- WSOP social app goes live on Facebook, iOS and Android devices.
- Players can buy more play chips, gold coins, and can pay a $5 monthly fee to “go pro” to access more features.
Gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA) has joined forces with World Series of Poker (WSOP) owners Caesars Entertainment to launch a play money poker game on Facebook.
Ring games and tournaments are supported with virtual rings and bracelets as prizes.
Gameplay is also accessible from Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, and shares a common liquidity pool with direct Facebook gamers. Only No Limit Hold’em is currently spread.
The announcement comes just weeks after PokerStars made a big push into social with its Facebook poker application.
Both will be looking to take mindshare away from the social incumbent Zynga, its Texas Hold’em Poker still one of the most popular apps on Facebook with over 30 million active monthly users.
Three Ways to Spend
The WSOP app provides a range of standard social gaming “gamification” features, including experience points and “levelling up,” that can be unlocked by achieving various goals at the tables.
In-game friend requests and chat use Facebook features to enhance the social experience.
There are three prominent monetization strategies with this app.
Most notably is advertising, which is featured prominently in the app. An “app discovery” strip of advertising for other Facebook games runs along the top, and in-game advertising runs below the table.
Secondly, and most common among “freemium” social poker apps, players can buy more play chips and gold coins rather than wait each day for their free top-up. 500k playchips will set you back just $3, and there’s currently a 50% discount on many purchases. The gold coins, which can be used in the store for virtual gifts, will set you back $2 for 25.
Most interesting is the monthly subscription option. For $5 a month players can “go pro,” which gives access to an “exclusive statistics tracker,” access to exclusive VIP tables, and the ability to “shower players at your table with unlimited gifts.”
Complicated Partnerships
Electronic Arts is one of the biggest names in cross-platform games and owns the famous Sims brand. It has a market value of c$5.4bn and is publicly listed on NASDAQ. This foray into poker has not been signaled as an intention to make a move into gambling game software, but the changing regulatory environment in the US suggests that such a strategy may be attractive to CEO and avid gamer John Riccitiello.
Caesars Entertainment has been approved for an online gambling license in Nevada and has an existing partnership with 888 Holdings plc to bring real money online poker to the state.
888 might be disappointed by Caesars’ choice of EA, since 888 has already been developing a real money gaming presence on Facebook. Real-money bingo is already offered, and a facebook version of 888poker is rumored for later in 2013.
Caesars also partnered with Microsoft to produce a WSOP branded poker game called Full House Pro for Windows 8 and XBox 360.
Caesars is currently carrying around $20bn in debt which has led to analyst speculation that it may in be an unsustainable financial position. It is urgently in need of profitable revenues.
This Facebook app is unlikely to directly provide them, but securing a strong foothold in this emerging technology may be an essential step to keep investors optimistic while the company develops harder revenue streams.