Last week RocketPlay launched its sports betting game Sports Casino on Facebook and Zynga.com. Although players cannot play for real money, they can bet virtual currency on professional and college football and basketball games, as well as English and Spanish football games as the events are happening in real time.

In the times when there are no sporting events taking place players can play blackjack, poker, slots and other casino games.

Sports Casino has an intuitive and easy to use interface that’s almost cartoonish, as most social games, while keeping to the online sports betting roots. Instead of allowing players to play for real money, Sports Casino serves as a practice ground for amateur and even professional sports betters who only have to risk virtual currency.

“The game itself, what we’ve tried to do is to create a sports betting experience marrying what you’d see in the sports books in Las Vegas, with the online sports betting experience in regulated markets in the UK and Western Europe,” said Matthew Cullen, president and CEO of RocketPlay.

Players can select the game they want to bet on and join a shared room, in which odds, scores, runs, quarters are changing dynamically in real time based on the sporting event taking place at the moment. Sports Casino players are even encouraged to watch the games on TV while placing bets and to interact with the other players in the room.

Thanks to Zynga’s intention to jump into real-money gambling in the UK, the terms such as “casinos,” “poker,” and “betting” have recently cropped up repeatedly with social gaming. And as a consequence, casino games are now viewed in a renewed light of opportunity for many gaming companies. With Zynga Poker and its wide portfolio of games serving Zynga’s 306 million monthly active players, Sports Casino has found a comfortable home, at the same time expanding Zynga’s library of casino games.

Currently, Sports Casino allows users to bet on games in professional and college football, baseball, and English and Spanish football leagues. The casino also offers casino games, such as video poker, slots, blackjack, and other types of games that should occupy the time that players are not spending betting on sports.

RocketPlay , once known as Gamingo, is an expert in sports betting and sports gaming, because the company previously released other sports games with Zynga, including fantasy sports games, and sports management games. However, its existing fantasy sports and sports management titles will be discarded as RocketPlay focuses on Sports Casino.

“As far as our fantasy business is concerned, we’ve pretty much pivoted from that business. We’ve learned a ton from it and know how to build sports related games and deal with sports related content and statistics, which we feel gave us a nice leg up in order to build a sports betting platform,” Cullen explained. “The rebranding was really a personal preference within the executives with the company,” he added.

RocketPlay is taking Sports Casino one step at a time. The compoany is developing the mobile app for Sports Casino and hopes to add other sports such as golf, tennis, cricket, and rugby. Of course, the best way to garner revenue from a casino game is through real-money gambling, but currently the costs of acquiring a license for sports betting in the U.K. is too steep for RocketPlay, and it isn’t something that the company is focused on.

“We’re really focused on the social angle of sports betting,” Cullen said. “But we’re keeping a close eye on the real money side as it relates to Facebook and potentially other platforms that would allow it. We hope to be in a position to be able to do it.”

With its latest financial results being labelled as a “disaster” by analysts, Zynga has unveiled plans to enter the real-money gambling market.

CEO Mark Pincus says the company will launch a real-money poker gamer in the first half of 2013.

“We have our first [real-money gambling] products in development, and we intend to release them in markets that are regulated and open, subject to our getting licensing,” he stated.

The exception to this may well be America, which has very tight laws governing online gambling.

“The US is obviously an attractive market, but it’s not an open and regulated market today, so we currently don’t have plans for the US,” Pincus admitted, casting somewhat of a shadow over its plans.

Zynga has launched real-money web and download versions of its casino and poker games for UK players.

Released in partnership with bwin.party, the first two real-money applications are called ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino. Available right now on the web and for download, they may also appear on Facebook and mobile devices in the future.

A statement from Zynga read: ”Launching the download and web versions of Zynga’s real-money games for play in the UK is an exciting move to bring players the real-money games they have been asking us for. We look forward to launching our social versions of real-money games for players on Facebook and mobile in the UK throughout 2013.

“No matter whether players choose to play using the download or on the web, they will use a single wallet shared across both versions.

“Our long-term vision is to offer our players the next generation of real-money games on multiple platforms in regulated markets worldwide. We take responsible gaming seriously and are proud to partner with bwin.party, an industry leader and a reputable company that is fully licensed by a premier regulatory authority.

“This is just the beginning for us and we’re looking forward to seeing what our UK players think about ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino and creating the most valuable casino games and social experiences for them.”

Mark Pincus is stepping down as the CEO of Zynga and will be replaced by Don Mattrick.

Replacing Pincus by the former head of Microsoft Interactive Entertainment is an attempt to regain the company’s position as the head of social gaming from which it has fallen since going public. 

Pincus will stay in Zynga as chairman of its board, as well as chief product officer. He had a reputation for treating his employees harshly and created a lot of controversy with his decisions. It was Pincus himself that voted to be replaced using his 61% voting stake. 

Mattrick was previously head of the games studios at Electronic Arts and joined Microsoft’s Xbox division in 2007. 

Zynga has launched Hit It Rich! Casino Slots on Facebook. 

Hit It Rich! Casino Slots is a social environment that includes a selection of 5-reel free-play slots. Included are licensed slots like “Beetle Bailey” or “Blondie”, original themes like “Splendor of Rome” and “What’s Cookin’?”, as well as a number of games based on The Wizard of Oz. 

Hit It Rich! Casino Slots was developed by Spooky Cool Labs. Players earn experience points while wagering and obtain bonus coins for the game’s High Roller loyalty system with each level-up. 

