In 2012, we saw the rise of social casino gaming when Facebook, the number one social networking site, opened up its platform to operators of established online gambling. The move made way for some gambling enterprises’ entry into its community of Facebook users. The introduction of social gaming prompted Facebook users to spend hours playing a game.
According to statistics released by Facebook, there are more than 300 million active Facebook users each month and at least 2% of this number buys chips to play. Then there are the sale of avatars, ads and links for players to click. Now these are an income-generating activity not only to online gambling operators, but to the social networking site as well. Social gaming is set to reach $17.4 Billion by 2019.
It is a fact that there is no big money to be won in social gaming, at least on the part of the players, and that the real money (for the players) is in online gambling. It is also a fact that there are more social gamers than online gambling players and that social gaming is now used by conventional companies as a marketing tool. With the introduction of “Gamification,” incentives such as level-ups, points and other freebies are being implemented to enhance the excitement of the game for the player. The merging of online gambling and social gaming is a sure formula to success, money-wise. Gambling operators, social networking sites and social and online casino players would all reap the benefits of this winning formula.
Online gambling and social gaming will continue to develop, evolve and move forward with their conventional business platforms. But, in the offing is a fusion of these business platforms to take advantage of their combined benefits: player acquisition of the social casino games sector and “real money” winnings of the online gaming sector.
Online gambling enterprises and independent social game establishments will gear towards adding more content, modifying current content, and taking out ineffective content to stay ahead of the “game” and meet the needs of their players.
The very real problems encountered by the online gambling sector e.g. licensing, cost of acquisition, decreasing number of players, are making them consider social gaming as an alternative or compliment to their online gambling operations.
The leap from social gaming to online gaming is now becoming a reality, what with online casino game developers such as Rabcat releasing Castle Builder online slot game. Rabcat tweaked the conventional slot format up a notch with the introduction of challenges and levels in Castle Builder. The improvements and changes are steps towards the merger between online gambling and social gaming. Another company altering traditional casino games and gearing their content to merge the two is High 5 Games. You can play traditional Vegas casino slots via their High 5 Casino App on Facebook.
As more gaming consumers are using mobile gadgets for online gambling and social gaming (with a projected income of $2.5 billion), astute online gambling operators are slowly yet surely taking the necessary steps to create a niche in the social gaming sector.
Real-money social gaming is well on its way.
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