Gigamedia exploring social gambling possibilities

Online gambling corporate GigaMedia Limited has announced that it is to enter the social casino games market following a closed beta test on a suite of new game titles in over 200 Internet cafes across Taiwan.

The company has unveiled a new portfolio of proprietary social casino games that include slot, poker and dice offerings and could begin commercial operation in as little as four weeks.

“Initial social features in the game suite include gifting of virtual items to friends and a new group chatting function,” the company said in a statement this week.

“Results of the new casino products initiative in Taiwan’s Internet cafes will be used to support development and launch of additional social casino offerings across multiple platforms near the end of 2013.”

“Social casino games are one of the fastest growing and most profitable segments of online games,” said Collin Hwang, chief executive officer for GigaMedia.

“With social casino games generating average revenues per unit nearly double those of other social games, increased sector focus will play a key role in driving growth of our FunTown online game operations in 2013 and beyond.”

Hwang said that his company’s mobile offerings are set to additionally leverage the growing usage over social network sites and devices including smartphones and tablet computers.

“We plan to leverage our expertise as a developer and operator of PC-based Asian casino games to create new offerings for mobile and tablet devices, building a strong multi-platform offering,” he said.

“We are also reviewing potential strategic partnerships and acquisitions that would enable us to accelerate our growth in social casino games.