November 12th, 2013
Via All Things D, a report on Betable, a startup focused on monetizing the social gaming industry:
Betable, a startup focused on monetizing the social gaming industry, announced on Tuesday it had raised an $18.5 million Series A round of venture funding.
The startup partners with game development outfits that want to add a real-money component to their titles, offering an API to companies that want to integrate Betable’s game engine inside the fabric of the game’s mechanics. The bulk of the company’s business is in navigating and securing licensing deals with the U.K. Gambling Commission and related authorities — a tricky and potentially expensive task for any gaming company to undertake.
It is also an area that, until recently, was of intense interest to social gaming giant Zynga. That is, until the company’s new leader and CEO Don Mattrick decided to change Zynga’s strategy and focus on a core set of the company’s popular games, essentially abandoning Zynga’s headlong push into real-money gaming in the U.S. (Zynga gave no indication as to the fate of its existing real-money gaming licenses in the U.K.)
That’s good news for Betable, then, leaving the space wide open for the taking.
The round was led by Venture51, with participation from existing investors including Greylock and Founders Fund.
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