Poll results: Zynga's real-money decision not an industry problem
eGR readers also express concern over potential social and real-money gaming convergence
Zynga’s headline grabbing move to drop its US real-money gaming ambitions reflect nothing more than a Zynga-related issue, according to the results of last week’s poll.
The announcement came after the release of underwhelming second-quarter financial results last week with Zynga saying it would not be pursuing online gambling licences in the US.
But nearly 50% of voters on egrmagazine.com said the decision had nothing to do with the rest of the industry and was a Zynga-specific issue.
Several other firms, including some of the UK’s biggest egaming operators, are pressing ahead with plans for real-money gaming in the US with 888 likely to be the first past the post with a launch with Caesars in Nevada.
And with the launch of New Jersey’s online gambling market slated for November, we’ve seen a spate of deals in recent weeks including Betfair and PokerStars as well as pre-existing deals from the likes of bwin.party.
Nearly a third of readers, however, felt the move from Zynga had wider implications for the social and real money gaming sectors with 31% saying it was proof of a lack of social/RMG convergence.
With only a handful of firms currently live for real-money gaming on Facebook in the UK, the two sectors are yet to show signs of significant convergence.
But the US could be a significant game-changer for social and real-money convergence with many of the leading social gaming operators such as Caesars Interactive, IGT and WMS having strong links with real-money gaming.