Interactive
Israel – Bally buys Israel’s Dragonplay for $100m
By Phil - 6 June 2014
Bally Technologies will part with US$100m to purchase Dragonplay, a leading online social casino company headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Bally will be taking over Dragonplay’s top-grossing applications for Android, as well as a significant presence on Facebook and Apple iOS.
Launched in 2010, Dragonplay ranks among the 10 top-grossing game developers in the social casino genre with approximately 700,000 daily active users and nearly 3m monthly active users across all platforms. In the Card category on Google Play, Dragonplay’s poker game Live Hold’em Pro is ranked number one in the top-grossing category whilst in the Casino category on Google Play, Dragonplay Slots is a top 10 performer in terms of active users.
Bally’s Chief Executive Officer Richard Haddrill, said: “With over three years of topping various performance charts on Google Play, Dragonplay has successfully and consistently demonstrated its ability to acquire, monetize and retain social gamers by creating compelling games with staying power in the social casino space. We expect this strategic acquisition to help position Bally at the forefront of social casino gaming by leveraging our world-class content, including proprietary table games and award-winning video slots, on Dragonplay’s increasingly popular social casino. Additionally, with the majority of its revenues generated from smartphones and tablets, Dragonplay has proven remarkable foresight and leadership in the mobile space, which is the fastest growing segment of social gaming.”
Total consideration includes approximately $51m in upfront cash, plus the amount of net working capital, payable to Dragonplay’s shareholders in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding equity, and approximately $49m in additional earn-out consideration and employee retention payments over the next 18 months subject to Dragonplay meeting certain financial performance targets. Bally expects to fund the transaction from cash on hand and proceeds from its revolving credit facility. For the 12 months ended March 31, 2014, Dragonplay generated over $10m in EBITDA.
Dragonplay’s Chief Executive Officer Sharon Tal, added: “Dragonplay and Bally share complementary cultures focused on innovation and user experience. Both companies are committed to providing unique and stimulating content to players across the globe that enjoy playing entertaining casino-style games. I am confident that leveraging Bally’s vast library of proven slot and proprietary table game content will provide our loyal player base with an even more robust experience, which is expected to augment Dragonplay’s growth trajectory.”
Subject to completion of certain customary closing conditions, Bally expects to close the acquisition of Dragonplay in July 2014 and expects the acquisition to be accretive to Bally’s fiscal 2015 adjusted earnings per share.
