ZYNGA TEST BITCOIN PAYMENT OPTION

BETCOIN TO SUPPORT MORE VIRTUAL CURRENCIES

Social gaming developers Zynga have announced that they will begin accepting Bitcoin as payment for virtual goods in select game titles on the Zynga.com website. Zynga announced the move on Friday in a post on Reddit, saying it had hooked up with Bitcoin payment processor BitPay in “conducting a Bitcoin test.” For the moment, the Bitcoin payment option is available only for web-based players of Farmville 2, CastleVille, ChefVille, CoasterVille, Hidden Chronicles, Hidden Shadowsand CityVille on Zynga.com.

Zynga stated that it had launched the test “in response to Bitcoin’s rise in popularity around the world” and was actively seeking player feedback on the new option. There’s no indication if and when the test might be expanded to include mobile versions of Zynga titles or Zynga’s popular poker product.

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SOCIAL GAMBLING CONFERENCE TAKEAWAYS

Socialize gambling style games so they appeal to the social gamer

“Gamifying” casino games is where a lot of the innovation and investment is happening right now and its for good reason- gambling style games produce the most amount of revenue and social gaming companies want a piece of the pie.

Socialize a real money experience for the real money player

Social retention hooks or “social rewards” are a great way to increase player loyalty.

LatAm & Asia (Brazil & China) are where it’s at

Despite popular belief, Latin America and Asia, especially Brazil and China, are the geographical regions with the real growth and opportunity in social gaming, not the US.

2014 to be the year of social betting

When I think of social gaming I think of people playing Candy Crush, I don’t think of people betting on sports.  However, fantasy football and peer-to-peer betting is all about social and mobile, so it really is a natural fit.

Lack of regulation->More innovation

We’ve heard it before and we heard it again at the Social Gambling Conference- too much regulation stifles innovation.

Social Gaming and Virtual Currency

The online gambling industry’s interest in Bitcoin (and vice versa) has already been piqued, but it seems to me that the social gaming world is even a better fit for Bitcoin and virtual currencies in general.

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