Rapidly Evolving: Sweden’s Evolution to Buy Out Big Time Gaming for $530 million
Swedish-based live casino and slots provider Evolution have agreed on a deal to buy out one of the world’s most innovative online slots developers, Australia’s Big Time Gaming.
The €450 million-euro ($532 million) deal will see Evolution take over all of the Aussie developer’s operations.
Big Time Gaming is known for developing the popular MegaWays slots format. Its proprietary slot engine gives players hundreds of times more ways to win than your traditional slot games.
Since it published its first MegaWays game, Dragon Born, back in 2016, Big Time has licenced this format out to other developers.
There are now over 200 different slot games from a dozen other studios that pay Big Time to use its engine.
That income stream, coupled with the popularity of the company’s original titles, helped Big Time pull in €33 million ($39.5 million) in revenue in 2020 alone.
Leading Providers
Meanwhile, Big Time Gaming’s new parent company Evolution seems determined to become the undisputed biggest online gambling company in the world.
Last year, it bought out rival Swedish slots and live casino developer NetEnt in a $2 billion deal. This was a purchase so big, it was investigated by competition and market regulators across Europe.
They found nothing wrong in the end, and Evolution seems in no mood to slow down with the acquisitions.
This latest deal for Big Time Gaming will apparently be paid with nearly $100 million in cash issued to Big Time Shareholders, according to Reuters. The rest will be paid in new Evolution stock.
“With the addition of Big Time Gaming to our portfolio of slot brands we strengthen our strategic position as the leading provider of digital casino games in the world”
Evolution chairman Jens von Bahr
“Big Time’s focus on innovation and creating unique playing experiences is a great fit with our culture and mind-set at Evolution” he added.
Nik Robinson, Big Time Gaming’s CEO, had this to say: “Evolution and Big Time Gaming are both driven by innovation, hence the perfect match. A bright and entertaining future awaits for our players!”
With both companies known for being at the forefront of what’s new in the online casino scene over the past few years, from a player’s perspective, we can be very excited about what they come up with.
The same can’t be said about Evolution’s competitors.
Some of those may get a word in before the deal completes, as it will no doubt be subject to regulatory approval in both Sweden (and, by extension, the EU) and Australia.
However, it’s hard to see regulators kicking up a fuss on this one. The buyout is not nearly as big as some of the huge gambling deals that have gone down over the past year.
Caesars’ merger with William Hill and Bally’s recent $2.5 billion buyout of Gamesys are just two examples.
For all the latest mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships in the online casino world, plus a whole lot more, keep checking online.casino !
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