????Betable公司的首席執行官克里斯?格里芬已經花了多年時間，用來培養他所謂的“游戲新文藝復興”事業。這位年僅30歲的企業家希望通過幫助游戲公司構建傳統的現金賭博游戲，為快速成長的社交游戲市場打開一個新的方向。

????格里芬可能的確捕捉到了一個巨大的商機。他留著一個美劇《廣告狂人》（Mad Men）式的發型，穿著修身西裝，看起來就像摩洛哥的賭場管理員。社交游戲公司Zynga對格里芬的點子很感興趣。自從上市后七個月以來，Zynga一直在積極地尋找新的方法，好從它的數百萬玩家身上賺到更多的錢。Zynga首席執行官馬克?平卡斯近日在《財富》（Fortune）舉辦的科技頭腦風暴科技峰會（Brainstorm Tech）上對觀眾表示，公司正在“積極擴展現金賭博等周邊市場。”在6月25日的收益電話會議上，Zynga高管公布，公司當季收入為3.32億美元，凈虧損約為2,300萬美元，同時再次重申，公司決定發展現金賭博游戲。格里芬表示：“他們認識到，僅僅只是擁有大量用戶，還算不上是最好的業務。”

????格里芬表示，如果Zynga和電子藝界（Electronic Arts）等游戲公司真的決定進軍現金游戲市場，自己希望能助他們一臂之力。格里芬的公司位于英國倫敦，在現金游戲這個仍然有些棘手但有大量盈利潛能的市場上，他的公司已經比后來者領先一年多了。Betable公司創立于2008年，初衷是要成為一家游戲公司，但從去年開始，公司將重點轉為向其他公司提供幕后技術，使其他開發商的游戲能夠兼容現金游戲模式。Betable的投資人包括創始人基金（Founders Fund）的FF天使基金、格雷洛克發現基金（Greylock Discovery Fund），以及戴夫?莫林和尤里?米爾納等個人投資者。

????格里芬表示，他的公司是迄今唯一一家解決了現金游戲所涉及的監管難題的公司。一家賭博服務機構要想獲得許可證，公司的全部受益所有人（也就是所有占1%股權以上的股東）必須接受為期整整一個月的調查。格里芬說這個過程“具有難以想象的侵略性”，因為公司的職員以及使用的軟件、安全措施、服務器的地理位置，乃至公司的運營政策和流程都要經過細致的調查。Betable公司花了兩年多的時間和數百萬美元的費用才通過了英國監管機構的審批。現在Betable的30多位開發者已經完成了第一輪內測，已經進入封閉內測階段。格里芬相信，目前市場上還沒有其他定制平臺通過了監管機構的審批。

????格里芬希望各大游戲制造商能夠采用Betable的解決方案作為合作伙伴。使用了Betable的工具之后，社交游戲制造商們可以合法提供一些現金游戲元素，比如老虎機等，同時無需再自行向監管機構申請審批，因為主導賭博行為的實際上是Betable的技術。

????Zynga在收益電話會議上確認了公司的第一批現金游戲已經處于開發階段，即將在一些能夠獲得審批的國家發行。不過平卡斯沒有明確指出Zynga將自行申請許可證，還是通過與其他公司合作的方式來獲得許可證的使用權，因此Zynga與Betable合作的可能性仍然是存在的。只要Zynga一聲召喚，格里芬就會拿起電話，告訴他的平臺愿意為任何人開放。同時，Zynga把首批現金游戲的發布時間定在2013年上半年，格里芬把這個好消息稱作是送給Betable開發者社區的“提前到來的最大的節日大禮”——加盟了Betable的開發者們現在知道，他們已經比行業領袖Zynga領先了6個月。

????Zynga首席執行官平卡斯在《財富》的腦力風暴科技峰會上指出，撲克和Bingo游戲可能將成為最早融合了現金賭博元素的游戲。因此第一批Zynga的現金游戲很可能是賭場類游戲。不過格里芬和平卡斯似乎都認為，長期商機還是在于主流社交游戲對現金游戲元素的廣泛采用。比如像《開心農場》這類游戲可以設置一種類似老虎機的機制，讓玩家下注，賭農作物的長勢。

????不過短期之內，兩家公司應該都不會在美國推廣現金游戲。Betable的服務在英國法律下可以合法運營，在一些對現金游戲沒有明確限制的國家也可以運營。但是多種身份審核手段確保了用戶無法欺騙系統，謊報自己所在的位置。因此目前包括美國等國家的玩家仍然無法參與現金游戲。不過格里芬并不擔心這一點。他表示自己已經與數百名游戲開發者討論過他的產品，這些開發者們表示，他們的業務平均有60%都是來自美國以外的市場。就在上周，Zynga的平卡斯指出，美國以外的在線賭博市場的市值可達150億美元。

