It has just became clear that Zynga, a San Francisco-based provider of a wide selection of social games, is expected to shut its real money gaming operations on the territory of the United Kingdom in the weeks to come. All the poker and casino products the company has developed in collaboration with bwin.party will no longer be available.
Their partnership was established back in 2013 and aimed at attracting the attention of a wider poker and casino audience via launching real money gaming products on social media.
Yesterday, Zynga customers received emails in which it was explained that ZyngaPlusCasino and ZyngaPlusPoker’s operations will be shut in a few weeks time. They were also informed that they should withdraw their balance, if they had one.
A spokesperson for Zynga shared with local media that over the past two years, Zynga tested several real money products powered by bwin.party on the territory of the UK solely, with ZyngaPlusCasino and ZyngaPlusPoker being among those.
Yet, the gaming company pointed out that it will keep on doing its best to provide its customers with the best possible free-to-play gaming solutions.
Back in 2013, the company emphasized that it had no intention to further expand its real money gaming operations. This was followed by a statement that it was no longer interested in introducing the afore-mentioned operations to the US gaming market.
ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino were initially available to UK players on Facebook. A mobile poker application was launched some time later. As mentioned above, the products were powered by bwin.party and were regulated under its Gibraltar gaming license.
The launch came after Zynga and Facebook changed the terms of their contract back in November 2012. Under those new terms, the gaming developer was to be permitted to offer its real money gaming products on Facebook in countries where regulations permitted the provision of such services.
The announcement that Zynga is to terminate its partnership with bwin.party comes after recent news that the company’s stock has fallen by 16%.
As for bwin.party, it announced the appointment of Barry Gibson and Liz Catchpole as the company’s Senior Independent Director and a Deputy Chairman of the Remuneration Committee, and Chairman of the Audit & Risk Committee, respectively. They are to replace Rod Perry and Helmut Kern and will take on their new positions as of March 1.
