It was just a couple of years ago that Caesars Entertainment Corporation had Wall Street in a tizzy when the company acquired the social gaming operation known as Playtika. Now, Caesars has managed to surpass its rival Zynga Inc. Caesars is now considered to be that the top of this competitive business model.
For the most part, social casino games can be had through Internet sites such as Facebook. They are free to play, making them very popular. In some cases, those playing will have an option of paying a small fee, usually around $1, and for this fee they get thousands of tokens that can be used to increase their online gaming bankroll. What surprised many experts is that these small fees are really adding up to some big money. It is estimated that online social gaming is currently worth around $1.2 billion globally annually.
It should also be noted that Caesars Interactive Entertainment now owns a substantial part of this increasing market. The bingo games and slots that are under the Playtika Slotomania brand are credited for much of this increase. Zynga, which owns numerous games, is now occupying the second slot.
According to Eilers Research, it was only a few years ago when social casino gaming was virtually nonexistent. It is now considered to be one of the most profitable and popular gaming genres currently available for desktop or mobile devices. Eilers Research focuses on the gaming technology, gaming equipment, and interactive gaming sectors. The company, based in California, was founded in 2012.
It has also been estimated that the total social gaming market may be able to hit $2 billion at the end of 2013. This would be a whooping 67 percent increase from what occurred in 2012.
Much of this is credited to platforms such as Facebook as well as to increased use of mobile devices. The traditional gaming industry also sees this as a potential money-maker as it considers how to turn it into real-money gambling. This may be years off, however.
In May of 2011, Caesars acquired 51 percent of Playtika. Back then, Playtika, which was just a tiny social game developer in Israel, was working to gain more players with its Slotomania. To date, Caesars has not said how much it paid for this 51 percent purchase but some experts estimate it cost between $80 million and $90 million.
At the beginning of 2013, Caesars also purchased Buffalo Studios which is based in California. It can be said that as the potential for legal online gaming in many states as well as in some of Canadian provinces improves, those companies that got into social gaming early will see the best results.
For its part, Zynga, has recently seen its price per share fall by some 75 percent. This is off its IPO price when it went public in December of 2011. Negative news from Wall Street has not helped. Recently, Zynga made some more news when it said that it plans to introduce online, real-money gaming within the UK via Facebook.