For all the talk about the growing casual gaming market, Nickelodeon is putting its money where its mouth is. Today at the Casual Connect gaming conference being held in Seattle, Washington, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group announced it’s forking out US$100 million over the next two years to develop, produce and distribute casual gaming titles, sites and platforms.

The company’s investment will roll out over the course of the next two years, primarily through 2008 and ’09. And for the first time, the kids entertainment giant is getting into the online subscription service game with preschool targeted myNoggin – a paid site launching this fall where toddlers can play educational games and parents can track their progress – and Nick Gaming Club. Slated to go live in Q1 2008, the sub site will serve older kids and feature multiplayer games, CGI avatars and community-building apps. Also a bit of a departure for Nick is the creation of The-NGames.com, a groundbreaking casual gaming hub focused solely on teen girls that should launch in early 2008.