Real-money gaming is now reality in the U.S. with Skillz, a first-of-its-kind multiplayer tournament platform, whivh gives players the chance to compete for real money and virtual currency in mobile games of skill. The platform launched today in beta for Android.

“We’re bringing real-money gaming to the U.S. right now, and we’re the first people to do that,” Andrew Paradise, co-founder and CEO of Skillz, tells Inside Mobile Apps.

Skillz enables games of skill to be played in cash tournaments in 36 states — such as California, New York, Texas and more — as well as virtual currency tournaments in any game worldwide. All a mobile developer has to do to enable cash and free multiplayer tournaments is integrate Skillz’s SDK, which can be implemented in as short as an hour to three work days.

Skillz has come out of stealth with 10 developers with 10 games on board, including Gnarly Games with GnarBike Trials, Spooky House Studios with Bubble Explode, Rocketmind with Big Sport Fishing 3D Lite and more. The first batch of titles run the gamut genre-wise, with genres like endless runners, bubble shooters, mini golf and more.

The obvious question to ask is how did Skillz make real-money gaming legal in the U.S.? The easiest answer is that real-money gaming via a skills competition has been legal for years in most states. First, it’s important to define the difference between a skill versus a chance game. On one end of the spectrum is a skill game like chess and on the other end is a chance game like roulette. The legal definition of a skilled game is if a skilled player predominantly beats an unskilled player about 75 percent of the time. Examples of games of skill where a cash competition is legal include chess tournaments, running marathons, golf tournaments, fishing tournaments, esports tournaments for games like StarCraft 2 and Call of Duty, even the arcade game Golden Tee, and more.

“One of the things we created is a way to statistically verify the level of skill versus chance in a game, and so one of the things we do is plug in these virtual currency tournaments into a given game and then we’ll run virtual currency tournaments and gather data,” Paradise says. “Basically, we can look at how often skilled players beat unskilled players and then determine if a game is skill versus chance.” (more…)

DeNA launches Transformers: Legends — Japanese mobile developer and publisher and toy maker Hasbro announced the launch of Transformers: Legends, an action card battle game for Android and iOS. We first reported on the game when it was still in development under the title Transformers Battle. In the game, players assemble a team of Transformers characters and battle their friends. By completing missions in both the Autobots and Decepticons campaigns players earn credits and recruit new characters to improve their card collection.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment releases Lego: Batman: DC Super Heroes on iOS – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and developer TT Games announced the launch of Lego: Batman: DC Super Heroes, an action adventure title for iOS. The game, previously released on consoles, allows players to join 80 DC super heroes as they take down DC villains in Gotham City. The game is available to download for $4.99 from the iTunes App Store.

Gameloft launches Iron Man 3 – The Official Game – French mobile game developer and publisher Gameloft announced that it has launched Iron Man 3 – The Official Game on Android and iOS devices. The game is an endless runner, or “endless flyer,” in which players take control of Tony Stark, guiding him through the air as he dodges enemies and collects power ups. The game is free to download from the iTunes App Store and Google Play.

Hothead steps up to the plate with Big Win MLB — Developer Hothead Games announced the release of Big Win MLB, a baseball game for iOS and Android devices. The officially licensed game allows users to create a lineup of their favorite baseball players from all 30 teams and compete against friends. The game is available as a free download from the iTunes App Store and Google Play.

Ludia launches The Price Is Right on Facebook — Social and mobile games developer Ludia announced the launch of The Price is Right, a Facebook game based on the popular television gameshow. Players will compete against their friends, as well as with the vast The Price Is Right Bingo online community, matching the randomly drawn numbers with those on their bingo cards in hopes of calling “bingo” in time to make it to Contestants’ Row.

Animoca unleashes Thor: Lord of Storms – Mobile game developer and publisher Animoca (Pretty Pet Salon series, Star Girl, Robo5) announced the launch of Thor: Lord of Storms, an action-strategy defense game based on Norse mythology (not based on the upcoming major motion picture, Thor: The Dark World). The game is available to download for free from Google Play.

Sega launches The House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Reels — Game developer and publisher Sega announced the launch of The House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Reels, a shooter title for iOS and Android based on the game released on Wii in 2009. Developed by Magic Pockets, the game lets players choose between a Story mode where they fight their way through three levels, or Survival mode, where they will face waves of enemies. The House of the Dead: Overkill – The Lost Reels is available to download for $4.99 on Google Play and the iTunes App Store.

