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The Potential Effects of a Facebook IPO on the Social Gaming Space
A lot has been and will be written about Facebook’s IPO filing but I wanted to post some thoughts on how it could affect the social game industry. Overall, I think the IPO will in the medium term have...
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Gambling and Social Gaming
One of the more interesting developments in the social gaming space is the buzz around gambling. There are rumors and “hints” that the US government at some point will weaken or remove the restrictions...
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The Emergence of the Publishing Model in the Social Game Space
There has been a development recently in the social gaming ecosystem that has generated very little buzz but probably will have a major impact moving forward, the fact that two of the top social gaming...
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The most important secret in monetization
There are many conversations, articles and even books on how to optimize in-application purchases (IAP) in social games but most neglect the most important element. Rather than focusing on adding...
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Zynga’s stock value decline
If you haven’t seen the news, they had to halt trading today in Zynga’s share because of a very sharp decline. Given that there really has been no change in Zynga’s business, I would guess this is due...
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A look inside Zynga’s numbers
Originally, I was not going to post about Zynga’s earnings report, which was released Wednesday evening. I am not a stock analyst and I did not feel I brought much to the party. However, the...
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The sleeper in the social online real-money gambling race
Much has been written about the opportunity for Zynga to accelerate its revenue by moving into real money gambling, but there is another contender coming from the social/casual game space who probably...
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What does the change in Zynga’s agreement with Facebook mean to other game...
The big news in the social gaming space this week is that Facebook and Zynga have significantly changed their relationship. Two years ago, Zynga entered into a “special” agreement with Facebook that...
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Facebook’s importance, or lack thereof, for social gaming
I have been reluctant to join the bandwagon of people declaring Facebook dead, either overall or as a social gaming platform, but I have gotten to the point where I have lost confidence in Facebook. It...
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Proud to be part of third exit in three years
For those who have not seen the news, Zynga acquired Spooky Cool Labs today.
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We just launched Hit It Rich!
We just launched our social casino game, Hit It Rich, on Facebook. Please take a look and let me know what you think.
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My new adventure
I wanted to share with my friends and colleagues the most recent phase of my professional career. Last month I left Zynga and moved to Isle of Man to become Director of Social Gaming at Amaya’s...
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Dawn of a new era of in-game advertising
Last week I wrote about the rising cost of paid user acquisition. this week I want to dive deeper into how advertising can help mitigate this issue. Ironically, my former employer, Zynga, made a...
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Why Blue Ocean is actually the safe route
Last year, I spoke at Casual Connect in Tel Aviv about Blue Ocean Strategy in the game space (see presentation below) and multiple people commented to me how this approach was great but too risky. The...
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Maybe your competitors are not that smart after all
Key takeaways While it is important not to underestimate your competitors, you also should not consider them perfect. Industry leaders often maintain their position due to certain core factors and...
View ArticleIs Hypercasual worth the $450 million that Zynga and Goldman Sachs just spent
In February, I wrote that the next big casual gaming phenomenon would be hypercasual, but even I did not expect the genre to take off as quickly as it did. Last week, Goldman Sachs invested about $200...
View ArticleLessons and insights from social casino and gaming M&A activity in Q1
Last quarter saw some interesting deals in the gaming space. Several of the deals, and non-deals, suggest trends that are likely to continue in 2019. Playtika acquires Wooga rather than another social...
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