????如果美國立法機構宣布現金賭博游戲合法，這對于Zynga和Betable來說自然是個天大的喜訊。Betable最近在舊金山為它的研發團隊設立了一個辦事處。Zynga也在7月25日表示，公司仍有60%的總收入依賴美國市場。平卡斯上周也表示，Zynga打算未來將針對現金游戲問題參與對美國國會的游說。

????與此同時，格里芬指出，在那些沒有開放現金游戲的國家里，用戶們要想在一場游戲中趕上那些現金賭博玩家，甚至可能要花更多的錢來買虛擬物品。格里芬相信，憑借Betable公司在申請監管批準方面的領先地位，Betable現在至少已經有了足夠的籌碼在賭桌上玩下去。

????譯者：樸成奎

????Betable CEO Chris Griffin has spent years cultivating what he calls "a new renaissance in gaming." The 30-year-old entrepreneur wants to upend the rapidly growing social gaming market by making it simple for game makers to incorporate old-school, real-money gambling.

????Griffin may be on to something. And not just because, with his Mad Men hair cut and sharp suits, he looks the part of a Monaco croupier. Social game giant Zynga (ZNGA), for one, is paying attention. In the seven months since it went public, Zynga has been actively looking for ways to make more money from its millions of players. CEO Mark Pincus told Fortune's recent Brainstorm Tech audience that the company was "actively exploring adjacent markets like real-money gambling." The company reiterated that position in its July 25 earnings call, when executives announced revenue of $332 million for the quarter and a net loss of about $23 million. "They realize that just having a lot of scale in terms of users is not the greatest business," Griffin says.

????If Zynga and competitors such as Electronic Arts (EA) do enter real-money gaming, Griffin wants to facilitate things. His London-based startup has over a year's head start in a potentially lucrative but still thorny market. Founded in 2008 to build gambling games, Betable shifted last year to focus on providing the behind-the-scenes technology that makes other developers' games compatible with real-money wagers. The company is backed by the likes of Founders Fund's FF Angel, Greylock Discovery Fund, and individuals Dave Morin and Yuri Milner.

????Betable's founder claims that his company is the only firm to have solved the regulatory puzzles involved. To receive a license, all beneficial owners (with a 1% or larger stake) of a gambling service must undergo a months-long diligence process. Griffin calls it "incredibly invasive" because company officers are checked out, as well as software, security and location of servers, operating policies and procedures. It took Betable over two years and millions of dollars to receive the go-ahead from regulators in the United Kingdom. The company is now moving into private beta after 30 developers completed an alpha test round; its founder is bullish that no other customizable platforms are licensed and in the market.

????Griffin hopes that Betable's solution will be adopted as a partner for major game makers. Social game makers who use Betable's tools can legally offer gaming components, such as a slot machine function, within the game, but don't need their own regulatory approval because it's Betable that actually conducts the gambling activity. Betable's U.K. servers receive the activity request from a particular game, whose developers can set rules on what type of mechanic they want to run. Betable then sends back a winning or losing result, taking a portion of the revenue from the transaction and paying back an affiliate fee to the game's owners proportional to volume of traffic. Whereas the process can take months to set up independently, Griffin says a company like Zynga can layer on Betable's solution to its games in just one hour.

????In its earnings call, Zynga confirmed that its first real-money games are in development in countries where it can obtain a license. But Pincus declined to specify whether Zynga would pursue its own licenses or obtain their use through a partnership, leaving the door open for a potential Betable deal. If Zynga calls, Griffin will pick up the phone, saying his platform is open to all. In the meantime, Griffin calls Zynga's launch timeline of first-half 2013 "the biggest early holiday gift ever" for Betable's growing community: developers joining Betable today can work knowing they have six months to steal a march on the industry leader.

????While at Brainstorm Tech, Zynga's Pincus pointed to his company's poker and bingo offerings as immediate opportunities for integrating real-money gambling, so first Zynga offerings would seem likely to put real-money to work in casino style games. But both Griffin and Pincus seem to agree that the long-term opportunity is broad adoption in mainstream social games. Users of Farmville-like games could, for example, run a slot machine mechanic to bet on a better crop.

????But neither country will be involved in real-money games in the United States any time soon. Betable's service operates legally under United Kingdom regulation in countries that do not have their own specific restrictions. Various identity checks ensure that users can't game the system to misrepresent their location and get in on the action. For now, that leaves out a few countries, including the United States. But Griffin is unfazed, noting that of hundreds of developers with whom he's discussed his product, the average game maker told him up to 60% of their business was now outside the U.S. market. Last week, Pincus pointed to the non-U.S. online gambling market as a $15 billion industry.

????Legislation to open the United States up to real money gambling would of course be a major boon to both Zynga and Betable, which recently opened a San Francisco office for its developing team. Zynga reported on July 25 that it still depends on the United States for 60% of total revenue, and Pincus said last week that Zynga plans to be a part of any online gambling lobbying conversations in Washington in the future.

????In the meantime, Griffin notes that users in non-starter countries may even spend more on virtual goods to keep up with their real-money gambling peers within a game. At the very least, Betable has wagered its regulatory head start will be enough chips to stay at the table.