Game Insight brings 2020: My Country to Android – Russian mobile and social game developer Game Insight announced that 2020: My Country is now available on Google Play. The game is the sequel the Game Insight’s city management sim My Country, which garnered more than 17 million players from around the world.

Yesterday, during Zynga’s Q1 2013 earning call, CEP Mark Pincus announced the launch of Draw Something 2. The game is available to download for free exclusively on the Apple App Store. An Android version is coming soon.

The first Draw Something was a simple draw-and-guess game where players compete against each other to create pictures based on stimulus words. The game won the award for Best Social Network Game at last night’s Game Developer’s Choice Online Awards ceremony. It was the first time Zynga managed to take home a GDC Online Award, even though its games have been nominated for the past two years.

Draw Something 2 introduces a live feed where players can share, ‘like’ or comment on drawings, and follow friends, artists and celebrities. It also adds a collection of new drawing tools like new patterns, textures and colors.

Television personality Ryan Seacrest first revealed the existence of Draw Something 2 in March, when he posted a screenshot from the game to his Twitter account. Seacrest and Draw Something have long been associated with one another, especially following the revelation that Seacrest was producing a Draw Something-themed gameshow for CBS. Former Zynga vice president and Omgpop CEO Dan Porter was quick to confirm Seacret’s claim that the public was checking out some legit Draw Something 2 artwork, responding with the game’s official logo.

Zynga’s acquisition of Omgpop made some serious headlines last year, especially since the deal was reportedly worth somewhere around $200 million. Earlier this month, shortly after the announcement of Draw Something 2, we also learned that Zynga’s New York office general manager Dan Porter and former CEO and founder of OMGPOP had left Zynga.

“Developing and launching games is a team effort, and we’re proud of the great work the Zynga New York team has done with Draw Something 2,” said Zynga chief operating office David Ko, in a statement. “Our follow up to the original hit is even more social and engaging, and we’re excited to get it into the hands of our players globally. We thank Dan Porter for his efforts in making the Draw Something franchise a success and wish him well in his future endeavors. We’re proud to see talent like Sean Kelly take a bigger leadership role as the head of our New York studio and lead the team to the global launch of Draw Something 2.”

Sean Kelly, who’s been with the company since 2009, stepped in for Porter as the head of Zynga’s New York studio. Kelly’s official title is the vice president of mobile and general manager of Zynga New York, reporting to Zynga’s senior vice president of mobile Travis Boatman.

Inside Social Games will publish a full review of Draw Something 2 soon.

Sega releases Godsrule: War of Mortals on browsers – Game developer and publisher Sega announces that it has released Godrule: War of Mortals on browsers. Godsrule is a free-to-play social strategy game similar to those frequently seen on Facebook and elsewhere on the open Web. The game was previously avilable in open beta. You can read our review of it here.

Former Unity execs announce new studio, tablet game — Framebunker, a games studio founded by Unity Technologies Co-Founder Nicholas Francis and former Unity Creative Director Charles Hinshaw, announced Static Sky, a game for tablets that mixes elements of Diablo, XCOM and Blade Runner. You can read more about the new studio and game on Framebunker’s official website.

Playdemic Launches Quiz Buddies – Social and mobile game developer Playdemic announced the launch of Quizz Buddies, a new, fast-paced trivia game for Facebook and iOS. The game is free to play, but players can spend money to remove the ads or buy more credits with in-app purchases. Inside Social Games readers are probably familiar with Playdemic through its hit games Village Life and Gourmet Ranch.

Chillingo announces Zya – Mobile game develper and publisher and Electronic Art subsidiary Chillingo announced that it will collaborate with Los Angeles-based entertainment developer Music Mastermind to publish a music creation game for iOS titled Zya. The game will allow players to create to mix and mash-up famous tracks to create new ones. Zya will release on phones and tablets this summer.

5th Planet Games hires Mike Thompson — Core mobile and social games developer 5th Planet Games announced that it has hired former gaming industry journalist and Inside Social Games Lead Writer Mike Thompson as its new creative writer. Thompson will be responsible for developing storylines and writing narrative for 5th Planet’s upcoming new titles.

Gameloft launches Dungeon Hunter 4 for Android – French mobile game developer Gameloft launched dungeon crawler Dungeon Hunter 4 for Android this week. Click here for our review of the iOS version of the game.

Former Zynga Boston employee raises $2.25M for new game studio Proletariat – Seth Sivak, a former lead designer from the defunct Zynga Boston office, raised $2.25 million for his new game studio Proletariat. The raised amount in equity funding appeared in an SEC filing. Proletariat’s first release came back in March, with word game Letter Rush for iOS.

