Is Zynga the future of real-money poker?

[Simon Burley]

Zynga has just announced record revenues of more than a billion dollars - and that's from play money poker!!!

http://www.pokerjolt.com/news/poker-news/296/Zynga-Poker-makes-1-14-billion-

What do people think? Is Zynga good enough to be a real-money platform and compete with pokerstars, 888 etc?

If they can nail it, with 35 million potential players, could they be the new Full Tilt?

 

[gatewatcher]

Zynga has just announced record revenues of more than a billion dollars - and that's from play money poker!!!

http://www.pokerjolt.com/news/poker-news/296/Zynga-Poker-makes-1-14-billion-

What do people think? Is Zynga good enough to be a real-money platform and compete with PokerStars, 888 etc?

If they can nail it, with 35 million potential players, could they be the new Full Tilt?

Just letting you know if CC adds the banner i'll signup and deposit , be more than glad to have another site to play at .
gate

 

[tenbob]

All I know is that when Zynga gets real money games, I'll be there with bells on.

 

[BlueNowhere]

Judging from some of my friends play who are super balla' in zynga world I'll be there the second it opens to real money.

 

[ONaRoll]

Yeah ,every penny I had would be on there before you could say "free money"
ps I notice they still managed to make a loss.

 

[RamdeeBen]

Never played it, but imagine the fish will be a much higher percentage than your average fish at 888 for example ;p

If real money was considered, I would be joining the ride, although I can't see it happening.

 

[Arjonius]

The vast majority of Zynga's revenue comes from selling virtual currency to people who use it to buy stuff in its large portfolio of social games that operate on Facebook et al. Not sure, but I seem to recall the biggest is Farmville. All the games are "free to play" which means it's possible to play them without spending any real money. Some people do. mainly in order to gain in-game advantages and/or cosmetic items for their avatars.

 

[Tino11]

If Facebook is the future of anything, I am jumping off the nearest cliff.
Who wastes precious cash buying play/virtual money to play silly games on a social network? Has the world gone mad?
To add to that, we now have a slot and casino game developer [Shuffle Master] looking to buy Ongame network. Maybe that jump is closer than I first thought

 

[absoluthamm]

There was an article in Cardplayer this week about it. I'm with ya TB, would be the biggest fish tank evar!

 

[OMGITSOVER9K]

same, I'm so there! people that rate their own skill level at poker according to zynga.. I played it for like an hour.. never again -.-

 

[jolubman]

I'll join if this forum has games there. All the sharks plan on feeding at this site. So it might not be as easy as everyone thinks.

 

[dj11]

Think about it.

We think it would automatically mean all those play money fish would suddenly be real money players. Not so sure that will happen. Some of course will go real money, and for at least a while it will be the biggest school in the world, but that 'little while' might be as short as an afternoon.

Thing is, last time I played Zynga, the experience was horrible, the ergonomics of the table set up was butt ugly, and I could not play multiple tables.

It is unlikely this will happen till something happens with US law. Facebook will not allow itself to become part of a legal issue involving UIGEA laws that are unresolved. Sure FB could go with it ROW but thinking they might not want that headache.

 

[Deco]

It would be a great day for poker if they did progress to real money.

 

[Deco]

Just need to hope they have half decent software and allow HUDs

 

[witchywitchy]

I have read a few articles about Zynga Casino (home of their Texas Hold'em and now Bingo) and their intentions seem to be to leverage their brand and move to a real money game environment. They are actively searching out gaming partners from the gambling world

If regulation comes to the US, I expect Zynga to spin off their Casino from Facebook to a real money platform and keep all the $$ instead of sharing/depending on Facebook. How many fishes would follow? I imagine, initially quite a few. But for most of these Zynga players, money has no interest for them... they are into the virtual eye candy.

For all the social gaming platform developers, figuring how to make more $$ off their players is a real challenge. Yep, there is a lot of money in the virtual stuff, but there is a lot more money to be had, if they can figure out how to turn their player base into real money players

 

[trucker103]

i would play it heck 35 million people think of how many tables the site would need prolly have server problems right off the bat !

 

[rcsmith4]

I recently read an article about Zynga having problems with their software, not sure if this would be too appealing to real money players.

 

[dwbrown7680]

Zynga is def not the future of real money poker but it would be a pretty big fish tank for the first few months. With some of the mega deals that are being inked by casinos with people like 888, etc I don't think Zynga wouldn't last too long mainstream market wise. Most people who play things like this are only interested in the cosmetic virtual appeal so I feel the luster would wear off somewhat quickly.

 

[pcgnome]

Zynga is the only site I know of where you can pay for playchips :bootyshak :motz: :icon_puke :eviltongu :eviltongu :eviltongu

 

[Deco]

Think I've seen Stars play chips sold on 2+2 before.
Baffles me as to why like.

 

[absoluthamm]

Zynga is the only site I know of where you can pay for playchips :bootyshak :motz: :icon_puke :eviltongu :eviltongu :eviltongu

Exactly and this is the reason that a lot of those play chip monkeys will transfer over to real money players. They are already paying to play there and get nothing in return, why would they not continue to play there with the chance(unlikely) that they could make something real back in return. With such a huge starting userbase, even if only a small percentage of those players decided to deposit, it would be a significant amount of people.

 

[TheGenera1]

God I so hope this happens. Ive played on that site via my iphone and it is the norm for people to go all in with ATC. Also what is even more funny, is that they absolutely MUST see a flop 100 percent of the time. They limp in and will call absolutely any raise.

 

[sagiPOTM]

if zynga go for real money poker i just hope it wont be like on facebook, because facebook poker is so unreal, every hand straight, straight flush, full house etc...

Anyway they have good field of players so they can go for it.

 

[hihowareu]

I think Zynga poker as it stands, serves as a good online locale for moments that I find myself rage tilting... It has its purpose for me.

 

[TheGenera1]

Since this topic was bumped, does anyone have further news on this? Will they be brining out RL money tables soon?