- As has become synonymous with “social” poker, the games are free to play, but real money for free-chips “top up” is available.
- 50% of revenue earned is shared with the skin operator, paid when $200 in earnings is accrued.
- The new poker software is HTML5 based, with support for all major browsers and mobile devices.
- The software can be customized to fit the brand of the site with simple CSS code changes.
Swedish software developer Cubeia announced Monday the launch of Cubeia Social, a new free-play online poker network that allows any webmaster to launch a “social” poker room with integration as simple as a wordpress plugin.
The games are free to play but, as has become synonymous with social poker, players can spend real money to “top-up” their free chips balances. Cubeia is also planning to add additional in-app purchases (IAP). Currently only PayPal is supported for payment, though alternative methods are planned.
The new poker software, currently in beta, is HTML5 based, with support for all major browsers and mobile devices.
Players can sign in through Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and Google+. Only Texas Hold’em games are currently supported, and are available in “cash,” SNG and scheduled tournament formats.
Fifty percent of revenue is shared with the skin operator and is paid when $200 in earnings is accrued. Following the beta period, small operator fees will also be implemented. The size of the fee is not yet finalized, but will be somewhere around €15 per month—“not to generate any significant revenue for Cubeia,” the FAQ explains, “... but rather to filter out non-serious operators and noise.”
Website owners can integrate a Cubeia skin with a Wordpress plugin. The software can be customized to fit the brand of the site with simple CSS code changes. There is also manual integration and a full REST API for more technical integrations.
Player leaderboards have recently launched, showing the players with the biggest balances and biggest cash and tournament wins. Cubeia plans to introduce an achievement system soon. Deeper Facebook integration, and allowing skin-specific tables and tournaments, are also in the development pipeline.
“It’s high time anyone is able to start a poker site without any complicated sales process or legal wrangling,” Lars J. Nilsson, Executive Vice President at Cubeia Ltd, is quoted as saying.
“At Cubeia we’ve looked at the possibility of starting a truly open poker network for some time and with the rise of social gambling we decided to go ahead. So if you want your own poker site, then just come and see us because we’re open to everyone.”
No operators are live at today’s Beta launch, although Cubeia has set up an example site at CubeiaPoker.com to demonstrate the platform.
Stockholm-based Cubeia was founded in 2007 by ex-developers at Ongame and bwin and executives from TAIN. Its game systems have since been licensed by Microgaming and Unibet, according to the corporate website.
It has also become known for open-sourcing large amounts of its work on Cubeia.org, including a Java-based multiplayer game server.