Bwin.party pulls social betting app from Facebook
Sportster - Bet and Win, created in partnership with game developer Nordeus, to close on 30 January
Bwin.party’s social sports betting app Sportster – Bet and Win is to be pulled from Facebook after only four months in open-beta testing, eGaming Review has learned.
The free-to-play betting product was developed as part of a joint-venture between Top Eleven publisher Nordeus and bwin.party’s social gaming division Win, and enables players to place virtual currency bets on real and virtual matches.
“Dear users, we are sorry to inform you that we are shutting Sportster down on January 30th, 2015,” an on screen message to players read.
“Please note, that you will not be able to log into the game after the scheduled date,” it added.
Sportster was first launched in closed-beta testing last February and was later unveiled in open-beta in September with the inclusion of additional features to the product including new challenges such as bet races and interactive quests.
News of the closure comes after bwin.party recently announced it was in active discussions regarding a sale of Win, which was launched in 2012 with a 50m budget to help establish it as a leading social gaming operator.
According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, a new social gaming company called RisingTide, founded by Zynga’s former head of social slots and RMG, is currently in talks to acquire the social games division.
It is not yet confirmed whether the decision to terminate the Sportster product is the result of ongoing sale talks or due to the performance of the app.
The decision to pull Sportster comes just weeks after Paddy Power announced the closure of its real-money sports betting product on Facebook, Paddy Power Social, after the app failed to meet initial expectations.
However, in December Sportingbet made its first push into social gaming with the launch of a new free-to-play sports betting app on the social network in partnership with platform provider Wikibetting.