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Zynga Poker is a popular online poker app that is available on every major platform such as Android, iOS, Windows, Web Browsers, and Windows Phones. Zynga Poker gained massive popularity in a short span of time from its launch date. The number of downloads on Google Play Store is around 50 million, which is huge. This poker platform was initially launched in 2008, and in 2011, it became one of the largest Poker gaming apps in the world.
If we summarize these things, the app has really achieved success in the way it was designed for. It not only succeeds in the industry but is also able to generate massive revenue for the business. Zynga Poker primarily uses a free-to-play model and generates revenue through several models like In-app purchases, In-game advertisements, Banner ads, and money gaming.
Such achievement of this app drives new entrepreneurs and even developers to grab the opportunity to develop a Poker App and run towards the success path. If you are someone who is inspired by Zynga Poker and looking to develop a Zynga Poker Clone or similar app, then this blog is for you.
Developing a successful Poker game app can be a challenging task, but it is a worthwhile investment for businesses. It is a golden key to creating a long-term revenue-generating platform with high user retention potential.
With the right planning and approach, creating an engaging and unique Poker gaming app can be achieved in simple steps.
In today’s blog post, we will guide you through the essential aspects of developing a poker app like Zynga Poker. We will walk through the key steps, core features to include, monetization strategies, marketing tactics to follow, navigate the legal and regulatory landscape, and insights into development costs.
Read More: How to Develop Your Own Poker Game?
If you are truly fascinated by the concept of this poker platform and want to achieve success like how Zynga achieved it, then read this blog till the end. So, let’s get started.
𝑻𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝑷𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒓 𝑽𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚. 𝑪𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒌 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒘 𝑵𝒐𝒘!
Before we get into the main topic, it’s essential to understand if the online poker market is still profitable or not. Let’s check out the online poker market and find out where online poker stands in this competitive industry.
Undoubtedly, the online poker gaming industry is extensive and offers businesses an opportunity for bigger expansion and global reach. Today, the majority of poker players have shifted to digital space and love to play Poker via either an app or a website. This surge has given poker app development a tremendous boost. Zynga Poker has seen this surge as a profitable venture and opted for several revenue generation models at the same time to grow their business. However, there’s a lot that makes Poker app development a profitable venture for your business. Here, understand what a high-quality and vision-driven poker app development holds for your business.
Big and Thriving Market
Nowadays, a lot of people play Poker online due to the ease of access and comfort of enjoying the game at anytime from anywhere. And the online poker market keeps increasing, and people are showing positive interest, which increases the demand for more poker app development. You can offer your Poker gaming platform to wider audiences from all around the world.
This is not just a word of mouth, as we have seen the market research which also shows how thriving this online poker gaming industry is. By joining the industry, your poker business can tap into a lucrative market and generate significant revenue.
Lots of Ways to Make Money
Online poker open ups a lot of revenue-generation models for your business. By developing your own poker mobile app, you can introduce multiple revenue models, like in-app purchases, reward-based ads, real money gaming, etc., into your platform. These business models help you generate great user engagement and revenue.
However, you need to offer a value-driven platform that is not just simply made for making money; you’ll have to consider players' preferences as well. You have to keep the balance between revenue streams and user engagement to build a Poker app that stands out and makes players come back for more.
Room for New Ideas
Online poker apps offer you lucrative ways to implement new ideas to keep your platform interesting and engaging. By developing a Poker real money app, you can introduce VR gaming into the business to tap into other parts of the gamers.
VR gaming is becoming a more demanding option, and by enabling VR, you can enhance the player experience. This will take your poker app experience to the next level and make your model stand out in the market.
Low Operational Cost
Unlike break-and-mortar poker places, which first all need a place, then need to buy poker tables and a gambling license, hire employees (dealers and managers), and give salary every month, plus rent. It all makes things very complicated, hard to manage, and unimaginably expensive.
In online poker app development, the only thing that is lengthy and expensive is obtaining a gambling license for your business in order to operate in a legal area where Poker is legal to play with money. Apart from this, there is nothing that hard and expensive. You need an online platform where your targeted players will enjoy a poker game without any hesitation. The cost of developing an online version of a poker game app is not as costly as running a physical based poker business.
