Black Tie Ventures, an up-and-coming social game developer of highly targeted social casino games for niche markets, announced today that it is launching Pink Martini Casino, a revolutionary social gaming project. Over $7.5 million will be invested in Quebec City's local economy for the development and operation of this venture, which is expected to generate over $150 million over the next three years.
Black Tie Ventures has already closed two rounds of financing that allowed it to build and market test a functional prototype of the game on Facebook. The market test exceeded expectations, confirming BTV's business model. The company is currently entering its next major round of financing in preparation for the product's Q1 2015 launch.
"This is by far the largest independent gaming project investment in Quebec City," said David Weiser, Co-Founder of Black Tie Ventures."Thanks to the support of a few visionary angel investors who embarked upon this adventure with us, we were able to deliver a prototype that exceeded our expectations on Facebook. We're now looking forward to our official launch, which will be creatively rewarding for our collaborators—and financially rewarding for our investors thanks to the multiple revenue streams that have been seamlessly incorporated into our product."
Pink Martini Casino is targeted to women, a demographic representing over 60% of the social casino market. In addition to exciting and innovative social casino features, the game combines true user retention with brand engagement- a win-win for both women looking for entertainment tailored to their interests and brands looking to tap into a highly lucrative and captive target market.
"Social casino games make up 50% of the Top 20 Grossing apps on Facebook and the iOS platforms," continued David Weiser. "The industry is set to generate $2.7 Billion in revenues this year and is estimated to grow to $4.2 Billion by 2016. Our prototype has already demonstrated the ability to track at par with industry metrics. We are convinced that our unique approach to in-game progression and rewards will offer our players one of the top social casino experiences out there."
Black Tie Ventures is the brainchild of David and Ron Weiser, two gaming industry pioneers from Quebec City. David, the founder, President & CEO of Megatoon Entertainment Group (now operating as Behaviour Interactive) launched Quebec City's first commercially successful ISP, Megatoon Station. The seasoned entrepreneur and interactive entertainment executive producer, has worked on campaigns and virtual world projects with Nintendo, McDonald's, Sprite, Hasbro, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Universal Music, Warner, L'Oréal, and the Carnaval de Québec. Ron Weiser, a seasoned operations executive, has led multiple award winning interactive projects. He notably managed millions of dollars' worth of digital productions while heading interactive studios at both CineGroupe Interactive and IC Axon.
