2. RAF KEUSTERMANS
Co-Founder, CEO Plumbee
(Interim) VP Marketing Kobojo 2011
Independent Social Gaming Consultant 2010-2011
Global Marketing Director Playfish (EA) 2009-2010
Marketing Director EMEA Pogo.com (EA) 2008-2009
Head of Marketing Western Europe Unibet.com 2005-2008
Strategic Planner at BBDO, Grey and Publicis 1998-2005
raf@plumbee.com
Twitter: @raf_keustermans
3. Plumbee?
• Social casino startup, London (Shoreditch)
• °July 2011
• 3 founders, all ex EA Playfish vets
• Raised $2.8M VC – Idinvest Partners
• 32 staff today
• Mirrorball Slots on Facebook
– 230K DAU, 1M MAU
– Coming to iOS & Android soon
4. The Market Today
• Hot Hot Hot!
• Extremely competitive - dozens of social
casino startups
– Mobile and Facebook
– Opportunistic approach, not a lot of quality
– Lots of pivots from ‘failed’ casual game studios
• ‘Facebook is Dead’ perception
– Is it?
5. How Much Cash Do You Need?
• A lot.
– $2M+ if you’re serious
• Production costs increasing
– Competition
– User expectations
– Multiple platforms
• Marketing!
– $500K absolute minimum
– Viral is dead, especially in casino vertical
– Brands don’t replace ad spend
• Conversion Brand Page -> App <3%
• Team
– Good engineers, product managers are expensive and hard to find
– London Talent War (Mind Candy, King.com, gambling, banks, ...)
6. Where To Find It?
• Lots of seed & early-stage capital available
(<$1M)
– Angels & Super-Angels
– VC: new early-stage funds, seed funds from bigger
VCs
– Strategic Investors: every gambling, media, games
company in the world needs to find a social
strategy
• Harder to find Series A, B in Europe
7. Risks & Opportunities
• Regulation (?)
• Saturation
• Customer acquisition cost rising
• Free-to-Play vs Real Money
• Gambling world = ‘rich, fat and lazy’
– Total lack of innovation, no focus on product
development, old tech, commoditized
