Sometimes new businesses can become desired and sought after even after a very short time in operation. Such is the case of the Israeli social games developer Playtika Ltd. founded by Robert Antokol and Uri Shahak only a year ago. The small firm is said to have 15 workers in Israel and 30 employees in the Ukraine at its development headquarters and claims to have as many as nine million users 1.5 of which are on the social networking site Facebook.
Caesars Entertainment Corp., formerly called Harrahs Entertainment Inc. recently acquired 51% of the social games developer Playtika Ltd. at a value estimated at between $80-90 million USD. This is a remarkable purchase considering the huge gambling and entertainment company has not yet seen how the start up firm will turn a profit for them. Gambling on Facebook for real money is prohibited but winners can receive prizes and points.
Playtika’s results for it first year of operation was estimated at about $100,000 per month annually at about $1.2 million without any positive cash coming in from its operations which again makes a sale of this magnitude unusual indeed. Caesars must see the potential of the software developer and with an infusion of capital for advertizing and marketing the opportunity to generate positive revenue becomes clear. Playtika never was billed as an online gambling company but as an online games developer specifically designed to accommodate social networking websites.
The huge growth curve of social networking sites such as Facebook and the Russian version Vkontakte will propel the young start up to levels that most firms only dream of. On Facebook, Playtika has seen success with slot machine simulation Slotomania and with the recently launched ancient dice game invented 600 years ago Farkle Pro.
The two founders of Playtika, Antokol and Shahak started the company by raising a million dollars from investors such as former 888 CEO Gigi Levy and 888 investor Ofer Lezovsky, among other well known business people.
Article source: http://www.online-casinos.com/news/news2010638.asp
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