SEATTLE, WA – (March 3, 2009) SmartyCard has partnered with Hidden City Games to offer Bella Sara™ Horseshoes as part of its extensive rewards program, giving children the ability to unlock it by completing age-appropriate learning games and activities.  With the mission of “learn, earn, play,” SmartyCard is a parent-approved website that rewards tweens for educational success.  On the Smartycard website, children are rewarded for completing interactive, educational activities with the most popular toys, games, and access to virtual worlds.  The partnership of Bella Sara with SmartyCard reinforces positive messages, pro-social dialogue, and support that both companies  encourage among children.

 “We are very pleased to combine our universal values of educational achievement and hard work that SmartyCard reinforces for tweens with Bella Sara’s motivational theme,” said Chris Carvalho general manager at SmartyCard. “The Bella Sara demographic makes them a perfect fit for a partnership with our company.”

Dell Monson, Senior Director of Marketing for Hidden City Games, also noted, “We are thrilled to partner Bella Sara fans with SmartyCard to further their educational growth in a fun, interactive manner.  This partnership not only rewards children, but it reassures parents with their children’s educational growth.”  With children’s books, Nintendo and DS Games, puzzles, games, activities, and a television series on the way, Bella Sara’s popularity is sure to motivate children even more to succeed educationally. 

Bella Sara, a magical world of horses, was developed for children ages 5 to 13.  The property has a foundation in trading cards, and has grown to a mainstream international children’s entertainment property.  It was created in Denmark by Gitte Odder Braendgaard.  As a social worker with positive values and a love of children, Braendgaard created a brand with inspirational, meaningful messages and imagination-building game play designed to support child development.  Bella Sara was introduced to North America in 2007 by Peter Adkison, the CEO of Hidden City Games, and taken worldwide shortly after.

The online world of Bella Sara at www.bellasara.com boasts more than 4.3 million registered users and offers interactive stables, games and activities, puzzles, coloring pages, interactive storybooks, customizable cottages, and more.  Over 82 million cards have been sold since the game’s global introduction two years ago.  The brand has since expanded its line to include a depth of children’s products.

Since its debut, Bella Sara has received numerous awards from child development and parenting authorities, including the more recent “Seal of Approval” from the National Parenting Center, the “Toy of the Year” from Creative Child magazine, the “Excellent Product” and “Outstanding Product” designations from iParenting Media, and the “Best Products” award from Dr. Toy.


About Hidden City Games
Hidden City Games, Inc., a venture-backed game publisher headquartered in Seattle, develops and markets games to interactively engage players and collectors of all ages. The company is best known as the exclusive licensor of Bella Sara for girls ages 5 and up. The inspirational, horse-themed trading cards and magical online world launched nationwide in the United States in March of 2007. Bella Sara, the most successful trading card product ever developed for girls, links to a safe, fun-filled virtual world for kids at www.bellasara.com. Founder and CEO Peter D. Adkison formerly founded Wizards of the Coast, Inc., which created the world’s first trading card game, Magic: The Gathering, and introduced the Pokémon trading card phenomenon to North America.


About SmartyCard
SmartyCard is the first learn, earn and play experience to provide real and virtual rewards to tens-of-millions of families that believe learning at home can be fun and rewarding. SmartyCard is for all children -- from those excelling academically and looking for additional challenges, to ones that just need extra help -- the product is designed to encourage a lifelong love of learning.  Based on educational content from industry leaders in e-learning, SmaryCard gives families the opportunity to engage in fun and interactive online games, quizzes and lessons. As kids learn, they earn and redeem points for popular rewards at iTunes, ClubPenguin, WebKinz, Stardoll, Bella Sara, and many more.  SmartyCard’s online learn and earn approach to education reinforces the universal value of hard work and steers children towards a lifetime of educational achievement and success.  SmartyCard is a part of Gazillion Entertainment.  For more information, visit: www.smartycard.com.

San Mateo, Calif., March 26, 2009 – SmartyCard™, the world’s first learn-earn-and-play online games service for tweens, has quickly become a tool for parents who want their tweens to earn access to some of the most popular virtual worlds online today. SmartyCard’s unique system allows kids to earn points by playing interactive educational games and quizzes, which are then redeemed for popular real-world and virtual-world rewards. SmartyCard currently has a catalog of over 200 real and virtual rewards to earn and purchase, and after a fast start, company data shows nearly 85 percent of the points have been redeemed for virtual-world prizes.

“One of the fundamental attractions of SmartyCard is the breadth of available real-world and virtual-world rewards for tweens,” said Chris Carvalho, general manager, SmartyCard. “We expected that the majority of initial rewards earned through SmartyCard would fall in the category of access to virtual worlds and we’re excited that our expectations have been validated by real people using SmartyCard.com to earn rewards. We’re confident that the new partners we’re adding now and in the future will continue to enjoy popularity with our customers.”

Industry experts are watching this trend closely, especially as SmartyCard adds more featured virtual-world selections to the rewards catalog.  Robin Raskin, publisher of popular site Raising Digital Kids, supports the idea that kids now have a means to earn the virtual-world subscriptions their parents are already buying for them.

“Kids can use SmartyCard to learn how to purchase their own virtual stuff, and their currency is learning. Additionally, a virtual reward lets them personalize how they decide to spend. This makes them better consumers of all media,” said Raskin.

Real and virtual reward selections
SmartyCard currently has nine virtual world featured selections.  The services comprising the virtual world selections include:

Bella Sara is an inspirational, horse-themed trading cards and magical online world that offers interactive stables, games and activities, puzzles, coloring pages, interactive storybooks, customizable cottages, and more to girls ages five and up.

