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The largest social-gaming company, Zynga, depends on the largest social network and vice versa, Facebook, writes Dean Takahashi of Venturebeat. But both appear to be going their separate ways as the two companies have restructured their contracts whereby Zynga can now begin offering its social gaming platforms to other companies. Zynga, as such, is one step closer to offering “real money” online gambling including poker.
From VentureBeat.com:
In particular, Zynga is no longer required to use Facebook as the official platform for Zynga.com. That means it does not have to use Facebook Credits, the virtual currency issued by Facebook. In Facebook Credits transactions, Facebook takes a hefty 30 percent cut. Zynga could theoretically create its own virtual currency or adopt one from another vendor that takes a smaller cut of transactions. Zynga is no longer required to use Facebook display ads either.
This is a big deal for Zynga, since it will allow it to fully exploit the benefits of creating its own game portal. Now, rather than pay 30 percent to Facebook, Zynga can theoretically keep a much higher profit margin for revenues associated with games published on Zynga.com.
The most significant clause as it applies to real money online gambling: “If Facebook allows real money gambling games on the Facebook web site in countries where Zynga has real money gambling games, Zynga will subsequently launch such games on the Facebook web site, if certain conditions are met by Facebook.”
Zynga is set to begin offering online gambling for real money in the UK via its new partnership arrangement with bwin.party.
Shares in Zynga were down 10 percent late Thursday while Facebook shares were flat.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
