The Growth Online Social Gaming
Social gaming is one of the newest forms of gambling. It involves playing online games that resemble real sports. Gaming includes dice and cards. But, the prize isn’t measured by its monetary value. Many people confuse commercial gambling with social gaming. Online social gaming helps players interact in a particular game. In this post, we discuss online social gaming.
The Introduction of Social Gaming
Social gaming started gaining popularity in 2009. Facebook motivated many web users to try out different online games. Some gamers became virtual farmers who use a catapult and an alien to destroy old structures. Farmville and Angry Birds attracted thousands of gamers. Social gaming developed from traditional slot machines to puzzle games and eSport. It infiltrated different sectors of gambling in 2016. Online social games have great potential to develop in the future.
Revenue Generation
Fantasy sports and commercial gaming get more attention from sports journalists compared to social gaming. Still, it generates more revenue than other forms of gambling. For example, Caesars Interactive Entertainment is earning close to $1 billion each year from Paytika social games. It is more than ten times the revenue that CIE generates from commercial casino gambling products.
FanDuel and DraftKings generated combined revenue of less than $1 billion in 2015 while social casinos generated $3.5 billion the same year, according to Eilers Research. A report published by BMC Public Health shows that 81 million people engage in social casino gaming for fun daily. Transparency Market Research estimated that social gaming would generate $17.4 by the end of this year. Social casinos earned $1.4 billion from Candy Crush in 2014.
Monetization of Players
Most of the revenue that social casinos earn is from selling virtual chips as more information on Freshcasinobonus.com shows. Traditional casinos can integrate the chips into their loyalty programs, according to Kevin Vonasek, NYX Gaming’s chief product officer. The chips will help social gamers earn points when they play in online casinos.
Vonasek stated that NYX will encourage brick-and-mortar casinos to buy the chips. Gamblers can spend cash purchasing virtual coins as long as they defeat traditional loyalty programs. Some players need more chips while others are impatient. Thus, some online social casinos monetize the players by providing them with freemiums. You can play an ordinary freemium game without spending money. But, you can buy casino chips at an affordable rate.
Social gamers can use their credit cards to buy thousands of chips. You have to pay a small fee if you monetize. Even so, it is tricky to monetize online social games. Monty Kerr, PlayStudios’ co-founder and chief product officer said in a discussion that less than five percent of gamers monetize by buying extra items to access a free-to-play social game. Players who monetize are active and they continue buying more items.
Social casinos are earning a huge income despite having few monetized players. For example, Knute Knudson, the business development vice president for International Game Technologies revealed at G2E 2015, that DoubleDown Casino attracts more than 1.9 million gamers daily.
Social gaming has grown since 2009. Thousands of gamers visit online social casinos to play different games. They are available for desktops and mobile phones. PC social gaming is less popular than mobile gaming. More than 50 percent of online gamers take part in mobile social gaming.