All that to say, the Computerspiele (Computer Game) Museum in Berlin is pretty amazing. From Space Invaders, to the GDR Pacman ripoff, Hase und Wulf, you’ll be able to scope out tons of the milestones that built us up to Crowdpark’s social games we all love today. Pet Vegas, where would you be without ELIZA?

This past Sunday we went to the museum to support Norbert Haaks, a friend from Newtracks who was participating in a cool Game Jam event. Norbert made a cool snake-eating-its-tail game in just 48 hours with a group of game designers and developers. Cool stuff, Norbert.

At the museum, we played Zork: The Great Underground Empire – Part I, which was published by Infocom in 1980. The Zork games series grew out of ELIZA. The player hunts around for various objects near a house and navigates the game by inputting commands with a keyboard. There’s no image – only text. Just a warning, it helps to be a human compass since Zork loves cardinal directions. Those of us who are poets and dreamers get lost in Never Never Land. Guess I have to practice. I found out you can actually get a version of Zork for your iPhone if you can’t check it out at the museum. I also discovered that some of this the early stuff gets nestled into more modern games. For example, Zork has reared its ugly head again in a special feature in Call of Duty: Black Ops produced by Activision and Treyarch in 2010.

I guess this post has put to rest any doubt that Crowdpark is full of geeks. O.k., off to book tickets for the Game Developers’ Conference in San Francisco.

Das Berliner Social-Game-Startup Crowdpark hat sich auf Onlinewetten spezialisiert. Mit AnteUp präsentiert das Unternehmen einen Dienst, der spontane Wettduelle zwischen Freunden ermöglicht. (…)

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Gambling is all about losing stacks of money at a casino or on the gee-gees, right? (…) With their latest release, called AnteUp, games developer Crowdpark wants to bring betting into a truly social space. And it’s genuinely quite fun. (…)

Online

A number of social betting pioneers are seeing huge success. For example, German internet start-up Crowdpark has enticed over 500,000 people to its Facebook-only gambling game, Bet Tycoon, in just nine months. (…)

Online

A fan of all things social, this facebook-obsessed girl hails from sunny Australia, and joined the Crowdpark team as Social Media Marketing Manager in January 2012. Kalinda has over two years online marketing experience in Berlin, and her passion is the ever-changing and rapidly expanding world of social media.

XingSkypeEmail

CLARA: Mornin’ Ricard. To start off, could you tell our readers when it was that Crowdpark snagged you?

RICARD: Late summer 2011.

You’re a visionary for Crowdpark and hunt down cool new stuff for our games. Could you give our readers the scoop on what you do all day?

My focus is 2ndScreen content, catering to users who increasingly use portable devices such as the iPad and smartphones when watching TV and film content.

Which customized Betty is your favorite? You can’t choose Schoolgirl Betty since Francis would get jealous.

Hm maybe I’ll pick a fight. Nah, I’m lucky enough to have a personalized version of Betty, which the whole company signed for my birthday.

What was your favorite computer game growing up?

Erm, speaking of birthdays, there were no computers when I was growing up… but at age 9 my parents set up an Arcade games business and then gave me a copy of the keys…really enjoyed Marble Madness – it came with some seriously weird joysticks.

That’s pretty sick. You must have been quite the man around town. What’s the best part about working at Crowdpark?

It’s the people – from bottom to top, left to right. Oh, and the new kicker table. It rocks.

What football club do you support?

Barça. I was born not far from the city.

Who’s your favorite football player?

Stefan Walter. Some of us play a bit of pick-up Crowdpark football. You should interview him next.

Do you like working with him?

Yeah, I hope we hire more people just like Stefan Walter. He’s awesome.

I totally agree. What did you do before joining Crowdpark?

I worked both with filmmakers and games companies.

Well that does wonders for team diversity. The mix of people’s pretty great here. Betty just told me that you’re quite the bet tycoon. Which team are you putting your money on in the Barcelona-Español match this weekend?

