Zynga Cancels Plans for Real-Money Gaming in U.S.
Social gaming giant Zynga has scrapped plans to enter the U.S. online gambling market, electing instead to focus its effort on free-to-play social games.
In its second quarter earnings report filed on Thursday, Zynga said it will no longer try to operate real-money games in the U.S. The news comes less than a month after the company replaced Chief Executive Officer Mark Pincus with Don Mattrick, the former head of Microsoft Corp.��s Xbox business.
Pincus said last year that the real-money gambling market would be a "natural fit" for Zynga. He began the transition by hiring former online-gambling executive Maytal Olsha to get the company's online gaming product off the ground. Zynga then filed an "Application for a Preliminary Finding of Suitability" with the Nevada Gaming Control Board last December.
Eight months later it appears that Zynga, best known for free social games such as ��Farmville�� and ��Word with Friends,�� will be looking to find repeat success as a social gaming company rather than a gambling company under Mattrick's supervision.
��Zynga believes its biggest opportunity is to focus on free-to-play social games,�� the company said in its earnings report. ��While the company continues to evaluate its real-money gaming products in the United Kingdom test, Zynga is making the focused choice not to pursue a license for real-money gaming in the United States. Zynga will continue to evaluate all of its priorities against the growing market opportunity in free, social gaming, including social casino offerings.��
Zynga, in partnership with bwin.party, launched its real-money online gaming "test" operation in the U.K. in April. Zynga introduced Zynga Plus Poker, a real-money offering on the PartyGaming network, where its players joined a pool that included PartyPoker, bwin, WPT Poker and Gamebookers customers.
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