現(xiàn)金賭博有望成社交游戲新的利潤(rùn)點(diǎn)
????Betable公司的首席執(zhí)行官克里斯?格里芬已經(jīng)花了多年時(shí)間,用來(lái)培養(yǎng)他所謂的“游戲新文藝復(fù)興”事業(yè)。這位年僅30歲的企業(yè)家希望通過(guò)幫助游戲公司構(gòu)建傳統(tǒng)的現(xiàn)金賭博游戲,為快速成長(zhǎng)的社交游戲市場(chǎng)打開一個(gè)新的方向。 ????格里芬可能的確捕捉到了一個(gè)巨大的商機(jī)。他留著一個(gè)美劇《廣告狂人》(Mad Men)式的發(fā)型,穿著修身西裝,看起來(lái)就像摩洛哥的賭場(chǎng)管理員。社交游戲公司Zynga對(duì)格里芬的點(diǎn)子很感興趣。自從上市后七個(gè)月以來(lái),Zynga一直在積極地尋找新的方法,好從它的數(shù)百萬(wàn)玩家身上賺到更多的錢。Zynga首席執(zhí)行官馬克?平卡斯近日在《財(cái)富》(Fortune)舉辦的科技頭腦風(fēng)暴科技峰會(huì)(Brainstorm Tech)上對(duì)觀眾表示,公司正在“積極擴(kuò)展現(xiàn)金賭博等周邊市場(chǎng)?!痹?月25日的收益電話會(huì)議上,Zynga高管公布,公司當(dāng)季收入為3.32億美元,凈虧損約為2,300萬(wàn)美元,同時(shí)再次重申,公司決定發(fā)展現(xiàn)金賭博游戲。格里芬表示:“他們認(rèn)識(shí)到,僅僅只是擁有大量用戶,還算不上是最好的業(yè)務(wù)?!?/p> ????格里芬表示,如果Zynga和電子藝界(Electronic Arts)等游戲公司真的決定進(jìn)軍現(xiàn)金游戲市場(chǎng),自己希望能助他們一臂之力。格里芬的公司位于英國(guó)倫敦,在現(xiàn)金游戲這個(gè)仍然有些棘手但有大量盈利潛能的市場(chǎng)上,他的公司已經(jīng)比后來(lái)者領(lǐng)先一年多了。Betable公司創(chuàng)立于2008年,初衷是要成為一家游戲公司,但從去年開始,公司將重點(diǎn)轉(zhuǎn)為向其他公司提供幕后技術(shù),使其他開發(fā)商的游戲能夠兼容現(xiàn)金游戲模式。Betable的投資人包括創(chuàng)始人基金(Founders Fund)的FF天使基金、格雷洛克發(fā)現(xiàn)基金(Greylock Discovery Fund),以及戴夫?莫林和尤里?米爾納等個(gè)人投資者。 ????格里芬表示,他的公司是迄今唯一一家解決了現(xiàn)金游戲所涉及的監(jiān)管難題的公司。一家賭博服務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)要想獲得許可證,公司的全部受益所有人(也就是所有占1%股權(quán)以上的股東)必須接受為期整整一個(gè)月的調(diào)查。格里芬說(shuō)這個(gè)過(guò)程“具有難以想象的侵略性”,因?yàn)楣镜穆殕T以及使用的軟件、安全措施、服務(wù)器的地理位置,乃至公司的運(yùn)營(yíng)政策和流程都要經(jīng)過(guò)細(xì)致的調(diào)查。Betable公司花了兩年多的時(shí)間和數(shù)百萬(wàn)美元的費(fèi)用才通過(guò)了英國(guó)監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)的審批?,F(xiàn)在Betable的30多位開發(fā)者已經(jīng)完成了第一輪內(nèi)測(cè),已經(jīng)進(jìn)入封閉內(nèi)測(cè)階段。格里芬相信,目前市場(chǎng)上還沒有其他定制平臺(tái)通過(guò)了監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)的審批。 ????格里芬希望各大游戲制造商能夠采用Betable的解決方案作為合作伙伴。使用了Betable的工具之后,社交游戲制造商們可以合法提供一些現(xiàn)金游戲元素,比如老虎機(jī)等,同時(shí)無(wú)需再自行向監(jiān)管機(jī)構(gòu)申請(qǐng)審批,因?yàn)橹鲗?dǎo)賭博行為的實(shí)際上是Betable的技術(shù)。 ????Zynga在收益電話會(huì)議上確認(rèn)了公司的第一批現(xiàn)金游戲已經(jīng)處于開發(fā)階段,即將在一些能夠獲得審批的國(guó)家發(fā)行。不過(guò)平卡斯沒有明確指出Zynga將自行申請(qǐng)?jiān)S可證,還是通過(guò)與其他公司合作的方式來(lái)獲得許可證的使用權(quán),因此Zynga與Betable合作的可能性仍然是存在的。只要Zynga一聲召喚,格里芬就會(huì)拿起電話,告訴他的平臺(tái)愿意為任何人開放。同時(shí),Zynga把首批現(xiàn)金游戲的發(fā)布時(shí)間定在2013年上半年,格里芬把這個(gè)好消息稱作是送給Betable開發(fā)者社區(qū)的“提前到來(lái)的最大的節(jié)日大禮”——加盟了Betable的開發(fā)者們現(xiàn)在知道,他們已經(jīng)比行業(yè)領(lǐng)袖Zynga領(lǐng)先了6個(gè)月。 ????Zynga首席執(zhí)行官平卡斯在《財(cái)富》的腦力風(fēng)暴科技峰會(huì)上指出,撲克和Bingo游戲可能將成為最早融合了現(xiàn)金賭博元素的游戲。因此第一批Zynga的現(xiàn)金游戲很可能是賭場(chǎng)類游戲。不過(guò)格里芬和平卡斯似乎都認(rèn)為,長(zhǎng)期商機(jī)還是在于主流社交游戲?qū)ΜF(xiàn)金游戲元素的廣泛采用。比如像《開心農(nóng)場(chǎng)》這類游戲可以設(shè)置一種類似老虎機(jī)的機(jī)制,讓玩家下注,賭農(nóng)作物的長(zhǎng)勢(shì)。 ????不過(guò)短期之內(nèi),兩家公司應(yīng)該都不會(huì)在美國(guó)推廣現(xiàn)金游戲。Betable的服務(wù)在英國(guó)法律下可以合法運(yùn)營(yíng),在一些對(duì)現(xiàn)金游戲沒有明確限制的國(guó)家也可以運(yùn)營(yíng)。但是多種身份審核手段確保了用戶無(wú)法欺騙系統(tǒng),謊報(bào)自己所在的位置。因此目前包括美國(guó)等國(guó)家的玩家仍然無(wú)法參與現(xiàn)金游戲。不過(guò)格里芬并不擔(dān)心這一點(diǎn)。他表示自己已經(jīng)與數(shù)百名游戲開發(fā)者討論過(guò)他的產(chǎn)品,這些開發(fā)者們表示,他們的業(yè)務(wù)平均有60%都是來(lái)自美國(guó)以外的市場(chǎng)。就在上周,Zynga的平卡斯指出,美國(guó)以外的在線賭博市場(chǎng)的市值可達(dá)150億美元。 ????如果美國(guó)立法機(jī)構(gòu)宣布現(xiàn)金賭博游戲合法,這對(duì)于Zynga和Betable來(lái)說(shuō)自然是個(gè)天大的喜訊。Betable最近在舊金山為它的研發(fā)團(tuán)隊(duì)設(shè)立了一個(gè)辦事處。Zynga也在7月25日表示,公司仍有60%的總收入依賴美國(guó)市場(chǎng)。平卡斯上周也表示,Zynga打算未來(lái)將針對(duì)現(xiàn)金游戲問(wèn)題參與對(duì)美國(guó)國(guó)會(huì)的游說(shuō)。 ????與此同時(shí),格里芬指出,在那些沒有開放現(xiàn)金游戲的國(guó)家里,用戶們要想在一場(chǎng)游戲中趕上那些現(xiàn)金賭博玩家,甚至可能要花更多的錢來(lái)買虛擬物品。格里芬相信,憑借Betable公司在申請(qǐng)監(jiān)管批準(zhǔn)方面的領(lǐng)先地位,Betable現(xiàn)在至少已經(jīng)有了足夠的籌碼在賭桌上玩下去。 ????譯者:樸成奎 |
????Betable CEO Chris Griffin has spent years cultivating what he calls "a new renaissance in gaming." The 30-year-old entrepreneur wants to upend the rapidly growing social gaming market by making it simple for game makers to incorporate old-school, real-money gambling. ????Griffin may be on to something. And not just because, with his Mad Men hair cut and sharp suits, he looks the part of a Monaco croupier. Social game giant Zynga (ZNGA), for one, is paying attention. In the seven months since it went public, Zynga has been actively looking for ways to make more money from its millions of players. CEO Mark Pincus told Fortune's recent Brainstorm Tech audience that the company was "actively exploring adjacent markets like real-money gambling." The company reiterated that position in its July 25 earnings call, when executives announced revenue of $332 million for the quarter and a net loss of about $23 million. "They realize that just having a lot of scale in terms of users is not the greatest business," Griffin says. ????If Zynga and competitors such as Electronic Arts (EA) do enter real-money gaming, Griffin wants to facilitate things. His London-based startup has over a year's head start in a potentially lucrative but still thorny market. Founded in 2008 to build gambling games, Betable shifted last year to focus on providing the behind-the-scenes technology that makes other developers' games compatible with real-money wagers. The company is backed by the likes of Founders Fund's FF Angel, Greylock Discovery Fund, and individuals Dave Morin and Yuri Milner. ????Betable's founder claims that his company is the only firm to have solved the regulatory puzzles involved. To receive a license, all beneficial owners (with a 1% or larger stake) of a gambling service must undergo a months-long diligence process. Griffin calls it "incredibly invasive" because company officers are checked out, as well as software, security and location of servers, operating policies and procedures. It took Betable over two years and millions of dollars to receive the go-ahead from regulators in the United Kingdom. The company is now moving into private beta after 30 developers completed an alpha test round; its founder is bullish that no other customizable platforms are licensed and in the market. ????Griffin hopes that Betable's solution will be adopted as a partner for major game makers. Social game makers who use Betable's tools can legally offer gaming components, such as a slot machine function, within the game, but don't need their own regulatory approval because