Full-service Chinese mobile games publisher Yodo1 announced it has secured $5 million in Series A Funding. The round was led by SingTel Group with additional funding from original investor Chang You Fund.

Yodo1 CEO Henry Fong said in a statement that the main challenge for the company now is keeping up with Western developers eager to join its roster of partners. For this reason, the new funding will be used to expand Yodo1′s production capacity to work with more Western game companies and build the company’s platform and production team.

Yodo1, which came out of stealth in June 2012 with $2 million in seed funding, helps its publishing partners crack the Chinese market by focusing on app store distribution, social distribution, payments and advertising. Yodo1 also does a deep dive into the localization process with a fully-staffed studio of artists and developers who work with Western partners to adapt their games to Chinese tastes.

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Supercell confirmed to Forbes that is had raised another round of funding at $130 million in February on a valuation of $770 million from Index Ventures, Atomico Partners and Institutional Venture Partners.

Index Ventures invested $52.5 million of the total $130 million, with participation by Institutional Venture Partners and Atomico. Accel Partners, an early investor of Supercell, and all shareholders, sold 16.7 percent of their holdings to new investors.

Supercell also shared some revenue figures, telling Forbes it generated $100 million in gross revenue last year and $179 million in just Q1 2013, which translated to $104 million for the first quarter, after Apple’s standard 30 percent cut.

Supercell was once reportedly generating $1 million in gross revenue a day from just its two iOS games — casual farm game Hay Day and village-building title Clash of Clans. Now the Finnish startup makes double that, seeing $2.4 million a day, which places the company at a run-rate of more than $800 million for 2013, with the potential to reach $1 billion, according to Forbes. Supercell also sees about 8.5 million daily active users playings its two titles, who play an average of 10 times per day.

Every time a hot venture capital-backed private company shares its numbers, the same question always arises — why did the company share its financial figures now? Rovio, another Finnish game developer, shared its financial results for 2012 on April 3, reporting that it increased revenues by twofold from €75.6 million ($97.1 million) in 2011 to €152.2 million ($195.5 million) in 2012.

CEO Ilkka Paananen told Forbes that the latest round of funding wasn’t exactly needed, but took the funding as more of an opportunity to give shareholders a quick payout as both a “thank you” for their hard work and to alleviate any pressure to go public any time soon.

Index Ventures, one of the venture capital firms that led this latest round of funding for Supercell, posted a blog post from one of their partners, Neil Rimer, about the deal earlier today.

Paananen told Forbes that Supercell’s plan for the next three years includes moving into Android development, expanding into the lucrative Asian markets, releasing more global hits and “probably” an IPO.

Social-mobile gaming developer Digital Chocolate today launched its first real-money gaming title Slots! Pocket UK for iOS in the U.K.

Powered by real-money gaming platform Betable, Slots! Pocket UK is a slots game that allows U.K. users the option to wager either real money or virtual currency and chips on pulls of the slot machine. Betable first announced its partnership with Digital Chocolate back in November 2012. Digital Chocolate is one of 10 developers so far to partner with Betable for its real-money gaming platform, which is still a private beta program. Betable handles all the real-money aspects of the game on the backend, including compliance, fraud prevention, identity checks, wagering, and gambling results, while Digital Chocolate can focus on the development of the actual game. In order for players to gamble with real money, they must be authenticated with Betable by signing up, depositing money, and more.

“[Betable] helped us leapfrog the whole race into real-money gaming by allowing us to partner with them on their platform, and of course, they have the license in the U.K. to do real-money gaming,” Jason Loia, chief operating officer of Digital Chocolate, told Inside Mobile Apps.

Pangalore announces ZooVale — Social role-playing games developer Pangalore announced ZooVale, a cross-platform HTML5 title featuring animal characters rendered in cartoon-style 2D graphics. The game will allow players to build a village and breed animals to fight an evil witch. The game will be available on desktops and mobile devices via Pangalore’s portal.

Lorne Abony Joins Glu Mobile – Mobile game developer and publisher Glu Mobile announced that Mood Media Corporation’s CEO and Chairman Lorne Abony has joined the company’s board of directors as its chairman of strategy committee. Glu also announced that Matthew Drapkin of Becker Drapkin Partners has stepped down as an Independent Director.