While Hit It Rich! Casino Slots is currently exclusive for Facebook, it will launch on Android and iOS devices later this year. 

“Our commitment to free-to-play, social casino is the reason why we acquired Spooky Cool in Q2, a developer of free-to-play social games. We will continue to evaluate all our priorities against the growing market opportunity in free social gaming including the social casino offerings,” said former Zynga COO David Ko. 

Zynga has added a new mobile social slot, Riches of Olympus to its Zynga Casino.

The game is available for download using iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. According to the company, it offers a ‘Las Vegas-style’ authentic slots experience. It contains various special features like sticky wilds, mega stack symbols, unique reel arrays, expanding symbols, respins, burst wilds and roulette wheel. 

Facebook Connect can be used to play with friends and to sync game play between player’s phone and tablet. There’s also an offline mode that allows playing without internet connection. 

“Slots is the fastest growing segment inside the social casino category and Riches of Olympus delivers a uniquely social, high quality Las Vegas-style experience for slots lovers. We expect 2014 to be a transformative year for the Zynga Casino franchise and look forward to exceeding our player's expectations,” said Barry Cottle, executive vice-president of games at Zynga. 

Zynga will be adding the crazy teddy bear Ted to its “Hit It Rich Slots” game.

The “Ted” version is already available on Facebook, but mobile Hit It Rich app for iPhone and iPad will be adding it in the near future. The “Ted” level contains five clips and 30 pieces of movie dialogue. 

“‘Ted’ is really popular with people in their 20s. It’s part of their pop-culture vernacular,” said Joe Kaminkow, Zynga’s chief game designer for Hit It Rich. “This gives us a chance to be attractive out of the gate with consumers… it’s ready-made awareness. A mouse doll will not sell as well as a Mickey Mouse doll.”

MDI Entertainment, a subsidiary of Scientific Games, has announced from its booth at the World Lottery Summit 2012 the signing of a multi-year agreement with social game developer Zynga. Under the contract, several Zynga’s brands will be licensed for the lottery industry and MDI will gain the exclusive, worldwide rights to provide lotteries with FarmVille, CityVille, Zynga Poker, Zynga Bingo, Zynga Slingo, Words with Friends and Draw Something to be featured in their lottery instant and virtual games.

What is more, lotteries will gain access to Zynga-branded 2nd Chance interactive games and 2nd Chance virtual prizes made available by MDI that players can redeem and enjoy in conjunction with their favorite Zynga social games. A library of highly recognizable Zynga artwork is available for the creation of attention-grabbing instant tickets.

Zynga has walked away from the purchase of Ongame Network. A source close to Ongame has said that negotiations for the purchase of the second largest online poker network are progressing, but those talks do not now include Zynga.

It was June when Zynga was reported to be interested in Ongame immediately following the news that Shuffle Master pulled out of its agreement to purchase the online poker network. According to a statement by bwin.party both companies “mutually agreed not to proceed with the proposed transaction” and the company was “re-engaging with other third parties that have expressed an interest in acquiring Ongame.”

Founder and CEO of Zynga Mark Pincus, however only a month ago reasserted the company’s interest in real money gambling, stating that it was “actively exploring” the market, both in the US and beyond, bringing many to believe that Zynga would be soon to announce the purchase of Ongame.

Maybe Zynga have had a change of mind after the announcement just two weeks ago when PokerStars entered into an agreement with the US Department of Justice. Neither PokerStars nor Full Tilt admitted to any wrong-doing in operating in the United States market prior to Black Friday, and both are eligible to apply for a license in the US to offer real-money poker when states or the federal government offer such an opportunity.

With such a big player possibly to re-enter the US market, maybe Zynga did not feel the purchase was worthwhile anymore.

Ongame, which consists of approximately thirty skins, has been on the market since March 2011 when bwin and Party Gaming merged to form bwin.party Digital Entertainment Plc. It is the fifth largest poker network internationally, although bwin players—thought to make up a large part of the player pool—will be transitioned to the PartyPoker platform prior to sale.

The network has seen its cash game traffic decline more than 20% in the last year, inline with a shrinking global online poker network. Competing networks like iPoker, PartyPoker, PokerStars and Microgaming have seen similar or worse reductions.

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Social network games provider, Zynga Gaming, announced recently that it was actively seeking partners to join up with and create a real money gambling platform with. As such, online operators are fighting for the right to strike a joint venture with Zynga, which has literally millions of daily followers on its top-ranking poker and social games on Facebook and other platforms.

According to reports, groups such as GTech G2 and Playtech have already made bids to create an online poker infrastructure for Zynga.

Many believe that there is big money to be had in the social gaming world, with game players making up a 13% of all Facebook users. Zynga’s Facebook poker application has an incredible 33.8 million active players, and a good percentage would make the switch to real money online poker given half the chance, especially on a platform with which they are familiar.

There has been a lot of speculation about the direction that Zynga is taking in the past few weeks. Some believe that the group will purchase Bwin’s ‘surplus’ online poker network, Ongame now that ShuffleMaster has opted out of a potential deal. However, now that Playtech and GTech G2 are also in the picture, Zynga may be biding for time as it makes a decision about who to partner up with. All agree, however, that it is more a question of when, rather than if, Zynga will enter the real money online poker sphere.

Some question the impact that Zynga will have on the existing online poker industry. With many of its Facebook players under the age of 18, the player pool is not exactly 33.8 million new fish suddenly joining the market as many will be disallowed due to their age. Other factors which may affect Zynga Gaming’s chances of making it in the online poker market are regulations in countries around the world and economic factors.