NEW YORK - Las Vegas-based Zen Gaming announced that the Las Vegas Review-Journal will soon launch a branded online games channel that plugs into the National League of Poker Web site (NLOP.com), which is powered by Sen's advergaming engine.
NLOP.com, a free-to-play social gaming site that offers various poker-centric games, was acquired by Zen Gaming last September. When referred players register, Review-Journal publisher Stephens Media will capture user database information. While players are in the R-J poker room they will see R-J related content and geo-targeted ads.
A "new approach to online advertising," advergaming is a "means to generate additional online traffic, which increases impressions, the length of user sessions and most importantly, increases revenues," Sen gaming President Vincent Zaldivar said in a statement.
Zen will private-brand its game-engine for each of partner site. The platform already is used by casinos restaurants and taverns, broadcast media and print publications.
NLOP features Texas Hold 'Em and new poker games in what Zen says is a legal-to-play environment. Its 300,000-plus subscribers play in tournaments for points, cash and prizes. User sessions currently average 70 minutes, and more than 30 million hands of poker are being played on the site monthly by "casual gamers." Subscribers are split 60%-40% male-female, are well-educated, and are upper-income consumers, according to Zen.
Individual players, competing at the same table with people from other partner sites across the country, could see something different on the play screen, depending on how they were referred to the site, their locations and other demographic tags.
The turnkey program "allows partners to plug and play this content, capture valuable information about their constituents, and target messages to a captive audience," said NLOP Chief Operating Officer Michael Clebnik, who called it "the next generation in assimilated content and contextual advertising."
Partners are asked to promote the contests to drive more people to the site, where aggregated traffic generates more ad revenue, which partners chare based on their traffic volume.
