Ciarán O’Leary ist im Juli 1980 in Irland geboren. In Berlin betreut er unter anderem die Start-ups Crowdpark und Madvertise. (…)

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Companies such as Ryzing Bingo, Crowdpark, Fanduel and others have been successfully using the virtual currency and fantasy betting model to monetize social gamblers, offering a legal alternative to markets where wagering is not allowed.

Online

Yay, here I am :) I only just graduated from the Games Academy, and joined the Crowdpark team one week ago, so I’m still freshly hatched! At first it was very exciting because I didn’t know anyone apart from Jakob, whom I’d met two years ago while studying at the same school.

However it wasn’t long before I felt like I was in good hands. I immediately realized how friendly and helpful everyone is, especially when you have questions or get stuck somewhere. That makes it all so much easier in the first few days. Nearly every day at Crowdpark there is a relaxed atmosphere and you need that while working.

To mention some of the highlights, there’s a welcoming little kitchen with Mr. Coffee (seems like no one can live without him!) and the kicker table, which I love the most. It’s pretty amazing to just take a little break and play kicker with your friends. :) It gives you time to relax (or maybe not, if you lose! haha), and get a break from the monitor.

So yeah, I really like it here. Lucky me. :) Let’s see where it takes me!

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. (…)

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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. (…)

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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. (…)

Online

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. (…)

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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. (…)

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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

Crowdpark, a developer of social betting games, has raised $6 million in new financing. Target Partners and Earlybird Venture Capital provided the round, which brings the company’s total financing to $8 million. The company will use the round to add to staff and continue and product development. (…)

Online

Crowdpark, a startup developer focused on social betting games, today announced investments totaling about $6 million from Target Partners and existing investor Earlybird Venture Capital. This brings the Berlin-based company’s total amount of funding to approximately $8 million. Waldemar Jantz, partner at Target Partners, will also join the board of Crowdpark. (…)

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. (…) Based in Berlin, Crowdpark just introduced its next generation “dynamic betting” technology, which serves as a real-time marketplace for these types of bets. (…)

Online

Crowdpark GmbH has raised a $6 million Series B round of funding for social betting games where players wager virtual currency on real-life events. (…)

Online
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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. This brings Crowdpark’s total funding to $8 million USD. (…)

Online

Social-betting gaming website Crowdpark announced Wednesday that it’s secured $6 million in capital from Target Partners and Earlybird Venture Capital, bringing their total funding to $8 million.
The Berlin, Germany-based startup plans to use the money to build upon its 20-person staff, particularly in its new offices in San Francisco, and develop casino-styled games for Facebook. (…)

Online

Überraschung am späten Mittwochnachmittag: Der Berliner Social-Gaming-Anbieter Crowdpark (www.crowdpark.com) verkündet mal eben den Abschluss einer millonenschweren Finanzierungsrunde. Target Partners und Earlybird statten das Jungunternehmen in einer Series-B-Finanzierungsrunde mit stattlichen vier Millionen Euro aus. (…)

Online (in German)

Crowdpark has brought its funding total to $8 million, after recently securing $6 million from European investors Target Partners and Earlybird Venture Capital. (…)

Online

Nächste Games-Erfolgsstory made in Berlin: Das erst 2009 gegründete Startup Crowdpark aus Berlin, das bislang v.a. durch das Facebook-Spiel “Bet Tycoon” bekannt ist, hat sich 4 Mio Euro Risikokapital gesichert und will damit vor allem seine Expansion in Richtung Mobile Games vorantreiben. Das Geld, das von Target Partners und Earlybird kommt, soll u.a. in die Entwicklung eines neuen Sportwetten-Spiels fließen, das für mobile Endgeräte konzipiert ist und binnen der nächsten drei Monate erscheinen soll. (…)

Online (in German)

Crowdpark brings legal betting to the world of social gaming. Unlike any other social games company, its new betting model allows users to compete against each other in betting events, using virtual currency. Crowdpark has pioneered social betting, applying its patented “dynamic betting” technology that enables forecasts in social gaming in real-time similar to how people play the stock market. Crowdpark products offer players the opportunity to bet on real life events in sports, entertainment, business, politics and other topics. For more information about Crowdpark’s approach to betting, see the “Dynamic Betting: The Technology Behind Crowdpark’s Social Betting Engine” white paper.

“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. “Two of Europe’s leading VC firms – Target Partners and Earlybird – share our vision. We aim to extend our growth and build amazing games based on our dynamic betting technology, and in other hot growth categories such as casino games.”

