Zynga Inc (ZNGA)

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Last August Zynga quietly made a hire who's impact is now being felt. This person is responsible for transitioning the company into on-line gaming. While the analysts continue to fret about their games Zynga is quickly establishing their vision for a renewed company:

Here is the person who will help transition Zynga. Take a look at her background:

8/30/2012

Zynga has added some firepower to its online gambling ambitions.

AllThingsD has learned that Maytal Ginzburg is joining Zynga as the company’s chief operating officer in charge of new markets, according to her LinkedIn profile.
As recently as July, Ginzburg was the SVP of regulated markets at 888 Holdings, where she was responsible for acquiring customers and other operations.
888 Holdings operates an online portal at 888.com, offering real-money games such as poker, bingo and sports betting, in markets where online gambling is regulated. More recently, it started to investigate the opportunity in social and mobile gaming through the 2010 acquisition of Mytopia from Real Dice.
Ginzburg has not yet started to work at Zynga, but is expected to begin soon. Social Casino Intelligence was first to point out that she was hired by the company. A spokesman declined to comment.
The hire is important for the Facebook games maker because it shows that, while a number of executives have decided to leave, it can still recruit talent at a very high level.
During the company’s last earnings call, CEO Mark Pincus confirmed that Zynga’s first real-money products were in development, and that it believes it has a huge opportunity to leverage its strong casino presence on Facebook, including with Zynga Poker and newer properties, like Bingo and Slots. Pincus said he expects to launch Zynga’s first real-money gaming products in international markets in the first half of 2013, subject to licensing approvals.
At this time, it’s unclear what Ginzburg will be doing at Zynga, but from an interview she conducted with a U.K. publication, you can tell Zynga was very much on her radar.
She told Inside Poker Business that she believed it was important to integrate social features into 888’s existing products in order to make interactions less serious and more welcoming to casual players. One product that social features helped with was PokerCams, which allowed users to see who they were playing with online.


“We want to attract players who will play for casual entertainment, and we therefore needed to deliver social platforms that are easy to use yet provide all the interactive features users expect,” Ginzburg told Inside Poker Business, adding that “the biggest risk we were running was that casual players avoided the product because of a lack of interaction, which is why so many have gone to Zynga.”



Maytal Ginzburg Olsha, the former senior vice president of corporate and regulated markets at online gambling firm 888, is becoming the chief operating officer of new markets for the social gaming company, as first reported by Social Casino Intelligence. She reports to Zynga executive Barry Cottle, executive vice president of business and corporate development.
Cottle said, “Maytal Olsha is a fantastic addition to Zynga. She joins our team with a deep understanding and direct experience in getting online gaming product offerings off the ground and directly into the hands of players. She is a strong advocate for integrating social features into real money offerings in order to make them more appealing and interactive for casual audiences. Maytal’s arrival is a win for Zynga and our player network.”
Even as a bunch of executives have left the company in the wake of a weak earnings report, the new hire shows that Zynga can still bring aboard some talent where it needs it. Ginzburg Olsha will be helpful in bridging Zynga’s social casino business with the complex, heavily regulated world of real-money gambling.
In a statement, Ginzburg Olsha said, “Zynga is at the forefront of the next evolution of games and entertainment. The company has already built enthusiastic, engaged communities around free social casino games. And as we move down the path towards real money offerings we will be listening carefully to our players to align with the right potential partners and offer the best gaming experience possible. Zynga is made up of incredible talent and dedicated leaders and I am proud to have joined the team.”

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/13/zynga-confirms-it-hired-real-money-gambling-chief/#TS5w5HKqeZpKcRUC.99