''Zynga Poker'' is a social game developed by

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...

as an application for the social-networking website

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

as well as Android, iPhone,

Windows Phone Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design l ...

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

, MySpace,

Tagged Tagged may refer to: * Tagged (website), a social discovery website * Tagged (web series), an American teen psychological thriller web series {{disambiguation ...

, and

Google+ Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus; sometimes called G+) was a social network owned and operated by Google. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challenge other social networks, linking other Google p ...

. It was launched in July 2007. In 2011, with 38 million players, ''Zynga Poker'' was the largest poker site in the world. In 2018, after increased competition in the market, ''Zynga Poker'' had a 6.1% market share in social casino games.

Gameplay

The game allows Facebook players to simulate playing

Texas Hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt fa ...

poker in a social gaming environment. Users enter a casino lobby and can play at any table or join friends for a game. Players choose from casual tables, tournament play, or VIP tables. A leader board shows players how they compare in chip ranking to other players and allows players to send or receive gifts.

History

Development and market dominance

It was created and launched in July 2007 by a team consisting of some of the founders of the company including

Justin Waldron Justin Waldron (June 18, 1988) is an American internet entrepreneur known as the co-founder of Zynga, a mobile social gaming company, and Zynga.org, a non-profit organization to promote and facilitate the use of social games for philanthropic ini ...

, Michael Luxton, and

Eric Schiermeyer Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...

. In March 2011, ''Zynga Poker'' hosted PokerCon, a live poker tournament at the

Palms Casino Palms Casino Resort is a hotel and casino located near the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, United States. It is owned and operated by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. It includes 703 rooms and a casino. It was originally owned by t ...

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

. According to a March 2011

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

article, with 38 million players, ''Zynga Poker'' at that time was the largest poker site in the world. In July 2012, Zynga announced that it would be providing real-money gaming outside of

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in 2013. According to a 2014 article by Dean Takahashi, about 350 million have played ''Zynga Poker'', and the game has millions of daily players.

Update and loss of market dominance

In July 2014, the game received a major update. According to Jeff Grubb of ''

VentureBeat ''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos. History The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, ...

'', the change was unpopular with users, who believed that Zynga was "throwing too many unwanted features in the way" of playing poker. In 2014, ''Zynga Poker'' "commanded 61 percent of the total social poker revenue market," and each month earned between $9 and $13 million. That year, its audiences dropped 44%. After the revamp in 2014, players "forced the publisher" to bring back a "classic" version of the original poker game. Also, ''Zynga Poker's'' CEO and games head left around that time. ''

'' said in 2015 that Zynga Poker's players were increasingly moving to social casino games, with the overall social poker game industry struggling largely "due to the struggles of Zynga's Poker app, which dominates the marketplace." In 2014, ''Zynga Poker'' was Zynga's flagship game and its top-grossing game.

Recent features and events

In the first quarter of 2017, the company reported a loss, although revenue was rising compared to the year prior. In 2018, ''Zynga Poker'' accounted for 23% of Zynga's game revenue. After added competition in the market, in 2018 analysts said that Zynga lost its market share in social casino games, with only a 6.1% market share. Zynga Poker introduced a new "Spin and Win" mode in its World Poker Tour Tournament Center in 2019, essentially combining poker with a prize wheel. In November 2018, ''Zynga Poker'' reported its mobile revenue falling 3% that year, with bookings remaining flat, with Zynga stating the game was "still recovering from the platform changes imposed by

in he second financial quarter" At the time, Zynga was partnering with

World Poker Tour The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the f ...

. In quarter one of 2019, ''Zynga Poker'' was 15% of Zynga's total revenue, after being 21% of that revenue in the first quarter of 2018. In 2019, the company hired

Brad Garrett Bradley Henry Gerstenfeld (born April 14, 1960), known professionally as Brad Garrett, is an American actor and stand-up comedian. Possessing a distinctive deep voice, he has appeared in numerous television and film roles in both live-action and ...

on a sweepstakes event. In March 2019 ''Zynga Poker'' added a tournament code called Spin & Win, allowing for faster play and higher stakes. According to '' Consumer Affairs'', in 2019, ''Zynga Poker'' users suffered a data breach. Although Zynga made a slight profit in 2019, ''Zynga Poker's'' profit dropped by 7%, "as it is still recovering from platform changes that Facebook made last year. Gibeau said the company is working on updates that will help ''Zynga Poker'' get back into growth mode."

Languages and availability

As of August 2010, the game is available in

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...

in China as well as on Facebook in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

under the name ''Zynga Texas Poker''. The game is also available in English, Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, and French. The mobile version of the game is available in 18 languages.

Sponsorships

In 2018,

Nascar The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and ...

announced that

Go Fas Racing Go Fas Racing (doing business as Circle Sport-Go Fas Racing LLC, and often stylized as Go FAS Racing) is an American professional stock car racing team that formerly competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. Founded by long-time crew chief Frank Allen ...

was partnering with ''Zynga Poker'', with the game serving as primary sponsor for the No. 32 Ford and Matt DiBenedetto.nascar.com
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References

External links

Official website
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