Shockwaves have rippled around the industry as the ink dries on another big-name acquisition. This time, it’s American giant SG Digital, one of the daddies of iGaming which has bought out ELK Studios, a leading European casino games developer. The deal bolsters SG’s range with great content while unlocking the possibilities of distributing ELK’s games in the coveted US market.
Stockholm based ELK Studios has built a solid reputation for creating wildly creative, lush looking slots, powered by outstanding maths, and innovative features. Recent successes have been the trio of Wild Toro slots, their gravity range, as well as the hugely popular Gold series built around the well-travelled adventurer Kane and his dynamic reel shenanigans.
ELK’s line-up proved irresistible to SG Digital which can use the deal to enhance its reputation for creating cutting edge iGaming entertainment. ELK’s games, already popular, are now ripe for expansion into the lucrative North American markets. Barry Cottle, President and CEO of SG had this say: ‘ The ELK Studios team is packed with talent and enhances our existing in-house teams and capabilities. The highly synergistic combination of their top-ranked games and our leading OpenGaming ecosystem offers exciting distribution opportunities in the U.S. and Canada. I am thrilled to welcome them to our team.’
Just as much love was shown on the other side of the agreement. ELK’s CEO Filip Säfbeck commented with: ‘This deal is the fruit of many years of hard work by a team that is fully committed to crafting high-quality online gaming experiences. We see it as the perfect time to join the Scientific Games team, given that our ambitions to grow through innovation and into the U.S. and Canada are in total alignment. We have experienced first-hand through our OpenGaming partnership that Scientific Games can take our games to the next level.’
The ELK deal follows recent acquisitions by SG of live casino provider Authentic Gaming and Australian slot designer Lightning Box. For now, the juiciest detail in the ELK offer was not publicised – how much SG forked out for the deal. After seeing Red Tiger bought out for $200 million, and BTG for €450 million, no doubt, the price tag was a hefty one. However, we can only speculate – not only about the price tag but also what effect, if any, this will have on ELK’s output which has been outstanding of late.