Investment Funds New Genre in Gaming: Social Betting
The funding will be used to enhance the technology, develop cross-platform, create new games, and hire more talent in game design and development. Crowdpark will offer several betting and casino products for multiple social platforms including Facebook, the Web and mobile applications (iOS and Android). The first product, “Bet Tycoon,” currently has around half a million monthly active users (MAU) (source: AppData.com) and is the most popular betting game on Facebook. Players choose from a variety of answer options, and can bet with virtual money. Players love the real-time nature of the game because it means they can change their bet at anytime, as the event or news unfolds.

Social Bets Reflect Current Events
Bets include questions about the future on topics ranging from current events in sports (‘Primera División: FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid’) and politics (‘Obama’s approval rating 19th October’) to technology and entertainment/gossip (‘Will Prince Harry marry Pippa?’). Updated weekly, the Crowdpark Social Betting Index reveals more insights on the top-trending bets.

Waldemar Jantz of Target Partners shares his conviction about the significant growth potential of social betting games: “Crowdpark’s technology, and its idea of bringing legal betting to different platforms, is unique. They bring together the elements of a successful company: the right team, new technology and the chance to disrupt the social games market.”

“We invested in Crowdpark because we liked the idea of bringing betting to the social arena and thus tapping into three huge markets – where social and mobile gaming meet online betting,” said Dr. Christian Nagel, co-founder and managing partner at Earlybird. “Within one year, the Crowdpark team has achieved leadership in this space through innovation and diligent execution. We felt very confident in investing in Crowdpark again to support further growth.”

Crowdpark’s significant market opportunity reaches across the large online betting market ($24B), social gaming market ($4B) and mobile gaming market ($8B). Founded in 2009, Crowdpark has an experienced team led by Martin Frindt, Ingo Hinterding and Christoph Jenke. Crowdpark’s executive bench strength reflects expertise in: electronic prediction markets; product development design and social game mechanics, marketing and operations.

The Berlin Edge
With Crowdpark’s base in Berlin, the company benefits from being at the nexus of Europe’s Silicon Valley and its digital entertainment and creative gaming hub. It is one of Europe’s most creative cities, having attracted a cluster of gaming companies and events. Additionally, Berlin boasts more than 130 game developers, service providers, and publishers – the perfect ecosystem to further attract gaming talent.

Internet-Startup und frisch geschlüpfter Socialgames-Anbieter Crowdpark hat ein Vier-Millionen-Investment erhalten. Die Münchner VC-Gesellschaft Target Partners und der bestehende Investor Earlybird bringen durch diese zweite Finanzierungsrunde die Gesamtfinanzierungssumme auf sechs Millionen Euro. Das zwei Jahre alte Startup hat auf die bestehende Plattform Crowdpark.de, bei der in Echtzeit und mit dynamischen Quoten auf reale Ereignisse gewettet werden kann, das Facebook-Spiel “Bet Tycoon” aufgesetzt. (…)

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I recently spoke with Crowdpark, an interesting startup that allows Facebook users to wager virtual currency on football games, elections, or anything they want. (…) Our technology is derived from prior business in developing algorithms to predict pricing in B2B markets, used by large companies. There will be mobile versions of its social gaming apps so that people can make bets while they are at a game or anywhere they find themselves. (…)

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Social betting games developer Crowdpark will look to develop several betting and casino products for multiple social platforms including Facebook after the company secured approximately US$6m in new equity funding from 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. (…)

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Berlin-based ‘social betting’ game developer Crowdpark has scored $6m from European venture capitalists betting that Facebookers are looking for alternatives to growing crops in Farmville and playing Zynga Poker. Opening up their wallets this time around were Target Partners and original investors Earlybird Venture Capital, with Target Partners’ Waldemar Jantz earning a spot on Crowdpark’s board of directors. (…)

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Wieder ein Berliner Spiele-Unternehmen mit Millionenfinanzierung. Der Social-Gaming-Anbieter Crowdpark (www.crowdpark.de) hat sich in einer Series-B-Finanzierungsrunde insgesamt vier Millionen Euro von der Münchner Venture Capital-Gesellschaft Target Partners (www.targetpartners.de) und dem bestehenden Investor Earlybird (www.earlybird.com) Venture Capital gesichert. (…)

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Das 2009 in Berlin gegründete SocialGames-Unternehmen Crowdpark konnte vor Kurzem eine Finanzierungsrunde von 4 Millionen Euro abschließen. Der Berliner SocialGames-Entwickler Crowdpark verkündete gestern den Abschluss einer vier Millionen Euro Finanzierungsrunde. Investiert wurde das Geld von Target Partners und dem bereits bestehenden Investor Earlybird Venture Capital. Die gesamte Finanzierungssumme beläuft sich damit auf rund sechs Millionen Euro. (…)

