Playsino score £1.5m for social casino

 Playsino, has recently announced that it has closed on $1.5 million of new funding. Playsino is focused on building the largest social casino game publisher on social networks and mobile platforms.
The company has closed on $1.5 million as part of what is expected to be much larger financing to support the company’s ambitious goals.

 Investors in the round included: IDM Venture Capital, a Singapore-based venture capital firm investing in early to mid-stage interactive digital media companies; Pacific Capital Group, a Los-Angeles based private investment firm, which is led by Gary Winnick, founder, Chairman and CEO; Siemer Ventures, a Santa Monica venture capital firm; and several prolific angel investors, such as Jordan Simons, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of GCP, a merchant bank whose principals have closed over 200 investments and transactions valued at over $15 billion; and Wicks Walker of W4 Ventures. Existing investors Tomorrow Ventures, Jim Armstrong and Michael Huskins also participated.
“Playsino’s global potential is a key focus for our firm. Virtual currency can play anywhere, and Playsino’s unmatched familiarity with it best positions them to become the world’s largest social casino game company,” said Denis Gamobramov, Managing Partner of IDM Venture Capital. The financing will accelerate the new Playsino product offerings led by Brock Pierce, new CEO of Playsino and a Managing Director of the Clearstone Global Gaming Fund. Pierce has founded eight companies, acquired more than 30 others, and closed a dozen corporate finance transactions, securing more than $200 million on behalf of his companies.
“Brock is dynamic, the type of young entrepreneur we like to back and the vision he shares of social gaming integrating elements of casino games is undoubtedly going to become a substantial industry,” said Andrew S. Kane, Managing Director and COO of Pacific Capital Group. In 2001, Pierce, who is often referred to as the “Godfather of Virtual Goods,” founded Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE), which pioneered the market for virtual goods in online games and was sold in 2007. In 2003, Pierce founded Zam, which was sold in January 2012. In 2004, Pierce has rolled up the exchange of virtual goods through marketplaces using IMI Exchange, which today owns the world’s leading marketplaces for the trading of virtual goods with systemwide annual revenues exceeding $500 million. In 2010, he also led Xfire’s spin out from Viacom.

“Social casino gaming combines the virality and addictiveness of a game like Farmville with the monetization capabilities of mid- to hard-core gaming,” said Pierce. “I believe this sector will have many winners with some creating value in the billions. I aim to keep Playsino at the forefront of the race by ramping internal development, publishing relevant third party content as well as acquiring the best independent players in the space.”

In addition to Pierce, Playsino is also bringing along key gaming veterans needed for the ambitious effort to build the world’s largest social casino games company.

Playsino enters a potentially drastic inflection point for social gaming, with emerging social casino games as the catalyst for that movement. Half of all the people on the Internet — 510 million — play some sort of social game, a 71 percent increase since 2010. Recent reports also estimate online gambling will be worth $30 billion globally in 2013, with the United States accounting for $4.5 billion of that figure.
“We believe the next evolution of social gaming will involve merging it with what has been the longtime appeal of wagering,” said David Siemer, Managing Director of Siemer Ventures. “Playsino’s gaming platform is well-positioned to capitalize on this next phase.”