Venture Beat – Social and mobile casino game operators are facing a shrinking market, as the number of monthly players has shrunk to 85 million from 109 million a year ago, according to market researcher SuperData Research. In response, those companies are shifting away from acquiring more players and instead are focused on making money from those that they already have. Joost van Dreunen, the chief executive of SuperData, said that the sector is entering its next stage and that casino-style game operators are positioning themselves for a mature market. Building a long-term relationship with consumers now makes more sense for…

iGaming Business – Online gaming provider Greentube is to launch its private-label social casino marketing platform in the US as part of a move to strengthen its presence in the region. Greentube Pro, a business-to-business marketing platform, will allow land-based casinos in the US to stay connected to players and for players to stay connected with the casino brand through online social casino gaming. The company described the new platform as a ‘powerful player retention and acquisition tool’ that protects the casino’s player database. Greentube said that what sets its platform apart from others is its ‘altruistic’ approach to player…

iGaming Business – UK bookmaker Coral is to join forces with California-based social and mobile games developer Ruby Seven Studios to launch new social gaming applications for customers around the world. According to the Mobile-ent.biz website, Coral said the new partnership will allow it to develop a network of social gaming customers and followers for its various slots and gaming brands. The first title to be developed under the joint effort will be Coral’s land-based game ’The Magician’ and ‘The Magician Triple Pots’. The new titles will be launched in social games alongside a number of other titles, including Coral’s…

iGaming Business – Multinational internet corporation Yahoo has announced the launch of the Yahoo Games Network, a new social gaming network. The firm said on its website that Yahoo Games Network would serve as a platform for third-party game developers that want distribution of the Yahoo network, as well as “easy onboarding services that help them authentic players, monetise their games, provide social sharing, analytics and ongoing operational support for growth”. The new network will feature classic Yahoo games such as Yahoo Poker, Yahoo Pool and Yahoo Bingo, in addition to other titles such as Bingo Blingo and Slotomania. In…

iGaming Business – Details have emerged of a new app under development that will provide the first massive multi-player online game for Google Glass, the wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display. The Swarm game will cast players as members of an ant colony, and they must complete daily tasks whilst being tracked by GPS data, according to the Daily Telegraph newspaper. The consumer version of Google Glass is not expected to go on sale until the end of this year. ‘Glass has challenged developers to think about social environments in a new way,’ Columbia University’s Jonathan Lawhead, who co-designed…

In spite of the recent layoffs, Zynga is still picking up talent in strategic areas like social casino gaming. The company bought a roughly 40-person team called Spooky Cool Labs full of real-money gaming talent. Based in Chicago, the Spooky Cool Labs team is made up of social and real money gaming veterans from companies such as Aristocrat, and slot machine makers like IGT (International Game Technology) and WMS Gaming. The company’s founder, Joe Kaminkow, was ranked as one of the 10 most influential people in the history of slots by Strictly Slots Magazine. But from Spooky Cool’s website, the…