Pincus hints at land-based partnership for Zynga
Pincus says real money gambling is "perfect fit" for virtual goods and social games " claims to be in discussions with operators.
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus has described online gambling as “a natural fit” for the social gaming operator, and has hinted at the possibility of a partnership between his company and a US land-based operator.
Speaking at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco yesterday, Pincus said of egaming: “I think it’s a good natural fit. I think, philosophically, the part people haven’t noticed yet, real money gaming is the perfect [fit] with virtual goods and social games.”
This follows the company’s COO John Schappert admitting that the online gambling sector is “very interesting” during an analyst call after Zynga posted a net income loss of $404.3m in its full-year results for 2011, despite Lo Toney, general manager of Zynga Casino, having previously told eGR that the company had “no plans to enter the real money market” in November last year.
The Dow Jones newswire reports that Pincus went on to admit that the company is already in talks with “all of the players that you would suspect,” referencing Wynn Casinos directly.
“We have incredible respect and admiration for brands and groups like the Wynn … I would expect that you’ll see a lot of these players kind of figure out their go-to-market partnerships for sure before the end of this year,” Pincus explained.
Pincus also hinted at bringing gambling to a range of other products outside of the company’s poker, casino and bingo “ which was beta-launched in January – offerings, saying: “We’re interested, but you should expect to see us do a lot more than what you’ve seen in offshore casinos.”
This follows the signing of the company’s first-ever licensed partnership with slots and bingo developer Slingo in February, and the departure of global director of brand advertising Manny Anekal, who left to join social start-up Kiip.