PartyPoker Investing US$50m Over the Next Two Years in Social Media Site
PartyPoker parent company bwin.party has announced plans to invest US$50m over the past two years in a standalone social media website.
The social gaming unit, called Win, will be headed up by former Mytopia and Amuso CEO Barak Rabinowitz, it was revealed on Wednesday.
Assets from social gaming companies Velasco Services and Orneon Limited have already been acquired by Party to “accelerate our market entry”.
From CasinoChoice.co.uk:
Social sports betting, casino, poker and bingo applications will be launched within the next 24 months, operating on a ‘freemium’ business model, whereby revenue is generated based on the sale of virtual credits for users to advance in the games, as well as purchase virtual gifts and other consumables.
bwin.party has also assumed several B2B contracts through the acquisitions of Velasco and Orneon, so Win Interactive will continue to provide products and services to these third parties.
The first applications will go live this summer.
bwin.party co-CEOs Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger both were quoted as saying: “We are focused on building a meaningful stand-alone enterprise that will operate outside our core real money gaming business but which will benefit from the Group’s significant resources and assets.”
Social media online gambling sites are starting to crop up across the industry with Camasino.com’s webcam site joining the Gambling911.com family while MySpace founder Tom Anderson is behind the new prize giveaway site RocketFrog.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