Zynga releases War of the Fallen – The social gaming giant has released its latest card battler game War of the Fallen. It follows Zynga’s previous card game, Ayakashi: Ghost Guild, but is developed specifically with western markets in mind. One way in which the game aims to appeal to new players is by better explaining the underlying rules of the genre that are taken for granted in eastern markets, where card battle and collecting games are more popular. The game also encourages social interaction with Guild Force, a mechanic which boosts the player’s abilities when they connect and play with friends.

TAITO, Square Enix releases Crime Connection — Square Enix subsidiary TAITO announced the release of Crime Connection, a crime-themed city management sim. The game, which will be released worldwide using GREE’s platform, is available to download from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Gemini Rue hits iOS — The award winning indie adventure game developed by Wadjet Eye Games Gemini Rue is now available to download from the Apple App Store for a special price of $3.99 (normally $4.99). Developed by Joshua Nuernberger, Gemini Rue is set in a bleak future dominated by the corrupt Boryokudan crime syndicate. Alternating between ex-assassin Azriel Odin and hospital inmate Delta-Six, players must uncover the secrets both protagonists are guarding and uncover their unlikely bond.

Game Insight launches Battle Towers on Android – Russian game developer and publisher Game Insight announced that it has published strategy game Battle Towers on Android devices. The game is available to download for free from Google Play.

Zynga appoints John Doerr to Board of Directors – The social gaming giant today announced it has appointed John Doerr to its Board of Directors. Doerr started his career at Intel, and has gone on to back companies like Google, Amazon and Intuit. The news comes on the heels of Zynga’s changes to its executives’ compensation packages.

Disney launches Mittens for iOS – Disney Mobile Games and Metro Games have launched Mittens, a physics-based puzzle game. It’s available now as a $0.99 download from the App Store for iPhone or a separate “HD” version for iPad for $2.99, and carries additional in-app purchases to unlock later levels early — and also one additional in-app purchase for an extra level pack that is not part of the main game. Read our full review here.

GSN Digital launches Deal or No Deal Slots on Facebook — The new slots game based on the hit television game show is available through the Games by GSN multi-game portal on Facebook which you can find here.

NAMCO BANDAI released Tekken Card Tournament — The games publisher and developer announced the release of Tekken Card Tournament, a free-to-play card trading game based on the fighting game franchise. The game is currently available to download from the iTunes App Store, Google Play and Amazon App Store.

Ludia and King Features launch Popeye Slots – Social and mobile game developer Ludia and Hearst Media subsidiary King Features partnered to launch Popeye Slots. As its title suggests, the game is a Popeye-themed slots app for iOS. You can download it for free here.

Mode 7 will bring Frozen Synapse to iPad in May – Game developer Mode 7 announced that it will bring its turn-based tactics game Frozen Synapse to iPad in May. The game was originally released on PC and received critical acclaim for its innovative user interface and clever game mechanics. A version for Android tablets will hopefully follow shortly after the iPad release.

Favourit reveals social sports betting platform for iOS – A new social sports betting platform named Favourit launched on iOS. Favourit also revealed that it secured $3.6 million in funding. Favourit allows users to download the app and place their bets, get live scores, follow unique insights into the game from tipsters as well as peers, and track leaderboard rankings. You can download the app for free here.

Social games giant Zynga announced on its official blog today that the its first real money betting games ZyngaPlusPoker and ZyngaPlusCasino will launch tomorrow in the U.K.

As the name implies, ZyngaPlusPoker is an online poker room which offers a variety of games, tournaments and “buy-ins at every level.” ZyngaPlusCasino is comprosed of more than 160 slots games and table games like blackjack, roulette and a FarmVille-themed slots games. Both games are launching with special offers that give players real-money bonuses and free cash on deposit.

Both games will use a single, shared wallet that works with the web versions as well as the downloadable clients. Mobile version of the games are planned for later this year.

We knew that real money betting games from Zynga were going to come out in the U.K. sometime in the first half of 2013 ever since the company announced its partnership with bwin.party, a real money games operator.

This is the second social games partnership for bwin.party, following its deal with sports social game developer Nordeus announced in September. Bwin.party has also set aside $50 million for its own social game development, with the funding being used to establish a new studio called Win. In Feburary, Win launched its first game, Slots Craze, worldwide for Facebook and iOS.

Many have touted the revenue potential of real-money gaming as a means to “save” Zynga from a total collapse of its social games business. Others, though – including Inside Social Games – have expressed skepticism that Zynga’s current non-real money audience could be converted to real-money gamers. At the moment, Zynga’s shares are up by more than 5 percent in After Hours trading since the announcement.