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Der Berliner Social-Gaming-Anbieter Crowdpark hat sich in einer Series-B- Finanzierungsrunde insgesamt vier Millionen Euro von der Münchner Venture-Capital-Gesellschaft Target Partners und dem bestehenden Investor Earlybird Venture Capital gesichert. Die gesamte Finanzierungssumme beläuft sich damit auf rund sechs Millionen Euro. (…)

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Die Münchner Venture Capital-Gesellschaft Target Partners hat sich zusammen mit dem bestehenden Investor Earlybird Venture Capital in einer Series-B-Finanzierungsrunde mit insgesamt vier Millionen Euro an Crowdpark beteiligt. Die gesamte Finanzierungssumme beläuft sich damit auf rund sechs Millionen Euro. Crowdpark ist auf dem Gebiet der Social Betting Games tätig. Crowdparks erstes Social Betting-Spiel „Bet Tycoon“ hat derzeit etwa eine halbe Million aktive Spieler pro Monat und ist den Angaben zufolge das beliebteste Wettspiel auf Facebook. (…)

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位于柏林的博彩社交游戏公司Crowdpark于日前获得了第二轮总计高达600万美元的融资。此笔融资由位于欧洲的Target Partners公司领投，其他参与者包括先前曾投资过Crowdpark公司的投资商Earlybird风投公司。此笔融资的完成也使得Crowdpark公司总融资数上升到800万美元。Crowdpark公司旗下游戏Bet Tycoon（原名Crowdpark–Betting Game）曾在今年初受到了Facebook玩家的广泛好评。该游戏在今夏时常跻身Facebook新兴游戏榜。Bet Tycoon这款游戏的一大亮点在于玩家可以为任何事情下注，小到体育比赛博彩，大到流行时事主题。玩家通过使用Facebook Credits换取游戏内大量虚拟货币，并使用这些虚拟货币进行博彩。值得一提的是，由于Facebook相关政策和各国法律法规限定，即使玩家在游戏中赢得了大量的虚拟货币，这些货币也不能被兑换成Facebook Credits。(…)

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位于柏林的博彩社交游戏公司Crowdpark于日前获得了第二轮总计高达600万美元的融资。此笔融资由位于欧洲的Target Partners公司领投，其他参与者包括先前曾投资过Crowdpark公司的投资商Earlybird风投公司。此笔融资的完成也使得Crowdpark公司总融资数上升到800万美元。(…)

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Android tablets are getting a well-deserved boost with the launch of Ice Cream Sandwich. (…) Encouraging an entire sub-market for the gaming industry, Android devices will also be part of Crowdpark’s distribution strategy around legal betting games. The game publisher raised $8 million in a funding round this week, jump-starting its plans to launch social betting games across mobile devices and networking sites. Based on its virtual currency, Crowdpark is placing its own bets on this cross-platform strategy, following the success of Zynga Poker and others with their own spin on the game. (…)

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I dok čekamo da se carstvo virtualnih igara na Facebooku zvano Zynga konačno ukaže na Njujorškoj burzi – čini se da jedan njemački startup u svojim rukama ima novu tvornicu novca i to ne onog virtualnog…
Kompanija koja razvija zanimljivu Facebook virtualnu kladionicu Crowdpark objavila je kako je osigurala ulaganje teško 6 milijuna dolara uz pomoć kojeg će nastaviti razvijati svoj inovativni proizvod. Ukratko – riječ je o virtualnoj kladionici na kojoj se s drugim igračima možete kladiti na događaje iz stvarnog svijeta. (…)

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Crowdpark is a Berlin-based company that creates social betting games which allow players to make bets in real time on anything going on in the world around them. (…) Crowdpark’s Bet Tycoon is currently only available on the Web but the company plans to begin releasing mobile games soon for Android and iOS. (…)

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Berlin-based social betting games developer Crowdpark has secured approximately six million dollars in new equity funding from European investor Target Partners and existing backer Earlybird Venture Capital. Established in 2009 Crowdpark revealed that it has now raised around eight million dollars that will be used to further develop cross-platform technology, create new games and hire additional design and development staff. (…)

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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. (…)

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Crowdpark hat sich in einer Series-B Finanzierungsrunde insgesamt vier Millionen Euro von der Münchner Venture Capital-Gesellschaft Target Partners und dem bestehenden Investor Earlybird Venture Capital gesichert. Die gesamte Finanzierungssumme beläuft sich damit auf rund sechs Millionen Euro. Damit kann das rasante Wachstum des Berliner Social-Gaming-Unternehmens weitergehen. Waldemar Jantz, Partner von Target Partners, wird den Beirat von Crowdpark ergänzen. (…)

