S O C I A L S U C C E S S WA N T E D F E A T U R E
Double Down, IGT CEO Patti Hart was bullish about the prospect of increasing revenues from the vertical, saying: “We intend to drive meaningful value from this rapidly growing distribution platform that reaches a new, but complementary, demographic of gamers.” Such proclamations quickly changed by the time IGT’s quarterly results were announced in April this year. Hart said that Double Down was “providing accelerated revenue growth” but admitted that “[IGT has] only had it for around 85 days, but we feel very comfortable that it is outperforming expectations,” she said. IGT has been slowly but surely tweaking Double Down to include a number of its own
products and games on the platform, such as its branded American Idol and Brady Bunch slots, as well as giving the lobby an overhaul, and most recently adding a Texas Hold’em game.
Probability
Probability’s Facebook integration began in earnest in Q4 2011, and so far consists largely of allowing players to share results via their accounts on the social network. However, to speed the process along, sharing is incentivised with bonuses going the way of those who choose to make friends aware of their activity with the mobile operator’s LadyLucks brand. The single-click sharing element helps minimise the distraction from gameplay and could be followed by more hands-on social apps on the network itself. For more, read out Q&A with Probability CEO Charles Cohen on p11.
ONES TO
WATCH
Bwin.party
* Merging the operations of the two egaming * giants may have delayed the development of a social MONTHLY S gaming strategy, but bwin.party is currently working DROP IN TEXA ON WPT ACTIVES towards the launch of a social department led by co-CEO POKER HOLD’EM Norbert Teufelberger. This is likely to incorporate social poker products already backed by the operator as well as an acquisition which Teufelberger was keen to stress will not be “an aggressive acquisition similar to the ones our peers have done,” showing huge progress from a few months earlier, when he admitted that he “never believed [social] was something that’s going to materialise and … underestimated how powerful it would be”. It is unclear which company is the intended acquisition target, with WPT: The bwin.party platform powers the site several names having been linked, but it is believed to be designed to supplement the company’s existing social products and enhance the current offering rather than act as a stand-alone social brand. Teufelberger is expected to announce the conclusion of the deal by the end of May. The two existing social poker apps being backed by bwin.party, WPT Texas Hold’em Poker and Aces Hangout, have allowed the operator’s brands to begin developing a presence on both Google+ and Facebook, but with varying levels of success. WPT, developed by San Francisco-based company Hands-on Entertainment featuring bwin.party’s World Poker Tour branding, rewards players with prizes including chip sets and trips to live tournaments. After launching in 2010, the brand saw monthly actives rise to 260,000 by late 2011, only for this number to decline signi?cantly, dropping by 100,000 to 160,000 at the time of writing, according
ty Bwin Par
Double Down Casino
100,000
38
www.egrmagazine.com