A draw… it’s an old trick – betting on a draw when my fav team plays and winning it at least covers for the pain of losing 2 points. A loss would be devastating news… but if Messi is in the pitch – I reckon we’ll be just fine!

Alright, get back to work. I need you to answer the email I sent you earlier today ;). Thanks for being such a fun member of our team! Oh, and I should commend you for being the only guy ‘round here who puts in consistent effort for dressing up. You always look great. Keep up the good work! And anyone with any questions about Crowdpark, please email me at clara@crowdpark.com.

CNN’s Diana Magnay takes a look at the buzz around Berlin’s booming tech scene. (…)

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La dynamique start-up allemande CrowPark ne cesse de développer des applications pour jouer entre amis. Son marché: le « social betting ». (…) Ce système qu’ils ont appelé le Dynamic Betting, permet aux joueurs de maîtriser leurs pertes. En effet, si lors d’un match, l’équipe sur laquelle vous avez parié est en train de perdre vous pouvez toujours avant la fin du match revendre votre pari initial. (…)

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Required skills and experience
- 5+ Years working as Sysadmin in Highscale
- Bash scripting
- Experience in Server Security
- Familiarity with agile software development processes a bonus
- Fast scaling with server structure
- Multi-AZ Deployment
- AWS

Any of the following are a plus:
- PHP / HTML / JS / CSS
- Facebook API / OpenGraph
- Community awareness with new technologies, frameworks, resources, and open source libraries & Github is your friend
- Eye for detail, performance & optimization
- SCRUM

Your Profile:
We are looking for someone who is a very versatile professional with a creative mindset, good logical and analytical capabilities, you think from a user’s point of view and you have the ability to prioritize, multi-task and work under fast deadlines.

Your Benefits
- Being able to bring in own ideas in products
- Work at a fast growing company that operates in a very dynamic environment
- No hierarchies and quick decision making processes
- International environment
- Located in Berlin

About us:
Crowdpark is bringing the thrill of legal betting to the world of social gaming. The company offers several social betting and casino game products on a cross-platform basis.

Contact person: Ingo Hinterding – jobs [at] crowdpark [dot] com

Applications sent per mail cannot be returned.

Crowdpark GmbH
Rotherstr. 18
10245 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 417 212 80
Fax: +49 (0)30 417 212 81

CLARA: Hey Francis. I want to show our readers how much we love having you as a driving force on our Crowdpark team. When was it that Crowdpark was lucky enough to recruit you?

FRANCIS: It was a sunny day in May 2011.

What is it you do here?

I’m THE nerd in the company and make the technology decisions around here. If you send us your CV and you’re a developer, I’m the first guy who’ll read it. I’m also one of the drivers for team building and motivation so I keep our troops energized. Other than that, I’m a software architect and engineer. All of this keeps me really busy, but I always seem to find time to get some kicker in.

Could you tell everyone about how you bring magic to our games?

I try to use the newest technology for our apps such as nodeJS, NoSQL Databases (Couchbase, Redis, MongoDB) , Backbone/Sproutcore JS, PHP – Zend Framework 2 (Beta). We also use experimental technology such as Facebook’s HipHop. To do my best work, I need to feed my inner nerd, and using the newest technology is the best way to do that.

Which customized Betty is your favorite?

Catholic School Girl for sure ;-).

What was your favorite computer game growing up?

The Monkey Island – it’s the best game ever!

What’s the best part about working at Crowdpark?

Our team’s awesome! Everyone’s open minded and flexible. We do a thorough job recruiting people who are going to have good synergy with our team so that we all love coming to work. We like to have a good laugh and go out for team drinks from time to time. We’ve got a flat hierarchy and the members of our executive team have strong and complementary personalities, and solid expertise (which is important to a nerd like me!). Working with good people’s always the best work motivation!

What’s your favorite street food in Berlin?

The Burgermeister in Schlesi. It’s delish.

I see around the office that you’re quite the busy guy. Word has it that Crowdpark’s growing their amazing team. What type of person’s on your wish list for new coworkers?

I’d love for us to get in some strong developers who are fun and driven by innovation to join us!

