Gambling firm Betable snaps up former Zynga exec

Real-money gambling start-up Betable has appointed former Zynga exec Jonathan Flesher as its new executive VP of business development.

As reported by TechCrunch, Flesher will be responsible for signing developers to the company’s services, pushing licensing forward in territories outside of the US and forming strategic partnerships.

Betable lets developers add real-money gambling to their titles, although due to current regulations this cannot be used in the US at the moment. The platform can however be used in countries such as the UK on iOS and Android.

Flesher said developers that stick to just virtual currency and don’t adopt real-money gambling in future will get left behind in a potentially more lucrative market.

“We’re seeing a convergence between the free-to-play social gaming world and online gambling world,” he said.

“If you incorporate real-money gaming, you’ll get a higher lifetime value from your players, and then you’ll be able to outspend other companies in the space that aren’t doing real money gaming.”

As well as previously working as VP of business development at Zynga where he helped set up the social gaming outfit’s partnership with UK online gambling firm Bwin.party before his departure in November last year, Flesher has also previously worked at EA as senior director of business development.