Cartoon Doll Emporium is a virtual play land for tweens that features the largest collection of original cartoon dolls online and also features arcade games, cute pictures, contests, a forum, and one of the most unique social networks online.

ClubPenguin™, a division of Disney Online, is a snow-covered, virtual island that offers fun for kids and peace of mind for parents. Children can explore, play games, create and interact in a fun-filled, online playground guided by an unwavering commitment to safety.


Digital Doll House is a virtual world where kids can use their creativity and self-expression to design the house of their dreams.  They have to ability to choose from hundreds of mini furniture pieces, pets, dolls and decor elements and transform an empty house into a place of beauty again and again.

Elf Island is the first virtual world to use gaming, storytelling and social interaction to empower kids to make a positive difference in the real world.

Planet Cazmo is a music-inspired, outerspace-themed virtual world featuring celebrity concerts and environments, parties, videos, games, rich characters and stories.  It connects tweens and young teens from over 170 countries around the world in a safe, moderated online environment.

Stardoll is a premier virtual fashion entertainment destination on the Web for young women focused on fame, fashion and friends and a virtual paperdoll community site for everyone who enjoys fashion, design and making friends. Stardoll’s 28 million users build stunning likenesses of themselves, hone their creatively and browse an extensive collection of garments, accessories and other virtual goods from a variety of real world brands, create their own MeDoll or choose from a growing collection of celebrity dolls and dress them up in a wide selection of fashions.

Webkinz are loveable plush pets that each come with a unique secret code that allows users enter Webkinz World and play with a virtual version of their pet.

ZooKazoo is an online environment of imaginary and adventurous destinations where children 6 through 12 can safely hang out, have fun, and even make their world a better place.

Tweens can also earn more than 200-plus real-world rewards, including: iTunes, Wii Games, popular books, movies and DVDs.

What virtual world companies are saying about SmartyCard
“SmartyCard has developed a remarkably creative and positive way for tweens to learn and to have fun doing so," said Matt Palmer, executive vice president and general manager at Stardoll.  "We are excited to collaborate with them and believe that the 12 million users who visit the Stardoll community each month will enjoy what SmartyCard has to offer."

“SmartyCard is redefining the way kids learn through technology," said Evan Bailyn, CEO of Cartoon Doll Emporium (CDE).  "They understand the kind of rewards kids really desire nowadays, which are quite different from what kids were asking for even five years ago.  That is why CDE believes so strongly in its partnership with SmartyCard."

“Elf Island’s partnership with SmartyCard gives us another opportunity to grow and expand our user base through a new channel where we know tweens are active online,” said Craig Kronenberger, co-founder and president at Elf Island.  “The relationship with SmartyCard is win-win, and we are excited to bring Elf Island’s Gaming for Good to tweens who have earned their way to play.”

“We are thrilled to partner Bella Sara fans with SmartyCard to further their educational growth in a fun, interactive manner,” said Dell Monson, senior director of marketing for Hidden City Games.  “This partnership not only rewards children, but it reassures parents with their children’s educational growth.”

“SmartyCard is a terrific combination of educational content, easy to use interface and wonderful graphic design,” said Jesyca C. Durchin, CEO and founder of Digital Dollhouse/Digital PlaySpace.  “As both parents and software developers, we are excited to be involved with SmartyCard and feel it is going to be a great platform for our business and more importantly something we can recommend to our friends for their kids too.”

“Planet Cazmo’s partnership with SmartyCard is an amazing chance for us to expand our rapidly growing user base, and expose new tweens and young teens to Cazmo’s many exciting features, including our virtual concerts with major music acts and virtual goods,” said Michael Levine, president and founder of Planet Cazmo.  “Cazmo is dedicated to a safe online environment and our relationship with SmartyCard is a great way for kids to earn their way to play there.”

"ZooKazoo is thrilled to be teaming up with SmartyCard,” said David Dwyer, COO at ZooKazoo.  “When choosing ZooKazoo, kids will be rewarded with countless adventures and fun interactions where the learning continues."

About SmartyCard games and rewards
Through SmartyCard, children explore subjects via quizzes and problem sets, pursuing point values awarded according to level of difficulty and contingent upon answering seven-out-of-ten activity questions correctly. SmartyCard lesson content is homegrown and developed in partnership with several leading online educational content providers to ensure that SmartyCard games engage kids in a learning experience that encourages imaginative thinking outside of the classroom. Parents fund these activities by buying and depositing points directly into their child’s account.  Friends, family and parents can buy points for a child through SmartyCard virtual cards, and, starting later this year, SmartyCard gift cards will be available for purchase at retail through big box retailers and major grocery store and drug store chains. 

About SmartyCard
SmartyCard is the first learn-earn-and-play experience to provide real and virtual rewards to tens of millions of families that believe learning at home can be fun and rewarding. Utilizing homegrown games and educational content from industry leaders, SmartyCard gives families the opportunity to engage in fun and interactive online games, quizzes and lessons. As kids learn, they earn and redeem points for popular rewards from popular online destinations like iTunes®, ClubPenguin™, WebKinz, Stardoll, Bella Sara, and many more.  SmartyCard’s online learn-and-earn approach to education reinforces the universal value of hard work and steers children towards a lifetime of educational achievement and success. SmartyCard is a Gazillion, Inc. company.  To learn more or to begin playing, visit www.smartycard.com.

SmartyCard is a trademark of Gazillion, Inc. All other trademarks and copyright terms are the property of their respective owners.