Read More: Texas Holdem Game Software Cost
When it comes to your poker app, do consider one saying, “One should never settle for less than the best”.
While developing your poker software, you can have as many features as you want, but the ones this section includes must-have features that will ensure your players have a smooth, enjoyable, and fair gaming experience.
Developing a poker app like Zynga Poker requires a wide range of features to ensure user engagement and a smooth experience.
Look at the features that can make your poker gaming platform stand out as well as engaging for players.
User-Friendly Gaming Interface
The first thing that any user notices in an app is its interface. When developing a Poker website or mobile application, the interface should be user friendly and at the same attractive. A user-friendly interface enables smoother navigation of application options. Therefore, focus on designing an amazing UI that is unique and makes navigation a lot smoother and responsive among every platform.
Real-Time Multiplayer Option
This feature allows players to join a more competitive lobby where global app users can play together and immersive into real-time poker gaming. The multiplayer option keeps players engaged and offers a sense of community where they can share or showcase their poker skills with other app users. Players can also invite their friends to play poker together from anywhere at any time.
Real Money and In-Game Money Play
65% of people play online poker with real money, and by keeping this in mind, adding real money features to your poker gaming app is surely a necessity. This feature will allow your players to play poker tournaments or multiplayer along with real money at stake. This, as a result, offers a real-life poker gaming experience to players.
In-App Chat
Many will ignore the capability of this functionality but you don’t. This is one of the social features that can enhance your player's interaction with others. The in-app chat option should be available in your poker game as it will improve player interaction with the platform. With this feature, your players can communicate with other players, send text messages, emojis, stickers, and share experiences.
Secure Payment Gateways
If you want a poker platform that helps you generate massive revenues, then this feature is a must to implement. Integrate multiple payment options like credit/debit cards, UPI, PayPal, etc., that allow your players to make transactions smoothly in a safe and secure manner. This feature will also allow your players to deposit money to participate in real-money tournaments or events and withdraw their winnings in a straightforward way.
Rewards, Bonuses, and Loyalty Programs
Rewards, bonuses and loyalty programs are to keep your gaming platform engaging and retain your players. Through this feature you can offer your existing and new users rewards when they achieve a certain level or complete challenges. Offering bonuses like a welcome bonus when a new user successfully deposits money for the first time is one of the best ways to keep your users happy. You can also foster loyalty programs for existing users to reward them for keeping attached to your platform for a long time.
Cross-Platform Support
While more players are choosing online gaming platforms for playing poker, it has become necessary to make a game that can run on every platform. For example; mobile app users can play against web platform users or can access their poker app account in the web-based app as well. The cross-platform feature allows users to access your poker game through the web browser and mobile app.
Game Variations
Having multiple game variations allows your players to enhance their skills in different poker variations. You can add multiple poker variations like Texas Hold’em, Stud Poker, Omaha, Draw Poker, etc. You can add these variations to cater to diverse players' preferences and keep them retained on your platform.
Random Number Generator (RNG) Certified
The fairness and random card draws are important if you want to make your poker card game platform a trustable option for your targeted players. To make everything fair and square in your poker game, use the RNG system within your platform. Zynga Poker is one of the best examples of its RNG-certified capability that makes its platform fair and secure for its players, and this is the reason why it has such a massive user base.
Read More: Poker Game API Provider
Developing a poker gaming app is no less than establishing a land-based business. Both require proper planning and market research about their niche in order to establish a successful business. Similarly, poker app development is a step-by-step process that requires minute-to-minute attention, as a small mistake can cost a lot more than just cost. From planning and researching to testing and final deployment, these stages are necessary to develop a poker app that is built with vision and offers value for players.
The poker app development journey is time-consuming; therefore, to get what will keep your players hooked and coming back for more, you need to pay attention to every stage and not rush. Make sure to learn about every stage, gain technical knowledge, and keep your vision clear. To help you in navigating your poker app development journey to success, here are the essential steps you can follow.
Market Research & Define Audience
Market research provides you with valuable insights into your industry and what it holds for you. By doing market research, you can thoroughly understand your market, easily define unique poker gaming app features, and find out the estimated cost of your poker app development project.
Through market research, you will also get to know about what are legal areas where you can launch your services, what type of license you need, etc.
