Kontagent partners with EiG

The rise of social casino-style gaming, which surpassed farm games on Facebook and has been named the hottest gaming category of 2012, is being examined closely by the gambling sector and has already led to high-profile acquisitions of Doubledown by IGT, Playtika by Caesars and, more recently, Orneon by bwin.party digital entertainment.

The full scope and extent of the convergence between social gaming and gambling is still unknown and subject to debates and multitude of opinions. Potential partnerships, differences in user metrics and game mechanics and player conversion tools are being examined.

To further the understanding of how the two industries might converge and what opportunities and risks that convergence involves, Clarion Events have partnered with Kontagent on an extensive research project that will include industry interviews, a white paper, webinar and a presentation on the outcomes of the research at the upcoming European iGaming Congress & Expo.

“EiG will debate the impact of the social gaming phenomenon on the iGaming sector with a whole series of strategic debates, case studies, brainstorming sessions and networking events. Kontagent, with their expertise in the social gaming space and, in particular, with their insights into the social player analytics, is a perfect partner to help us provide a more in-depth and detailed analysis of how the two sectors collide from the players’ perspective,” says Ewa Bakun, Head of Content for EiG.

“Social casino gaming is a major category for us--our customers are using our analytics platform and services to understand what appeals to their players so they can build more lucrative games,”  says Jeff Tseng, Kontagent CEO and Co-Founder.

“There is increasing demand for our services from both online and land-based casino operators, as well as social and mobile game developers who are interested in building casino-style games. We’re very excited to partner with Clarion on this initiative that will give a deeper understanding of the casino landscape to the entire industry. With their extensive contacts in that space via their leading event brands, such as EiG, we couldn’t think of a better organization with which to partner.”

To start off the project, Clarion Events and Kontagent have launched a survey designed to collect views, expressed by both social game developers and gambling operators, on the convergence between the two sectors.

The survey is available at: http://ktgt.co/social-casino-survey. For taking part, survey participants will be entered into a prize draw for a chance to win a free pass to EiG 2012. The final results of the project will be presented and discussed during the 11th European iGaming Congress & Expo in Barcelona, where Kontagent will deliver a presentation and host a networking event for delegates with interest in the social gaming space.

The 11th European iGaming Congress & Expo (EiG) is taking place in Barcelona on 16-18 October 2012. More information and registration are available at www.eigexpo.com.