The team behind Zynga Poker didn’t just find a backdoor entrance into the iGaming world. They made their way in by smashing down a wall with a wrecking ball. Many casino affiliates are now left wondering how to compete with Zynga’s social media prowess in the online gaming sector.
Since Zynga uses social media sites like Facebook to acquire new members – they have some 200 million active users at last count – affiliates are left feeling unwanted. The gaming giant has recently softened its stance towards online gambling and appears positioned to capitalize when regulated iGaming makes its way into the US.
Affiliates can take some lessons from Zynga’s meteoric rise and learn from the successes of the $5 billion company.
The Techies Are Coming!
There are some signs that make it seem undeniable Zynga will be looking to enter the real-money iGaming space. Now that they are a publicly traded company, they’re feeling the heat to show results as immediately as possible. Right now, Zynga has a problem. Their stock just closed at its lowest point since its IPO last December.
As user numbers of their games like Farmville are shrinking by the millions every month, Zynga’s modus operandi for the moment appears to be buying out smaller social gaming developers. As a growth stock, playing pack rat by gobbling up other social media gaming developers will not keep investors interested for long. The Silicon Valley company needs to start showing some promise for how they can make big profits in order to justify their staggering market cap.
Zynga will enter into the world of real-money iGaming the first chance they get. You can count on it. Their 30 million monthly online poker players are worth too much.
Lessons for the Future
Zynga’s popularity is a testament to the power of social media. Here are some lessons for affiliates to take away from this industry outlier:
- Never get too comfortable with the status quo. Even if Zynga crashes down to earth with a thud as a company that temporarily succeeded in getting people to pay real money to buy fake money in a cartoon game, there’s a lasting lesson to take away which is that you can never get too comfortable in the present. The successful iGaming operators of the future, whether its Zynga or others, will be those who capitalized on the power of social media.
- Advertise for operators who “get it”. There are two types of iGaming operators: the dinosaurs and the hip and trendy. Operators without their finger on the pulse of what works in the modern paradigm will die off. Figure out which firms are embracing social media to keep their brands relevant.
- Get social with your visitors. Tools like Facebook and Twitter allow you to connect with your readers and become more than just a random result in a search engine. Push content and engage your followers in a conversation. The Internet is not a passive, one-way conversation like a television.
People are always going to want to play online poker at different sites. Cheer up. Even if Zynga Poker is a wild success doesn’t mean you can’t be one too by adapting to the new realities of the ever-changing iGaming industry.