After analyzing the market, you will have to define who will be your users (audience). These analytics are important as they will provide you data on which age of people play poker most, do they play on mobile apps or websites, their gender, and which poker platform they are currently live on most. This data reduces the risk and provides clear insights for creating a successful roadmap for your poker app development journey.
Choose the Right Technology Stack
The technology stack is one of the most essential parts that you need to choose. Select the technology that offers scalability, flexibility, and robustness to build your live poker app. There are many good technologies available that you can implement in your poker app. However, it is not possible to use them all.
You need to carefully decide your technologies as they directly impact the app's performance, scalability, and development time, and ultimately, the success of your poker development.
You can use frontend technologies such as HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and frameworks like React and Angular for creating dynamic user interface and user experience. For the backend, the options are Node.js, Ruby on Rails, or PHP; these technologies can significantly help manage user data, game logic, and server-side functions.
Design Intuitive UI/UX
Design your poker app user interface that is engaging, intuitive, and easy to use. Your UI and UX are the center of attraction in your poker game app; therefore, they should be focused on providing a realistic and wholesome gaming experience.
The UI and UX should be responsive in every platform that you are targeting. It should be well-optimized for mobile devices as well as for web platforms. Every button, text, image, and other element of the poker gaming app should be user-centric and allow your players to use them without any complexities.
Develop compiling app design, hire a professional poker game and app developer who understands the role of UI and UX in a mobile app. Zynga Poker has an amazing but user-friendly interface that allows users to access the app functionality without any stress. You can take inspiration from this platform to create your poker app UI and UX.
Implement Essential Features
Integrate features that not only offer uniqueness but also provide value to your users and give them a reason to use your poker app rather than others.
To make a fabulous poker gaming application, consider these features:
Application Features
Game Features
Table Features
Tournament Features
Club Features (Optional)
Testing & Quality Assurance
Test every feature, functionality, app performance, responsiveness, platform compatibility issue, and gameplay across different platforms to find bugs and errors that may ruin player experience drastically.
Check whether the betting options, security systems, payment options, and overall app functionalities are working the same as intended. Make sure to test every part of your poker game before you decide to launch it in the market. Testing and quality assurance are a must if you want to deliver your users an amazing and smooth gaming experience.
App Launch & Marketing
Once the app is tested thoroughly, launch it to the Google Play Store, Apple App Store, and other platforms that provide you best visibility and user access. Optimize your poker app according to the app store's guidelines. Once you deploy your app, the app stores will review it on the basis of different factors like security, design, performance, business, and legal guidelines. This review process can take days or even weeks before your app submission is approved.
After publishing your poker game app, start creating effective marketing plans to increase your product visibility among people. You can start with ASO (App Store Optimization) marketing, in which you optimize the app description and insert related keyphrases to increase the chances of topping the result when people search terms related to poker apps. You can promote your poker app on social media channels, consider creating a website and focus on content marketing in which you can provide your users tips and tricks about poker games, patch release notes, etc. A specially tailored marketing campaign according to your target users can lead to a boost in brand awareness of your poker gaming app.
Read More: How to Develop an App Like WSOP Poker
1. In-Game Advertisement
This is one of the popular revenue strategies for Poker game app owners. This model enhances the poker gaming experience of their audiences by integrating ads like:
These ads also help companies increase their visibility on a global scale. Each advertisement option offers different types of benefits; for example, reward based ads are those which provide rewards in exchange for watching them. Banner ads don't offer any type of rewards but for every click, owners earn money.
2. In-App Purchases
When playing a poker game, players tend to get excited as they progress. This provides you with a big opportunity to retain the players for a longer period on your poker gaming platform. For that, you should encourage your players to buy in-game items like:
However, to implement this model, your poker app should be engaging and unique enough. Only then will the player be ready to spend their money to purchase in-game items.
3. Subscriptions
The subscription model is divided into two major forms:-
Seasonal Pass: This model is used to generate more excitement and entice players to buy seasonal passes to access new features, extra coins, customized avatars, and other bonuses on time that are only available for a limited time.
VIP Membership: The VIP subscription plan allows your poker players to get hands on premium rewards, join in-game tournaments, unlock higher withdrawal limits, etc.
