Shares of Zynga (NYSE:ZNGA) may be down 42% since the company's IPO, but some bullish analysts are betting the online games maker will be this year's comeback kid as it diversifies and discovers ways to profit from legal online gambling.

Of the 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, five are strongly encouraging clients to buy Zynga, up from just two three months ago, while six have a "buy" rating on the gaming giant and 10 have a "hold" rating.

The upbeat views on Zynga come as it continues to diversify from Facebook (NYSE:FB) and creates a gaming hub through Zynga.com. The optimism also follows reports that Zynga is looking into ways to capitalize on legal online gambling.

Zynga, which got its start with Texas HoldEm in 2007, saw its top-line surge after its avatar farm game "Farmville" went viral on Facebook and Poker started to pick up in Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS App Store, leading to a $1 billion initial public offering in December.