International Gaming Technology (IGT) is set to sell its DoubleDown social casino to DoubleU Gaming for $825 million. The acquisition also includes an extended strategic partnership between the two social casino giants.
The deal is a very positive move for IGT, which acquired the DoubleDown Social Casino from its Seattle founders for $500 million in January of 2012. At the time, that price was generally regarded as being a bit high for that market space, but clearly IGT saw something in the social startup that the rest of the industry didn’t.
There’s no escaping the fact that the DoubleDown Social casino has been a blessing to every company that’s owned it at one point or another. According to a joint statement from IGT and DoubleU Gaming, the $825 million sale price is approximately 10.5x the adjusted 2016 revenue flow from the site.
IGT CEO Marco Sala celebrated his company’s relationship with DoubleDown while explaining the sale saying:
Since acquiring DoubleDown in 2012, IGT has grown it into one of the largest and most successful brands in the North American social casino market. After several years of strong, organic growth and increasingly attractive valuation levels, the time is right for us to maximize the value of this asset for our shareholders. We will continue participating in the growth of the social casino market through our multi-year, strategic partnership with DoubleU Games.
Both companies plan on working together on game development once the deal is closed. As of this writing, the sale is still pending while awaiting the approval of financial regulators.