Breaking news: Facebook confirms real-money gambling launch
Social network partners with UK operator Gamesys to launch age-restricted Bingo Friendzy for UK customers " "absolutely no plans to go with any other operator," say Facebook.
Facebook has launched a real-money gambling offering for UK customers, with a bingo product live platform today as part of a private commercial venture with Gamesys, eight months after eGaming Review exclusively revealed it had opened discussions with a number of operators to open its platform to real-money gambling.
Bingo Friendzy “ which is restricted to players over 18 “ has been launched using Gamesys’ egaming licence from the Gibraltar Gambling Commission and will be followed by the launch of a slot offering in the coming weeks. By operating under the Gibraltar licence, the site is already monitored by an approved regulator.
Facebook have clarified to eGR that the agreement is “not a joint venture with Gamesys, [as originally reported] but rather a private commercial agreement”. It is currently unclear whether the partnership comes under Facebook’s standard revenue share terms for operators on the platform, which sees the network take 30% of deposits from social gaming apps.
Speaking to The Financial Times Facebook’s head of gaming partnerships for Europe, Middle East and Africa Julien Codorniou explained: “Gambling is very popular and well-regulated in the UK … for millions of bingo users it’s already a social experience [so] it makes sense [for us] to offer that as well.”
While Codorniou was said to have hinted at further partnerships, Facebook’s pan-Euro policy communications manager Linda Griffin flatly denied plans to open up the platform to other operators. Speaking to eGR this morning, Griffin said: “Right now is we’re offering gambling games through Facebook as a platform candidate application, so it’s a piece of our partner’s website on our website.
“We’re just doing this with Gamesys, and we’ve absolutely no plans to go with any other operator. It might be something we look at in the future, but at the moment we have no plans to do so,” she explained.
Gamesys is one of the most successful gambling operators to have developed a strong presence on Facebook having launched its first slots in 2009. Currently its Jackpot Joy Slots app attracts 1.5m monthly active users, and is known to be among the top 30 highest-grossing games on the social network. It also operates Jackpot Joy Casino on the platform, which has 0.17m MAU, while its bingo app Bingo.net attracts 3,000 players a month. It has also moved into the B2B space, developing a Bejewelled Blitz slot for PopCap Games.
Commenting on the deal, managing director of Jackpot Joy Michael Saunders said: “As the UK’s leading online Instant Win and bingo operator we are committed to extending our products to a wider adult audience so we’ve reinvented our exclusive bingo and slots games to appeal to the UK Facebook community.
“This marks an exciting turning point for the industry and a milestone for the Gamesys business,” Saunders said.
Early concerns that the introduction of real-money gambling would lead to new legislation for social gaming being introduced by the UK Gambling Commission “ first mooted in June, before being denied by a Commission spokesman “ were dismissed by one social casino operator, who wished to remain anonymous: “I think [Bingo Friendzy] is already regulated, as it will have to follow KYC and other rules as a result of its Gibraltar license, so I don’t see how this would impact other, non-money games “ it’s a different class of games, they have a full-on registration process,” he said.
On the subject of regulation, Griffin revealed that after discussions with the UK Gambling Commission and industry watchdog GamCare, and with Gamesys having secured approval from the Gibraltar Gambling Commission, the network has “no commercial or legal regulatory responsibilities.” As a result Facebook is free to allow licensed operators to offer real-money gambling on the platform.
In order to block underage users Bingo Friendzy will use Thawte security alongside independent reference agencies to ensure the game is only open to players over the age of 18. Players are restricted to a single account, into which they can deposit a minimum of £10, and a maximum of £20,000 using Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, Neteller, UKash or PayPal.
Using Facebook’s geolocation and age-gating technology, the apps, pages and newsfeed activity will be blocked to underage users, and invisible to users outside of the United Kingdom.
Before eGaming Review broke its world exclusive announcing Facebook’s real-money plans in November last year, the social network had already begun to relax its anti-gambling stance. In August 2011 it published new guidelines allowing online and offline operators to advertise on the platform, provided they respect local laws and secure permission from Facebook. This followed a shift in policy towards apps created by gambling companies, allowing free-play offerings which did not allow players to cash out or converted to credit for online gambling sites or land-based casinos.