Comment by doomlaser | Hacker News Reader

Comment by doomlaser | Hacker News Reader

The straight-up gambling industry relies on whales in an eerily similar way to many f2p games.

From the linked WSJ article [1]:

"The Bwin data also offer a peek at the economics of the casino industry that only insiders normally glimpse. Among the findings is an extreme reliance on revenue from a small number of gamblers.

Of the 4,222 casino customers, just 2.8%—or 119 big losers—provided half of the casino's take, and 10.7% provided 80% of the take.

Such revenue concentration long has been quietly acknowledged in the casino industry, but the Bwin information may be the first to show it with hard public data."

Compare that to the f2p industry. From Re/Code in February [2]:

"In a mobile monetization report released today, app testing firm Swrve found that in January, half of free-to-play games’ in-app purchases came from 0.15 percent of players. "

"Some game companies talk openly about the fact that they have whales, but others shy away from discussing them publicly. It costs money to develop and keep a game running, just like those fancy decorations and free drinks at a casino; whales, like gambling addicts, subsidize fun for everyone else."

[1] http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB1000142405270230462610...

[2] http://recode.net/2014/02/26/a-long-tail-of-whales-half-of-m...

I've worked in the industry for one of the biggest online brands and can second this. It was not unusual to see a single customer spend over a million euros. We even had a couple who maxed the account limit of 5 million euros and had to create a second one.

These VIPs have their own account managers who often talk to them on a daily basis and they are given lot of gifts which are expensive (trips, luxuries etc) but nowhere near the sums they are spending.

Very interesting information, but I can't tell which industry you mean as the parent was referring to both casinos and f2p games? I assumed f2p but I've never heard of account managers giving gifts in f2p games, that would blow my mind.

Sorry, I was referring to gambling.

VIP account managers in F2P is an interesting thought. I wonder if they exist.

You mean people spend millions of actual euro's on a free to play game? Sorry for stating the obvious but this is a little hard to grasp.

I was talking about online casinos. Sorry for not making that clear but I forgot that OP ventured into F2P as well.

That's interesting, and it affects how I see the f2p industry. I was never a big fan, but I figured it was fair 'enough' and ultimately acceptable practice to give people a taste and charge them for more.

But if it turns out there's a really small subset of people that spend a lot, too much probably, then it's quite possible that this business model relies, preys even, on people who have an addiction or similar problem.

With some exceptions, probably, like pay-per-episode games.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com