Social gambling study from Morgan Stanley
Social gambling

Morgan Stanley estimates there are 170 million social gambling users generating $1.7 billion revenue.

Morgan Stanley has released a new study on social gambling. The renowned global financial services firm put an emphasis on examining the convergence between social gambling and the online or mobile gambling that is played for real money.

According to the research firm, the current $1.7 billion (yes, that is a billion) social gambling market will expand to $2.5 billion by 2015.

Morgan Stanley looked at the forces behind the massive growth, as well as the key uncertainties, and analyzed what these bring for the leading online and mobile casino operators.

According to the Morgan Stanley blue paper, the social gambling player base of 170 million users is more than the triple of online gambling users. On top of that, social media keeps opening to a new pool of customers every day.

Conversion to real-money online and mobile gambling would drive revenue growth. However, there are different motivations behind social and real money gambling that could be problematic.

At present, most social gambling is mostly unregulated, and these activities thrive where online and mobile casino activities are is restricted or prohibited. Regulation of real-money gambling could be a ground for conversion and increased revenues, allowing the social and real money gaming to converge.

Morgan Stanley rated Zynga, bwin.party, 888, International Game Technology (IGT), Betfair, Paddy Power and WMS as companies with the biggest social gambling potential.