bwin.party’s standalone social gaming division Win has co-developed and launched a new Facebook version of its Cheeky Bingo brand, targeted at US players.
The game features the usual chat, 75-ball bingo rooms, quick bingo and integrated slots, with the Cheeky Bingo hostess appearing with surprise gifts for players and inviting them to interact with her at destinations such as the park and hair salon.
The game is based on the UK-facing brand which pioneered the free bingo model later used to great effect by Costa Bingo. Cheeky was part of the Cashcade stable of brands, including Foxy, bought by bwin.party predecessor PartyGaming for £95m in July 2009.
The game has been co-developed with Ukrainian social games developer Murka, best-known for the successful Slots Journey played by six million on Facebook, mobile and home-grown Russian social networks such as VK and Odnoklassniki.
Win CEO Barak Rabinowitz, formerly of 888-owned social gaming business Mytopia, said the Eastern Europe-based social gaming arm of bwin.party was “incredibly proud to introduce the game to American audiences today.”
Anton Krasnyy, the co-founder of Murka, which also has a California office, said the company was “excited” to be working with Win to bring the Cheeky Bingo brand to a brand new audience.
The new app will also be rolled out for the mobile iOS and Android platforms.
Win launched its first major offering, Facebook and iOS-based Slots Craze, at the end of last month. The division was established by parent bwin.party in May of last year, backed by investment of US$50m over two years.
The owner of the bwin, PartyCasino, PartyPoker, Foxy Bingo and WPT real-money online gambling brands decided to develop its own standalone social gaming division due to the high valuations being placed on social gaming businesses. Caesars completed a US$200m takeover of Slotomania developer Playtika in December 2011, while supplier IGT paid a huge US$500m for Doubledown Casino in January 2012.
Article written by Stephen Carter