Developing a poker app is one thing, but if you’re planning to enable real money gaming like gambling, then your business must comply with laws and regulations.
If you’re planning to launch your online poker gaming platform for local players, you must adhere to local guidelines. Therefore, it's important that your poker app meets the various laws and regulations of online gambling.
Keep in mind that different states, countries, and regions have specific and strict guidelines for online poker that involve real money gaming. Due to this, navigating these rules can be difficult. Here are key legal and regulatory considerations you must comply with:
Licensing Requirements
To operate your online real money poker game app, you must obtain a gambling license that permits you to run your business in the legal places where gambling is legal. The process of obtaining a gambling license is certainly lengthy, but it provides you with legal authority to operate your business without any complications.
The popular licensing regions include Malta, Gibraltar, the UK, and Curacao. These licenses make your platform legal but often come with strict guidelines which you need to adhere to no matter what. These licenses include guidelines such as responsible gambling practices, anti-money laundering (AML) policies, and customer protection measures. Therefore, it's important to understand each license policy and apply for the correct one in the jurisdiction where you want to operate your online poker business.
Age Verification
Your poker app should also be compliant with gambling age restriction policies. Therefore, ensure that only legally aged users (18 to 21) can access your platform and play poker. Integrate an advanced age verification system that easily identifies the age of users when they register their accounts on the platform.
Your system should catch underage users and restrict them from accessing the platform, ensuring compliance with legal regulations.
Responsible Gambling Policies
To comply with the gambling laws and regulations, you must incorporate responsible gambling features into your poker app. This includes providing your users with warnings or information or incorporating tools that allow you to set limits on users' gambling activities, show pop-ups about taking breaks, or restrict the app usage automatically when the user crosses the playing limit.
The cost of developing a Poker app depends on several key factors, such as the complexity of the features and functionalities, the platform on which your app is being developed, poker game development company location, promotion, and marketing efforts. All these factors gradually affect poker app development costs.
Moreover, estimating the accurate development cost is impossible unless you clear your requirements with your poker game developers. After consulting your project requirements with the development team, they offer you multiple cost quotations, and you choose the one that suits your budget and fulfils your requirements.
However, on average, the cost of developing a poker gaming app can range from $5,000 to $15,000, which will include basic features and functionalities for a single platform (Android, iOS, or Web-based app). And for more premium and advanced versions of a poker app that supports both platforms, the cost can rise up to $150K and even more.
Developing a poker game application that stands out in the crowded market is not an easy job. Delivering what entices users to join the poker room for longer is more than just poker app development. All of these require a proper understanding of users' intent, exceptional gaming expertise, vision, and a value-driven development lifecycle.
So, why Orion InfoSolutions? What makes us the right choice as your poker app development company?
Our presence in the gaming industry is more than 10 years and our top-level expertise brings us here so far in the industry. We make promises to provide gaming solutions that will help you take your vision from one level to the highest level.
Our experience and development infrastructure simplify your poker game development process and offer you the highest quality product catering to your business vision directly. Having such a reliable poker software provider alongside you, from throughout the development process to the final launch, improves trust and confidence and makes everything fun and collaborative between us and our clients.
So, in case you are searching for a reliable partner for your poker game app development project, feel free to share your vision/idea with us. We will nourish your idea with modern technologies and a user-centric approach and create a unique and engaging product that will not only engage your target users but also enhance your brand identity in the competitive market.
So, we have reached the point where we are assuming that our guide has helped in understand how to create a poker app. Developing a poker app like Zynga Poker is no easy task, but proper research, planning, tech stack, user-centric UI and UX design integrating essential features, testing the app properly, and launching in the market with a complete strategy can help you have a high-quality and amazing poker gaming app for your business.
Further, you can opt for various monetization strategies like in-app purchases, ads, and subscription-based models; you can monetize your poker app business and generate massive revenue in less time.
But remember to comply with the gambling laws and regulations and obtain a license that permits you to run your business fluently without any problems. Hire a good poker game development company that possesses high-level skilled developers to bring your unique idea into reality.
DC Kumawat is the CEO of Orion InfoSolutions, a leading provider of IT solutions to businesses of all sizes. He has over 14+ years of experience in the IT industry. He is a passionate advocate for the use of technology to improve business performance.