Zynga launching real-money social gambling games in U.K. with partners bwin.party

Zynga is jumping into the regulated real-money gambling market in the United Kingdom through a major partnership.

Bwin.party will launch Zynga-based real-money online games in the United Kingdom. Zynga’s poker title — the most popular in the world — will be among 180 Zynga social casino games that bwin.party will release in the United Kingdom.

Bwin.party has a leading role in the real-money gambling business. The partnership has potential to lift Zynga’s financials because of how the monetization works. Free-to-play social games typically generate a few dollars a month in revenue per player from 2 percent to 3 percent of social gaming players. Zynga makes money because it has more than 300 million users on Facebook, mobile, and Zynga.com. But real-money gambling casino games can make as much as $100 per player per month. That’s a huge difference, and it’s why bwin.party is a major company in the gambling business.

The partnership will launch games on bwin.party in the first half of 2013.

“Bringing together Zynga’s expertise in social gaming with the top international real money gaming operator is the best way to create the highest quality gaming experiences for our players in the UK,” said Barry Cottle, the executive vice president of corporate and business development at Zynga. “Partnering with an established leader like bwin.party is a strategic and prudent way for us to enter a key RMG market while giving local players the real money games they’ve been asking us for.”