Dreamstime/Csaba Peterdi Scientific Games recently found buyers for the sports betting and lottery arms of its business. Its plan in selling them off was to focus more on iGaming, so we expected to see some online casino-related announcements in the near future. As it turns out, we didn’t have to wait long.
The company announced today that it has acquired Authentic Gaming , with the plan of entering the US live dealer casino market.
According to the press release, live dealer games make up 30% of the iGaming market in Europe. By contrast, they’ve only been around for a few years in the US but are steadily increasing in popularity. Evolution Gaming has enjoyed an effective monopoly over such products for most of that time, having acquired its only competitor early on. That time is now coming to an end.
Dylan Slaney, Scientific Games’ CEO of iGaming, said this about the deal: “As a result of welcoming Authentic to Scientific Games, we will be uniquely positioned to continue to excite and entertain players to capture both the growth opportunities that exist within Live Casino and the convergence of players globally across digital and land-based channels by providing leading immersive experiences. We are excited to work with the talented team at Authentic to enhance our iGaming proposition for both operators and players.” The company’s investors seem ambivalent about the news. Scientific Games stock gained in value today, but by less than 1%. What Scientific Games is buying
Authentic Gaming was hitherto a privately owned company. Because of that, the announcement doesn’t include much detail about the terms of the acquisition, such as the purchase price.
It’s the second time in two years that the company has changed hands. Formerly a subsidiary of LeoVegas, it sold to Genting Online for €15 million in 2019. LeoVegas, in turn, had acquired it about three years earlier for less than half that price.
Authentic, based in Malta like many gaming companies, hasn’t made landfall in the US yet. However, its products are offered by over 30 European operators , including some with a US presence like Entain, 888 […]
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