What other tech stuff are you passionate about?

I’m obsessed with nice gadgets! I’m pretty into Arduino’s building development hardware.

Well I’ll let you get back at it. I hope your wish comes true! If there’s anyone awesome out there who wants to join us, email me at clara@crowdpark.com.

Germany is well-known for Internet browser-based games, with several developers including BigPoint in Hamburg, Gameforge in Karlsruhe and Browsergames in Potsdam. Berlin-based game developer Crowdpark focuses on legal non-cash betting. (…)

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What we expect:
- You should live in Berlin
- Native-tongue Turkish
- You speak German and/or English
- You should enjoy writing and have a strong affinity to web 2.0 and social networks

About us:
Crowdpark is bringing the thrill of legal betting to the world of social gaming. The company offers several social betting and casino game products on a cross-platform basis.

Interested? We maintain an open, friendly, and high-innovation work environment with young and talented professionals from 5+ nations.

Contact person: Susann Heidrich – Susann [at] crowdpark [dot] com

Applications sent per mail cannot be returned.

Crowdpark GmbH
Rotherstr. 18
10245 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 417 212 80
Fax: +49 (0)30 417 212 81

Primary Responsibilities
As a Web designer you work in our Berlin office with the product, marketing and the community team. You are responsible for all aspects of the company’s graphical presentation.

- Responsible for company-wide graphical presentation, corporate branding and design
- Design graphics for communication (corporate site, info graphics, print material, and graphics for events)
- Design internal tools
- Design and layout Facebook fan pages
- Create design mock-ups for new products
- Create online-marketing graphics (banners, landing pages, e-mail templates etc.) and optimize the assets

Required skills and experience
- Awesome front end technology knowledge: (X)HTML(5), CSS, JavaScript, AJAX
- Photoshop wizard
- Very good template creation skills
- Excellent knowledge of conventional Web standards (W3C, SEO, etc.)
- Familiarity with agile software development processes a bonus
- Experience in multi-developer environments and using code versioning and project management tools

Any of the following are a plus:
- Experience with PHP & MySQL
- Experience with WordPress
- Experience with PHP Frameworks
- Experience working with Flash
- Game addiction
- Community awareness with new technologies, frameworks, resources, and open source libraries & Github is your friend

Your Profile:
We are looking for someone who is a very versatile professional with a creative mindset, good logical and analytical capabilities, you think from a user’s point of view and you have the ability to prioritize, multi-task and work under fast deadlines.

Your Benefits
- Being able to bring in own ideas in products
- Work at a fast growing company that operates in a very dynamic environment
- No hierarchies and quick decision making processes
- International environment
- Located in Berlin

About us:
Crowdpark is bringing the thrill of legal betting to the world of social gaming. The company offers several social betting and casino game products on a cross-platform basis.

Contact person: Ingo Hinterding – jobs [at] crowdpark [dot] com

Applications sent per mail cannot be returned.

Crowdpark GmbH
Rotherstr. 18
10245 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 417 212 80
Fax: +49 (0)30 417 212 81

Required skills and experience
- OOP experience with PHP and MySQL
- Front end technology knowledge: (X)HTML(5), CSS, JavaScript, AJAX, ExtJS, YUI
- Experience with JSON, XML and RSS a plus
- Very good template creation skills
- Excellent knowledge of conventional Web standards (W3C, SEO, etc.)
- Familiarity with agile software development processes a bonus
- Knowledge in SVN, GIT, Design Patterns including MVC
- Experience with PHP frameworks like Zend
- Experience in multi-developer environments and using code versioning and project management tools

Any of the following are a plus:
- Game addiction
- Facebook API / OpenGraph
- Community awareness with new technologies, frameworks, resources, and open source libraries & Github is your friend
- Eye for detail, performance & optimization
- SCRUM / Pair – Programming

Your Profile:
We are looking for someone who is a very versatile professional with a creative mindset, good logical and analytical capabilities, you think from a user’s point of view and you have the ability to prioritize, multi-task and work under fast deadlines.

