Real money poker coming to Facebook in U.K.?

[The Buzz]

EGR is reporting that social networking behemoth Facebook is "rumoured to have recently hired a significant number of personnel to work launching real money play in the UK." The report also states that Facebook is in discussions with several operators, including PokerStars and 888.

From PokerStrategy.com:

According to EGR, Facebook could launch real-money play in the UK as soon as the first quarter of 2012. While the UK has been marked as the first regulated market for real-money play via Facebook, it could open the door for other regulated territories if the UK proves successful.

Various sources say that Gamesys, the brains behind JackpotJoy and the Red or Black slot game, as well as 888, are "first in the queue". Gamesys' Facebook presence is not insignificant with 1.7m monthly users for its slots games while 888's 650,000 monthly users generate annual revenues of over $10m from the Facebook Bingo Island game.

[playmaker003]

Hey, Here is another really good source and article: http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/30/fac...ing-in-the-uk/

I would love to see this happen if they can get a good affiliate programme in place to track conversions. I wonder how it will effect advertisers in Facebook though. Could come quite competitive ad space.

[TheGooner]

Why would facebook need an affiliate program?
They have the visitor numbers already.

[playmaker003]

I was referring to Casino's having affiliate programs to track conversions in Facebook applications.

[Anthony]

Facebook would be the affiliate.

[alexpratt]

Thought you might like to see iMEGA's view on the possibility of this happening http://www.igamingbusiness.com/conte...an-jr-facebook

[baldidiot]

From an affiliates perspective I think this is bad news as we'll be cut out completely.

[Imperator]

Very bad for affiliates, very good for facebook. If they cut deals with casinos and poker rooms, they will be doing billions per year. 800 million users are quite enough for facebook to become the largest affiliate in the world.

[casdirs]

Facebook would make an absolute fortune if they had online gambling, considering the amount of traffic they get. But if they really wanted to make big money, they should start their own search engine. There are so many ways to make money when you have as much traffic as they do. I hope they don't start competing against affiliates, they'd be very hard to beat.