GGRAsia – Scientific Games acquires social game developer Spicerack

Scientific Games acquires social game developer Spicerack

Apr 12, 2017 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, World

Casino equipment maker and lottery services provider Scientific Games Corp has strengthened its social casino offering with the acquisition of Spicerack Media Ltd, developer of the Bingo Showdown game.

Scientific Games said the addition of Spicerack would complement its portfolio of social casino games and mobile offerings. “The acquisition will be immediately accretive to earnings and cash flow,” Scientific Games said in a press release on Tuesday. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are excited by the addition of Spicerack’s talented team and complementary nature of their successful bingo game offering to our expanding portfolio of rapidly growing social casino apps,” said Barry Cottle, chief executive of SG Interactive, in a statement.

He added: “The acquisition will be immediately accretive and provide additional momentum in the mobile gaming space.”

Bingo Showdown, Spicerack’s leading product, constitutes a large majority of Spicerack’s revenue. According to Tuesday’s press release, the tournament-based title Bingo Showdown was a top-five social bingo title in 2016, and has seen increased growth and market share gains each quarter since its launch.

Privately-held mobile and social game developer Spicerack was founded in 2007 and is based in Tennessee, in the United States.

Davy Campano, one of the founders of Spicerack Media, commented: “We are excited to bring our product portfolio into a company with the reputation of Scientific Games. Their interactive business has seen rapid growth over a sustained period of time, and we are proud to be joining such a successful part of the company.”

Scientific Games in September had designated the company’s wholly-owned interactive social gaming subsidiaries as unrestricted subsidiaries under its debt agreements. The move was made to “maximise growth” in the company’s interactive segment.

Scientific Games in March said total revenue for its interactive segment increased by 51.9 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2016, to US$91.6 million.

“A third-party report estimates that the rapid growth of SG Interactive in its B2C [business-to-consumer] business has led to five consecutive quarters of outperforming the social casino market, including fourth quarter 2016 year-over-year growth that was five times the social gaming industry growth,” the company said in its fourth quarter earnings release.