Evolution announces plans to acquire Ezugi in early 2019

Live casino solutions provider Evolution Gaming has agreed an acquisition deal with rival Ezugi in order to cement its position in existing markets and enter new ones.

The deal is expected to be finalized in early 2019.

The deal comes as the latest manifestation of the growing trend of consolidation in the global gaming market over the past couple of years.

Growing competition and regulatory pressure have triggered an unprecedented wave of merger and acquisition deals, and in this case, the ever growing demand for live casino products could have been an important factor to encourage two companies to sign a deal.

Strengthening the US Grip

Evolution and Ezugi have been the only two live dealer suppliers licensed to operate in the US. Ezugi has been presents for several years while Evolution went live from its Atlantic City studio just three months ago.

Ezugi CEO Kfir Kugler was highly effusive commenting the acquisition, saying the deal gave him “great satisfaction” knowing that Evolution’s “superior offering in areas such as streaming quality and speed, user experience, game choice and all-round operation excellence” would take Ezugi’s existing licensees ”to the next level.”

It seems as if Evolution decided to rule over the United States’ live casino market by acquiring live dealer gaming provider Ezugi.

Evolution announced the beginning of the negotiations with Curacao-licensed Ezigi for $12 million upfront with a possible maximum top-up payment of $6 million. This seems as a crucial part for the leading provider of Live Casino solutions because, not only it will spread its geographical reach but it will increase the revenue in the hot markets.

Increasing Market Share in Key Markets

The deal will be completed in January 2019, subject to the usual closing conditions and the deal is expected to boost revenue by 2-4% during 2019.

Evolution’s CEO Martin Carlesund made a comment regarding the official announcement: “I am pleased about this agreement. It is a very logical next step for Evolution which will increase our market share in key existing markets, like the U.S, where Ezugi’s presence and customer base will add to our on-going market expansion as well as add licensees in new markets, such as South Africa.”

Parenthetically, Evolution has joined forces with Belgian casino group Ardent for a night live casino TV broadcast where players will be able to play Evolution’s Live Speed Baccarat and Slingshot Auto Roulette games.