Your Benefits
- Being able to bring in own ideas in products
- Work at a fast growing company that operates in a very dynamic environment
- No hierarchies and quick decision making processes
- International environment
- Located in Berlin

About us:
Crowdpark is bringing the thrill of legal betting to the world of social gaming. The company offers several social betting and casino game products on a cross-platform basis.

Contact person: Ingo Hinterding – jobs [at] crowdpark [dot] com

Applications sent per mail cannot be returned.

Crowdpark GmbH
Rotherstr. 18
10245 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 417 212 80
Fax: +49 (0)30 417 212 81

Required skills and experience
- OOP experience with PHP
- Skills in working and optimizing SQL (Structuring, Indexing, Querying)
- Experienced in working with CouchDB, MongoDB or alike
- Caching layers such as Memcached or Redis are known
- Familiarity with agile software development processes a bonus
- Knowledge in SVN, GIT, Design Patterns including MVC
- Experience with PHP frameworks like Zend
- Experience in multi-developer environments and using code versioning and project management tools
- RPC experience is a plus

Any of the following are a plus:
- Game addiction
- Front end skills
- Knowledge of conventional Web standards (W3C, SEO, etc.)
- Experience with JSON, XML and RSS a plus
- Facebook API / OpenGraph
- Community awareness with new technologies, frameworks, resources, and open source libraries & Github is your friend
- Eye for detail, performance & optimization
- SCRUM / Pair – Programming

Your Profile:
We are looking for someone who is a very versatile professional with a creative mindset, good logical and analytical capabilities, you think from a user’s point of view and you have the ability to prioritize, multi-task and work under fast deadlines.

Your Benefits
- Being able to bring in own ideas in products
- Work at a fast growing company that operates in a very dynamic environment
- No hierarchies and quick decision making processes
- International environment
- Located in Berlin

About us:
Crowdpark is bringing the thrill of legal betting to the world of social gaming. The company offers several social betting and casino game products on a cross-platform basis.

Contact person: Ingo Hinterding – jobs [at] crowdpark [dot] com

Applications sent per mail cannot be returned.

Crowdpark GmbH
Rotherstr. 18
10245 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 417 212 80
Fax: +49 (0)30 417 212 81

Jungunternehmer, die auf der Suche nach Wagniskapital sind, tun sich derzeit deutlich leichter, wenn sie eine gute Geschäftsidee für das Internet haben. (…) “Immer mehr originelle originäre Geschäftsideen entstehen bei uns”, sagt er und führt als Beispiel das Berliner Unternehmen Crowdpark an, das Wettspiele aller Art im Internet anbietet. (…)

PDF (in German)

Required skills and experience
- Awesome skills in Flash development (optimization, Javascript / Flash bridging, cross-browser compatibility, Flex, AIR)
- Community awareness with new technologies, frameworks, resources, and open source libraries (Robotlegs, Parsley, SWIZ) & Github is your friend
- SCRUM / Pair – Programming

Any of the following are a plus:
- Experience in the development of Flash Applications with heavy server communication (Remoting, Sockets, JSON)
- ActionScript3, XML, MXML, CSS, Eclipse / Flex Builder/ FDT, SVN, GIT, Design Patterns including MVC
- Eye for detail, performance & optimization
- Game addiction
- Understanding of Back-end and Database technologies
- Facebook API (ActionScript)

Your Profile
We are looking for someone who is a very versatile professional with a creative mindset, good logical and analytical capabilities, you think from a user’s point of view and you have the ability to prioritize, multi-task and work under fast deadlines.

Your Benefits
- Being able to bring in own ideas in products
- Work at a fast growing company that operates in a very dynamic environment
- No hierarchies and quick decision making processes
- International environment
- Located in Berlin

About us:
Crowdpark is bringing the thrill of legal betting to the world of social gaming. The company offers several social betting and casino game products on a cross-platform basis.

The Right Job for You? Apply Now! We’re looking forward to receiving your application!