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Schon seit April kann man Bet Tycoon auf Facebook spielen. Wetten mit virtuellem Geld und gegen seine Freunde stehen hoch im Kurs. Die Spieler zocken auf ganz legalem Weg und haben viel Spaß dabei. (…) Bet Tycoon ermöglicht das Herausfordern seiner Freunde und den steten Wettkampf um die besten Plätze auf der Rangliste. Wer sein Können unter Beweis stellen will, kann dies mit Spielgeld tun und sich eine gute Position erarbeiten. Jede gewonnene Wette bringt Punkte. (…)

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A Q&A with Crowdpark co-founder and COO Christoph Jenke. The Berlin–based company was founded in April of 2009. (…) SUB: What differentiates Crowdpark from your competitors? Jenke: We’re experts and completely focused on social betting games. Our products are based on current events and the bets happen real-time. Much of the excitement of Crowdpark’s games derives from its patent pending “dynamic betting” technology that enables forecasts in social gaming—in real-time—similar to how people play the stock market. (…)

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Have fun and best of luck to you!

The start-up scene in the capital is booming like never before. This new start-up-generation doesn’t just want to copy successful US-ideas, but also wants to create something new. Investors already praise Berlin as the new Silicon Valley. (…) They apply at a new generation of German start-ups, like Researchgate or Crowdpark, Wooga or 6Wunderkinder. They all experiment with their own ideas and by now even convince investors to join. (…)

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Whenever someone does the financial analysis for his own company, at some point he will end up asking himself how to finance essential investments. (…) “In talks with various VC-corporations we discovered that the term venture capital investor was a little bit misleading for a few people”, says Martin Frindt, CEO of the Parklabs GmbH, in retrospect. “We might have expected that we could finance only a smaller scenario. In Earlybird we found an investor that was willing to take a risk with us. (…)

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Interview with Ingo Hinterding, Founder and Managing Director Crowdpark, at European iGaming Congress & Expo, Milan.

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Stefan just moved to Berlin and joined the team a year ago. He has a graduate degree in Finance and in Media Management and is responsible for controlling and business development at Crowdpark.

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Paris born, Boston raised, Clara moved to Berlin in September 2011 to try her luck in the world’s most energetic and creative city. She caught the social betting bug, and is busily spreading the love of her new obsession as a Public Relations Manager.

Andre joined Crowdpark in September 2010. He is from Berlin and has graduated in Business Administration. Currently he is responsible for Facebook marketing.

Ines joined the Crowdpark-Family in October 2011 and supports the team as an Online Marketing Manager. She has been living in Berlin for 4 years and continuously fights against her chocolate- and coffee addiction.

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Ricard is a Spain-born Barcelona fan with a British accent and has a Masters degree in digital production. He’s responsible for Crowdpark’s 2nd Screen strategy.

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Francis is originally from the Philippines, but has lived in Germany for the last 18 years. He specializes in technology development here at Crowdpark.

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Tino is born and raised in Berlin where he created an early passion for designing interfaces which led eventually to all kind of web developments. He received a Bachelor in Tourism Management, diggs electronic music and loves challenges.

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Alexander has worked for more than 11 years in the gaming industry on over 80 projects. He is familiar with several different platforms including Browser, iPhone, Nintendo DS and Wii. He now works as game developer and project manager at Crowdpark, having joined the team in August 2011.

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Anja joined the Crowd in September 2011 as a Game Artist. Since then, she has been sweeping her digital brush across our games to make them even more fabulous with cool new graphics.

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Sammy has only recently moved to the capital. Over the last 5 years, he worked as a Concept Artist, Motion Graphics Artist and Illustrator for gaming companies and will from now on enhance Crowdpark games with his amazing graphics.

Inbar has only recently moved to Berlin from Israel with her pug and her iMac. She studied graphic design and illustration in Tel Aviv. As an intern at Crowdpark, she’s going to use her special vector powers to make awesome graphics.

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Jakob has been studying at the Games Academy where he designed his first game for the Nintendo DS. After working on one of the first 3D MMORPGs on Facebook, he decided to rule the social game market and joined the Crowdpark team in October this year.

Chris found his way to Berlin to get a better understanding of how Game Design and Social Networks can work together. As an intern at Crowdpark, he seeks to gain more experience while finishing his studies at the Macromedia University for Media.

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Daryl is originally from Berlin, but attended University in the US where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology. Now he’s responsible for the support and quality assurance of Crowdpark’s Facebook games.

