Kabam has made a big new bet on its hardcore social gamer thesis, today announcing an $85 million fourth round of funding co-led by Google Ventures and Pinnacle Ventures, with Performance Equity and SK Telecom Ventures as well as existing investors also participating.

We’d reported the gist of this story in early April, although Kabam didn’t comment at the time.

The company has transitioned over the years from making lightweight apps for sports and television shows to building hardcore games. Although it’s not at the top of the charts in terms of traffic, the developer is widely believed to be making a healthy profit from serious gamers who want the social interaction and the relatively access that Kabam offers through the Facebook platform.

As of today, it has a stable 954,000 daily active users and 7.17 million monthly active users, according to our stats tracking service, AppData.

Previous investors include Canaan Partners, Redpoint Ventures and Intel Capital. The company has already raised nearly $40 million in venture funding.