Enter IGT
International Gaming Technology (IGT) operates one of the biggest online gambling platforms in the world and has as much as half the market wrapped up at any given moment. That said, plenty of eyes popped last year when they acquired DoubleDown in a deal that was worth upwards of half a billion dollars.
DoubleDown needs to hit a number of benchmarks over a three-year period if they want to collect the whole $500 million from IGT but, a year into their deal, things are looking pretty good.
Last month IGT announced that DoubleDown’s revenue was up a full 105% percent over the previous year, going from $30 million in 2011 to $61.4 million last year. DoubleDown’s daily active user base is now sitting at 1.69 million and generates $.40 per user/day.
To put a little extra frosting on the deal, DoubleDown has also unseated Zynga’s Texas Hold ‘Em as the top earning Facebook social gambling app.
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The Future
Now that DoubleDown has established itself as the Rocky Balboa of social gaming, is the upstart Facebook ready to take on real money gambling?
For now, IGT and Wolcott skate around the issue, but seem content with focusing on social apps.
Focus is one of the big things we preach in our executive team. Let’s focus on a few things and do them really well. If and when legalized gambling is something we should put within our purview, then at that point in time we will.
Despite the coy talk, DoubleDown seems like a natural fit for real money gambling (as their recent deal with the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel seems to indicate). So don’t be surprised if, a couple years from now, DoubleDown doubles down on a real money strategy.
Finally
As it stands today, DoubleDown is a well-run company that’s not getting ahead of itself by operating outside of its core competencies. Their one-app-serves-them-all approach is clearly a recipe for long-term success in the social and real money markets.
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