PG Connects London 2015 - social casino deck Raf Keustermans, CEO & co-founder Plumbee

1. Raf Keustermans, CEO & co-founder Plumbee
@raf_keustermans - www.plumbee.com

2. •
• °July 2011, London – founded by 3 ex EA/Playfish execs.
• 60+ staff today
• Top-10 social casino company in revenue and audience
• Raised $16.8M - last round ($14M) Dec-13 led by Endemol
• Key products (free-to-play):
• Mirrorball Slots (Fb and mobile)
• Mirrorball Bingo, soft-launched on Fb April-14, includes
Endemol brands (Deal or No Deal bingo room)

3. Social Casino Status 2014
•
• Industry growing up fast, becoming mature
• $2.7B estimated revenue in 2014, $3B+ in 2015
• 50%+ market share owned by Top-5
• Caesars Interactive social games revenue hit $500M+ in 2014!
• On-going consolidation, M&A
• Facebook canvas hit plateau, huge growth mobile/tablets
• Production and marketing budgets going up
• $2M+ production budgets, $10M+ marketing budgets
• No longer ‘indie’ territory
• Tough environment for newcomers…
•

4. Slots category dominates social
casino
4
Source: SuperData Research
• ‘Pure’ Slots account for 38% of social
casino revenue and 32% of audience in
total
•
• However, most of the ‘casino’ category
revenue comes from Slots (e.g.
DoubleDown generates 70%+ of
revenue from Slots)
•
• Slots + Casino represents 76% of revenue
and 55% of audience
•
• Bingo accounts for 13% of revenue and
14% of audience in the category

5. • May-14: Top 10 social casino companies have 70% market share (revenue).
(Source: Eilers Research). Top 5 has 53% share.
Top-5 has 53% market share
5

6. The March To Mobile
• No more audience growth on web (Fb canvas).
• Mobile > Web audience since mid-13.
•

7. Social Casino M&A
• 2010: 888.com buys Mytopia for $48M
• 2010: Fremantle buys Ludia (undisc)
• 2011: Caesars buys Playtika (Slotomania) for $100M+
• 2012: IGT buys Double Down Interactive for $500M
• 2012: RockYou buys Ryzing (bingo, undisc)
• 2012: Aristocrat buys Product Madness (undisc)
• 2012: Novomatics buys Cervo Media (undisc)
• 2012: WMS buys Phantom EFX for $20M
• 2013: Caesars buys Buffalo Studios for $90M
• 2013: Caesars buys EA Montréal studio (WSOP, undisc)
• 2014: Caesars buys Pacific Interactive (House of Fun) for $96M
• 2014: GSN buys Bash Gaming (Bingo Bash) for $160M
• 2014: Bally buys DragonPlay for $100M
• 2014: Imperus Technologies buys Diwip (Best Casino) for $100M
• 2014: Churchill Downs buys Big Fish for $885M
•
$2B+ in the last 4 years

8. M&A drivers
2 different corporate
strategies• Social casino as marketing tool for RMG business
• Brand awareness, customer acquisition
• Use a (branded) social casino game as a brand awareness driver, expand in
new markets, reach new audiences.
• Cheeky Bingo, Pokerstars Play
• Customer loyalty, CRM
• Use a social casino game to (re)connect with existing casino customers. Link
with loyalty system, drive footfall to the casino/resort.
• E.g. MGM with MyVegas
•
• Social casino as stand-alone growth engine, revenue driver
• Standalone business, social casino as a new division, a revenue
generator, new growth area.
• Not integrated with RMG business at all.
• Caesars, IGT, WMS strategy

9. RMG vs Social Casino
• Very different products, very different audiences!
• Gambling thrill vs me-time/entertainment
• Social players optimize their gameplay for time (not cash)
• Key driver for spending real money = buy more time in the game
•
• Will social casino die when US allows RMG? Not likely.
• Lots of players from UK, Italy, Sweden, … play social casino.
• No drop in social players from Nevada, New Jersey since markets
opened.

10. In some markets, Social >
RMG

11. Q&@raf_keustermans
www.plumbee.com