Interactive

US – Bragg Gaming snaps up Wild Streak game studio in Las Vegas

By Phil - 3 June 2021

Bragg Gaming Group has bought Wild Streak Gaming, a Las Vegas, Nevada based content creation studio with a portfolio of 39 premium casino slot titles supported across online and land-based applications.

Bragg signed a purchase agreement to acquire all of the outstanding membership interests of Wild Streak in a cash and stock transaction for a purchase price of approximately US$30m. Pursuant to the Transaction, which closed simultaneously with the signing of the purchase agreement, the sellers of Wild Streak received US$10m in cash at closing and will receive USD20 million worth of common shares of Bragg over the next three years, subject to acceleration in the event of a change of control.

Together with the pending acquisition of Spin Games, announced in May, the transaction serves to advance Bragg’s acquisition strategy by increasing its ability to distribute and develop high-quality online casino content to the US market in-house. The transaction provides Bragg with a library of 39 premium casino content titles, including several top performing land-based titles, and a robust suite of intellectual property and know-how including game designs, mathematic works, advance game mechanics and features that are specifically tailored for US markets.

Wild Streak’s design team comprises experienced mathematical and creative minds from the casino gaming industry and includes Doug Fallon, the founder and CEO of Wild Streak and a renowned land-based slot designer with over 20 years of industry experience. Doug worked in several executive marketing and design positions over 11+ years at Aristocrat before founding Wild Streak. Wild Streak has created popular games for the largest US land-based slots manufacturers and designed the games and mechanics behind several well-known land-based slots titles and brands along with successful games in both social and real money online casinos. Wild Streak has a library of land-based content that will be customized for the USA online market along with building upon existing high performers such as Dragon Power in the USA online market.

Effective at closing of the Transaction, Mr. Fallon will join Bragg as Managing Director of Group Content and will play a key role in leading Bragg through its US content creation strategy while also collaborating closely with the Company’s European development staff to facilitate the cross-selling and repackaging of Bragg’s proprietary European content for US operators.

Upon the completion of the Spin and Wild Streak transactions, Bragg will have successfully executed on its strategy of acquiring the essential resources and technology assets required to become a tier one vertically integrated B2B iGaming business operating in US and Canadian markets. Bragg’s consolidated operations will comprise an enhanced full turnkey iGaming, content delivery and Player Engagement Platform with integrations into the majority of the tier one operators across both US and European markets, and a robust in-house content development function with localized market expertise that will allow the Company to expand its proprietary content offering.

Wild Streak reported US$1.05m in revenue and US$233,000 of EBITDA in FY2020, and US$487,000 in revenue and US$241,000 of EBITDA in Q12021.

“In an industry where premium content is king, Doug and his team have built up an enviable track record of developing leading premium casino slot content for both the land-based and online casino industry,” said Richard Carter, Chief Executive Officer of Bragg Gaming. “We look forward to integrating this know-how into Bragg’s overall offering and significantly expanding the Company’s higher margin proprietary in-house casino slot content capabilities.

“We expect this Transaction to be materially enhancing to both revenue and EBITDA in the first full year of ownership, as well as strategically compelling given Wild Steak brings a wealth of US market casino games insights into the group, including valuable game designs, advanced game mechanics and features that are specifically tailored for and proven in the US market.

“We welcome Doug and the whole Wild Streak team onboard, and we look forward to leveraging Doug’s expertise to lead our US and global content creation strategy,” he added.

“Richard and the Bragg Gaming executive team have put in place the strategy and key components to accelerate their growth and market share in the iGaming market, and Wild Streak is excited to be a cornerstone for their growth strategy,” commented Mr. Fallon. “We are highly impressed with the ORYX Gaming technology stack’s robust foundation and their roadmap for additional capabilities in development. We are looking forward to working with the ORYX team to create unique player experiences as we embed their technology into our game designs.”

“As the trends indicate, much of the historical content designed for Europe does not resonate with the traditional American player and we believe our background is an ideal fit with for the Bragg Gaming Group as it focuses on this emerging market,” he added.

Initially focused on land-based game design and mathematics, Wild Streak has been increasingly focusing on online content as it customises games for a wide variety of markets in the US and Europe. Growing portfolio of 39 titles with a variety of game assets and design mechanics that service a broad array of operators and slot players with games deployed on 12 different platforms including land based, online and social casinos. Its passionate agile team with multiple employees has over 20 years of experience in the slot design industry working for some of the largest companies including IGT, Aristocrat, Scientific Games and Konami.

Wild Streak’s game content is distributed across six land-based platforms around the globe including traditional Class 3 casinos, video lottery terminal (VLT), limited payout machines (LPM) and Class 2 casino markets. Wild Steak has collaborated and deployed game content with leading global manufacturers including IGT and Scientific Games. It has proven performers in land-based casino market across multiple slot manufacturer platforms. Highly successful in the NJ USA online market with Dragon Power and multiple successful titles released in Europe in 2021 including Congo Cash, Temujin Treasures, and Amazing Money Machine.