Bingo! Bash Gaming’s Casino Hit on Pace to Gross $55M a Year.

BitRhymes says it is renaming the company Bash Gaming after its hit mobile game, Bingo Bash, which is on track to gross $55 million a year in revenue.

The game falls nicely into the trend of bringing casino games to new platforms using the free-to-play model. Players purchase virtual coins in order to play, but since they can’t ever cash out their winnings, it is not considered gambling.

Arguably, one could say that Zynga is the leader in casino space based on its Poker game, which has consistently remained at the top of the charts on both mobile and Facebook for years. But its following titles, such as Bingo, have not been as successful. For example, as part of the social game company’s layoffs in October, it cut back on that game’s development.

CEO Sumit Gupta believes Bash Gaming was successful by focusing on one game, which moved from Facebook to iOS nine months ago and more recently to Android. Today, most of its traffic comes from mobile devices.

“We believe the casino games, in general, have a very strong game mechanic. Once they start playing, they want to play more and more, and with the ability to play with friends, it makes it more exciting,” he said. “Players get a certain amount of free chips, and then they start buying those chips, and play more.”

Today, the game remains in the top 20 best grossing apps on iOS, and has at times been in the top five. Gupta said that 95 percent of its users — who are mostly women — play the game for free. The few players who do spend clearly spend a lot. Two of the most popular chip packages are 100 for $8 and 200 for $16. The company’s annual run rate of $55 million does not include the 30 percent cut it must hand over to Apple.

Based on the success of the game, Gupta said, the San Francisco-based company plans to invest in more casino titles under the Bash brand. Currently, the company has roughly 55 employees, a majority of whom are based in India. He expects the company’s headcount to double over the next year. The company, which is profitable, has only raised $1.2 million in financing.

To help ramp up game production, Bash Gaming hired Sean Eyen as VP of Global Gaming. Previously, Eyen worked at Caesars Entertainment, Liberty Media and Wagerworks before establishing his own consulting firm focused on the regulated casino and lottery industries.

Earlier this week, Zynga announced it had officially started the process of getting licensed in the U.S. for real-money gaming, and it previously inked a partnership with bwin in the U.K. Gupta said Bash is investigating the real-money space as well. “We are very focused on what we are doing today. This is a very exciting space, and dealing with real money is a green field opportunity, especially in Europe, where it’s legal. That excites us.”

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