Zynga Unveils Real Money Gaming for Facebook
Real money Zynga poker is coming soon to a Facebook near you, if you are in the United Kingdom. Fox Business reported that Zynga unveiled their real money online poker and online casino apps earlier today at a gaming summit in Barcelona, Spain and is expected to go online soon in the United Kingdom with real money gambling.
The games unveiled were ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino, both for Facebook. Both are the result of a partnership between Zynga and bwin.Party. The apps will still have a social component but will actually be a completely different act with their own unique design and color scheme. Zynga wants users to be fully aware of the differences between social and real money gaming and designed the new apps to reflect this. In addition, Zynga expects these games to go online within a month.
At present, the company offers real money gambling through their UK site and via download. The new Facebook app will also be available via mobile devices, which offers four different options for players.
One interesting feature of the real gaming sites is the ability to transfer your digital wallet from platform to platform. If you are in the UK and already playing on the site, you can transfer funds to either your Facebook or mobile platform.
Real money gaming was naturally seen as a natural progression for Zynga once social gaming became huge. The UK market will serve as the company’s proving grounds for real-money gaming. Zynga is continuing to monitor the product to determine profitability all while operating in a legal online gambling market.
Sean Ryan, Zynga’s head of game partnerships at Facebook, told onlookers that the company’s primary focus will still remain in the social gaming region, but that gambling was an obvious next step for the company to meet player demand.
At some point Zynga is sure to enter the United States to offer real money gaming, but at this time it is unclear what their plan is. With just three states having legalized poker, the market may be too small for Zynga to enter. Once more states legalize iGaming or a federal solution is passed, expect Zynga to make a strong push to enter the US market.