Caesars Interactive Collects EA Shares of WSOP; Expands Social Poker Offering

This week Caesars Interactive Entertainment, the Montreal-based subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment, announced it was designating a social poker development studio to grow its play-for-fun World Series of Poker franchise through its Playtika division. Caesars acquired Playtika in 2011 as a way to broaden its social gaming platform, and now Playtika is responsible for all of CIE’s social and mobile gaming.

Last February, Caesars and Electronic Arts joined forces to release the WSOP game on Facebook, a play-for-fun social experience the further expands its branding potential. Caesars Interactive acquired certain WSOP game assets and intellectual property from EA, namely in the form of global rights and ownership of the WSOP games on mobile devices and Facebook.

The formation of the social poker development studio shows the direction Caesars Interactive wants to take with its World Series of Poker brand: up, out, and everywhere. In fact, CIE is the founding member of ISGC, the International Social Gaming Coalition, a group that formed in May  to “act as a voice for the fast-growing industry”. Members also include Zynga, RocketPlay, PlayStudios, and IGT.

The social media development team will be responsibile for improving the features and functionality not only of its World Series of Poker product, but also other free-to-play casino games in the Caesars Entertainment line-up, including slot machines, online bingo, and other table games.