Contact person: Ingo Hinterding – jobs [at] crowdpark [dot] com

Applications sent per mail cannot be returned.

Crowdpark GmbH
Rotherstr. 18
10245 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 417 212 80
Fax: +49 (0)30 417 212 81

Required skills and experience
- Awesome skills in Flash development (optimization, Javascript / Flash bridging, cross-browser compatibility, Flex, AIR)
- ActionScript3, XML, MXML, CSS, Eclipse / Flex Builder/ FDT, SVN, GIT, Design Patterns including MVC
- Experience in the development of Flash Applications with heavy server communication (Remoting, Sockets, JSON)
- Community awareness with new technologies, frameworks, resources, and open source libraries (Robotlegs, Parsley, SWIZ) & Github is your friend
- Eye for detail, performance & optimization
- SCRUM / Pair – Programming

Any of the following are a plus:
- Game addiction
- Understanding of Back-end and Database technologies
- Facebook API (ActionScript)

Your Profile
We are looking for someone who is a very versatile professional with a creative mindset, good logical and analytical capabilities, you think from a user’s point of view and you have the ability to prioritize, multi-task and work under fast deadlines.

Your Benefits
- Being able to bring in own ideas in products
- Work at a fast growing company that operates in a very dynamic environment
- No hierarchies and quick decision making processes
- International environment
- Located in Berlin

About us:
Crowdpark is bringing the thrill of legal betting to the world of social gaming. The company offers several social betting and casino game products on a cross-platform basis.

The Right Job for You? Apply Now! We’re looking forward to receiving your application!

Contact person: Ingo Hinterding – jobs [at] crowdpark [dot] com

Applications sent per mail cannot be returned.

Crowdpark GmbH
Rotherstr. 18
10245 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 417 212 80
Fax: +49 (0)30 417 212 81

Over recent months companies have been discovering that people are just as eager to spend money gambling on Facebook games for virtual cash as they are in real online casinos. Of course here the companies have one major advantage, the house always wins. (…) Crowdpark has been funded by European investors Target Partners and Earlybird Venture Capital. Ingo Hinterding is co-founder and chief product officer and he believes that the company has invented an entirely new genre of Facebook game. (…)

Online

Wird Berlin das neue Silicon Valley, oder wächst hier die nächste Internet-Blase heran? tip-Autorin Anne Lena Mösken hat sich in der Gründerszene umgesehen und dabei einen neuen Unternehmertypus kennengelernt. (…) Die Szeneblogs schreien wöchentlich neue Schlagzeilen aus der Berliner Gründerszene hinaus in die Netzwelt. Crowdpark bekommt sechs Millionen. (…)

Online (in German)

Auf sozialen Netzwerken wird gewettet, bis das Portemonnaie glüht. Anders als im Casino oder an der Pferderennbahn hat man aber keine Aussicht, sein Geld je wieder zu sehen. Dennoch wächst das Geschäft rasant. (…) Mitte Oktober konnte zudem das Berliner Unternehmen Crowdpark Venture-Kapital-Geber davon überzeugen, 6 Millionen Dollar in die junge Firma zu stecken. (…)

Online (in German)

The German capital has gained a reputation as Europe’s newest start-up hub, and now venture capital firm Earlybird is setting up an office in Berlin to be closer to the firms it wants to invest in. (…)

Video

Berlin’s Crowdpark is announcing today it has raised $6 million for its social betting games business. Crowdpark takes prediction markets and turns them into a social game where you can bet virtual currency on the prediction you believe will come true. (…) “It basically works like a stock market, and we think it’s a game changer,” said Ingo Hinterding, co-founder and chief product officer at Crowdpark, in an interview. “It’s all in real-time and based on real-life events. Whatever happens in real life, you can bet on it.” (…)

Online

Crowdpark, a Berlin-headquartered game developer, announced today that it has raised $6 million in series B financing from top German venture capital firms, Target Partners and existing investor, Earlybird Venture Capital. Waldemar Jantz, partner at Target Partners, will be joining the startup’s board as a result of the investment. The new round of funding brings Crowdpark’s total to $8 million. (…)