it's Betable that actually conducts the gambling activity. Betable's U.K. servers receive the activity request from a particular game, whose developers can set rules on what type of mechanic they want to run. Betable then sends back a winning or losing result, taking a portion of the revenue from the transaction and paying back an affiliate fee to the game's owners proportional to volume of traffic. Whereas the process can take months to set up independently, Griffin says a company like Zynga can layer on Betable's solution to its games in just one hour. ????In its earnings call, Zynga confirmed that its first real-money games are in development in countries where it can obtain a license. But Pincus declined to specify whether Zynga would pursue its own licenses or obtain their use through a partnership, leaving the door open for a potential Betable deal. If Zynga calls, Griffin will pick up the phone, saying his platform is open to all. In the meantime, Griffin calls Zynga's launch timeline of first-half 2013 "the biggest early holiday gift ever" for Betable's growing community: developers joining Betable today can work knowing they have six months to steal a march on the industry leader. ????While at Brainstorm Tech, Zynga's Pincus pointed to his company's poker and bingo offerings as immediate opportunities for integrating real-money gambling, so first Zynga offerings would seem likely to put real-money to work in casino style games. But both Griffin and Pincus seem to agree that the long-term opportunity is broad adoption in mainstream social games. Users of Farmville-like games could, for example, run a slot machine mechanic to bet on a better crop. ????But neither country will be involved in real-money games in the United States any time soon. Betable's service operates legally under United Kingdom regulation in countries that do not have their own specific restrictions. Various identity checks ensure that users can't game the system to misrepresent their location and get in on the action. For now, that leaves out a few countries, including the United States. But Griffin is unfazed, noting that of hundreds of developers with whom he's discussed his product, the average game maker told him up to 60% of their business was now outside the U.S. market. Last week, Pincus pointed to the non-U.S. online gambling market as a $15 billion industry. ????Legislation to open the United States up to real money gambling would of course be a major boon to both Zynga and Betable, which recently opened a San Francisco office for its developing team. Zynga reported on July 25 that it still depends on the United States for 60% of total revenue, and Pincus said last week that Zynga plans to be a part of any online gambling lobbying conversations in Washington in the future. ????In the meantime, Griffin notes that users in non-starter countries may even spend more on virtual goods to keep up with their real-money gambling peers within a game. At the very least, Betable has wagered its regulatory head start will be enough chips to stay at the table. |