gambit

Facebook sued over social-gaming currency

Kickflip has sued Facebook, claiming the social-networking giant broke antitrust laws in the social gaming currency market, according to a report.

The company, operating as virtual currency and payment-processing provider Gambit, said Facebook's decision in 2009 to offer its own similar services to developers killed a "vibrant and competitive market," according to federal court papers examined by Bloomberg.

Such a service allows gaming providers to issue currency to players in exchange for real money or advertising offers.

Kickflip's complaint says that Facebook marginalized its competitors by "blacklisting" Gambit and forcing developers to use only … Read more

How age impacts social-gaming monetization

New data released by Gambit, a micro-transaction platform provider, illustrates the complexity of both customer targeting and analyzing micro-transaction buying patterns. The major takeaway: older players seem like a good target market until you dig in to find out that they don't spend a whole lot.

But, it takes a minute to understand the data, as Gambit's Susan Su points out in a blog post on how age impacts social-gaming monetization. While it would appear that older users are a good target market thanks to their high revenue-per-user statistic, they are actually pretty meaningless in terms of revenue. … Read more

The 404 151: Where our names aren't f***ing Warren

Preshow report: Jeff challenges my manhood, so I do what any Manchild would do and drop trou to prove my point (literally). Shortly after, I blacked out for a bit and it's unclear what happened next. Did Ustream see my Super Soaker and kill the stream? Did Wilson secretly stop the broadcast out of respect for our underage viewers? No one is 100 percent sure at this point-all we know is that the camera cut out for awhile. Thankfully, we resolved the technical issues and started the show on time plus 15 minutes.

Since I'm the only one … Read more