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IGT-Double Down – Pay me to take your customers
> Alex Dreyfus > CEO, Zokay Entertainment and founder, Chiligaming
In January this year, IGT acquired two-year-old Double Down Interactive for an initial fee of US$250m, rising to $500m if certain performance criteria are met. The company is a social gaming success story and is, as far as I understand, highly pro?table through its existing B2C model on Facebook. The acquisition, however, has never been fully understood by the industry. Double Down is a brand and a B2C social gaming operator. It has millions of users with a small percentage (3% to 5%) monetising by buying virtual chips to play on. It’s a B2C asset acquired by a B2B giant. If IGT wants to go down this route, it’s up to them. I am still puzzled, however, as to why they did it. Between you and I, I have never believed in B2B social gaming. The success of social is the uniqueness of the game and its marketing. It’s not a product that you can create, duplicate and distribute on many Facebook pages or websites. At G2E last month I learned that IGT has agreed to license its new “social gaming product”, i.e. Double Down, to more than 15 US land-based casinos. Now I’m confused. So IGT, wh