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Sascha studied Business & Information Systems at Dresden University of Technology with a focus on ERP and Data Mining. While still at university, he co-founded and worked as managing director of the German IT service provider Mediado, developing e-commerce solutions for medium-sized companies. After graduation, Sascha worked with McKinsey & Company for four years. As a consultant and team leader he focused on supporting clients in the High-Tech and Telecommunications sectors.

In 2011, Sascha founded Analyx Ventures, the seed engagement arm of Analyx, supporting passionate entrepreneurs in Central Eastern Europe, Western Europe and North America.

His most successful exits include: Tipp24 (IPO Prime Standard FSE: TIM); Interhyp (IPO Prime Standard FSE: IYP); and Trade Sale BridgeCo to SMSC (NASDAQ: SMSC).

Christian is a board member of Crowdpark, Lumics, madvertise, Smava and Yoom.

Between 1984 and 1999, Waldemar worked with TVM Capital, first heading the TVM office in Boston, then serving as Managing Partner in Munich. Over the course of his career, Waldemar has invested in more than 30 technology companies, eight of which went public on NASDAQ, “Neuer Markt” or the Zurich Stock Exchange. From 1979 to 1984, he worked in technical and marketing positions at two German computer firms. Waldemar has a degree in business.

Waldemar is a supervisory board member at Cube Optics AG and Locanis AG, as well as a board member at Dacos Software GmbH. He was also responsible for Target Partners' investment in NaWoTec GmbH which was sold to Carl Zeiss AG in 2005.

Brendon has worked at Crowdpark since October 2010, as a Graphic Designer and Web Developer. He has a Bachelor of Media degree, and comes from Australia.

Martin Frindt is Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Crowdpark, is responsible for strategy, marketing and finance. Martin Frindt obtained his degree in Business Administration and Engineering from Dresden University of Technology and was Co-Founder of the YOUNI mobile (MVNO, E-Plus Group). Martin is online 24/7 and even his thesis dealt with the monetization of Internet-based business models. He writes a blog at www.martinfrindt.net.

Ingo Hinterding, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Crowdpark, is responsible for product development and strategy. Ingo studied Interface and Information Design at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences. Since then, he has had over 10 years of experience in concept development and Flash games design. The proud owner of a vast collection of video consoles and vintage computers, Ingo's whole life revolves around games.

Christoph Jenke is Chief Operating Officer of Crowdpark. He is responsible for the company’s day-to-day operations, including corporate and business development, HR, PR and the editorial department. Christoph held various positions in business development, M&A, and media sales at big media companies such as Holtzbrinck and Axel Springer. He graduated from Germany’s most prestigious law school, Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, and also received a master’s degree in American Studies and Journalism from the University of Leipzig. Christoph loves to travel and has lived, studied and worked in the most beautiful cities in the world: Lisbon, Barcelona, New York, Rio de Janeiro and now: Berlin.

Aleksandar Ivanov is Co-founder of Crowdpark and our Chief Scientist. He graduated with a degree in Macroeconomics from Dresden University of Technology and then went on to lead method research at Analyx, an analytic consultancy company. An expert in electronic prediction markets (EPMs), he is the mastermind behind Crowdpark’s patented “dynamic betting” algorithm. There is nothing Alex could not put into an Excel file. When not working on new algorithms, Alex is jamming out with his hard rock band.

Susann has lived in Berlin for 4 years now and has worked for Crowdpark since September 2010. She is the Editor in Chief and our best kicker player.

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Having an analytical background in physics and business, Yasemin has joined the Crowdpark team as Turkish editor in January 2012. For someone who spends most of her day in front of the computer, this job came as a topper on the cake. She spends her free time chasing after exhibitions and music events.

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Patricia loves the crazy Berlin city. She is coming from the south and sunny side of Spain and is our new editor since November 2011.

There will be a big name change this morning! From now on our Facebook Game will be called Bet Tycoon!

As you can see in the picture above, we will have a new game logo and a new loading screen, as well as many other exciting changes to come.

So next time you’re playing your favourite betting game, don’t be confused, when the words „Bet Tycoon“ and a flying helicopter are greeting you. You haven’t got lost! You’re still in the right place: at Facebook’s most successful
betting game, Bet Tycoon!

Since the Middle Ages people have bet on all sorts of different things, be it the stock market, soccer or things of a private nature. CrowdPark, the Social Forecasting Game, is an innovative extension of the traditional bet sport in form of dynamic betting. Under the motto, ‘Waiting is just so yesterday‘ CrowdPark offers to change a stake whenever you want and feel like, without having a limit. (…)

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Just like Wunderlist reached Crowdpark the 1-Million-User milestone. But to break the million just after half the time Twitter needed is already a good sign.

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