Social Casino Summit launches alongside leading industry event that analyzes future of iGaming in North America

LONDON -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- It was at last year’s GiGse in April in San Francisco that social casino category was reported to be the biggest revenue generator out of all gaming categories on Facebook. Since then, social casino, which is reported to monetize five-times better than other social games, is the most debated trend not just in the social gaming circles, but also in the gambling sector trying to figure out its value as a marketing tool or as a business on its own.

The social casino vertical is getting crowded with new games being launched every day and game development powerhouses rushing to tap into this winning category, which has even more sophisticated game design. At the same time, the many acquisitions made by the likes of IGT, Caesars, Aristocrat, Gamesys and 888, launches on Facebook, partnerships between social game developers and iGaming operators (Plumbee and Sportingbet) and the 40-plus cooperation deals that IGT-powered DoubleDown casino has signed, keep fueling the debate on the convergence between the two sectors.

Social game developers continue to explore partnership opportunities with the existing gambling sector, both in the United States and worldwide. The vast online customer bases that they can boast, in contrast to the lacking online presence of most U.S. land-based businesses, position them well in the rush to regulated online gaming. These can also be used as leverage in their partnership discussions with the U.S. land-based industry, which is now devising ways to start learning the online business, build customer base and create an online brand, so it’s ready to "flip the switch" once regulated iGaming becomes fully regulated.

The future of the pure virtual currency, fremium model in social casino and the progressing convergence between social gaming and the emerging U.S. iGaming will be discussed in depth at the newly launched Social Casino Summit, organized alongside the 13th Global iGaming Summit & Expo (GiGSE), which is the leading North American event focused exclusively on how U.S. brick-and-mortar businesses can transition easily, effectively and successfully to iGaming.

Topics such as game innovation, open graph, partnerships with brands, cross-product and cross-channel promotion, gaming on mobile, tablets and new platforms, social to real-money player conversion and player monetization will be dissected by the early adopters, established leaders and newcomers to this space. Speakers from RockYou, Ruby Seven Studios, Plumbee, PKR, RocketPlay, DragonPlay, Akamon Entertainment, GSN Digital, Hasbro, Mytopia, SGN, Slingo, Digital Chocolate, Playstudios and many others are among the confirmed speakers.