The worldÂ’s leading social network, Facebook is planning to offer real-money play in United Kingdom as soon as 1st quarter of 2012.
Facebook is planning to offer 8 licences, two per vertical to operators in U.K. for the launch of real money play 888Poker, PokerStars and Gamesys are among the operators that could be offered this licence. According to ECR, Facebook has already started to hire staff for the project with real-money gambling apps already in the pipeline.
Currently Zynga Poker is the most popular gaming platform on Facebook as 30 million users play online, though it is play-money on offer and not real-money. Partnership with an existing operator recommends that the real-money play would simply be offered on Facebook and not part of the existing operator’s brand. Currently, Facebook earns 30% of virtual currency deposits from social gaming.
Facebook, which in the past excluded online gambling advertising, has recently loosened its rules and now allows iGaming content as long as it is authorised by the site and is legal in the specific country.