries in Germany, its largest market, where there are plans to introduce new gambling rules.

Notícia: Financial Times