Online

Berlin-based social betting game developer Crowdpark has raised a $6 million second round of investment led by Europe’s Target Partners with participation from previous investor Earlybird Venture Capital. This brings the developer’s total funding to $8 million. (…) Crowdpark made some ink earlier this year with Bet Tycoon (formerly titled “Crowdpark – Betting Game”), consistently landing in our top 20 emerging Facebook games category toward the beginning of the summer. (…)

Online

Start-up social games company Crowdpark, which focuses on social betting titles, has secured $6 million in a new round of equity funding, bringing its total funding to $8 million. (…) Ingo Hinterding, co-founder at Crowdpark, explained, “Crowdpark is defining an entirely new genre of social betting games based on actual events.” (…)

Online

So, online gambling is illegal, right? Well, not if you do it right, according to Crowdpark co-founder Ingo Hinterding and COO Christoph Jenke, who just scored another $6 million in funding from European investors Target Partners and Earlybird Venture Capital. (…) Players can also create their own bets and send them to friends for personalized competition. We sat down with the duo recently to learn more about Bet Tycoon, what’s next for the game and how Crowdpark intends to capitalize on what it calls “an entirely new genre of social betting games.” (…)

Online

Crowdpark the most popular betting game on Facebook with over 1 million users, just raised $6 million from Target Partners and Earlybird Venture Capital. The social betting platform lets users wager virtual currency on the outcomes of real-life events, like sports games and elections. (…) Crowdpark says it will use the money to improve the product, create new games, and hire talent. (…)

Online

Berlin-based Crowdpark brings yet another social game genre that allows users to bet and compete against each other in betting events using virtual currency, making it a pioneer in the so-called social betting space. (…) The funds will be used to hire more talent in game design and development, to enhance the technology and develop cross-platform social games. It will allow players to bet on real life sports, entertainment, news, technology and other areas of interest. (…)

Online

Berlin’s cluster of promising social game companies is growing. Crowdpark, a social game developer focused on social betting games, today announced it has secured approximately $6 million (€4 million) in new equity funding from European investors Target Partners and existing investor Earlybird Venture Capital. (…)

Online

Crowdpark, the leading developer focused on social betting games, today announced it has secured approximately $6M USD (€4M) in new equity funding from top European investors Target Partners and existing investor Earlybird Venture Capital. (…) “Crowdpark is defining an entirely new genre of social betting games based on actual events,” said Ingo Hinterding, co-founder and chief product officer for Crowdpark. (…)

Online

Crowdpark, the developer behind social betting game Bet Tycoon, has received $6 million in funding to help expand its business and the betting genre as a whole, with new games, platforms, and technology. When added to previous investments, Crowdpark has now raised $8 million in funding. The Berlin-based developer’s first release, Bet Tycoon, currently has just under half a million monthly active users. The game lets players bet virtual currency on any topic they like, from sports games to entertainment events. (…)

Online

The funds will be used to hire new talent and to further development of this “completely new genre.” Crowdpark, the maker of Bet Tycoon and other, soon-to-be-released social betting games, has received $6 million in additional funding from Target Partners and existing investor Earlybird Venture Capital. (…) To make these games a reality, Crowdpark developed a new technology called Dynamic Betting. “Basically this means that you can bet on anything you like and it works just like the stock market,” Hinterding explained. (…)

Online

Crowdpark, a German company focused on social betting games, has received €4 million in new equity funding from Target Partners and existing investor Earlybird Venture Capital. (…) Crowdpark now aims to use their technology to build games in growth categories such as casino games. It will offer several betting and casino products for social platforms such as Facebook, the Web and mobile applications (iOS and Android). (…)

Online

Facebook games are often compared to gambling because of their addictive qualities that get consumers to spend a few more dollars to continue playing. (…) Today, Berlin-based CrowdPark has announced it had raised $6 million in capital to help fuel a concept of social betting, where people can bet friends on everything from who will win a football game to whether Angelina Joie and Brad Pitt are getting married. (…)

Online