It’s been twelve days since NetEnt announced the acquisition of Red Tiger Gaming. Nobody saw that coming, but nobody is surprised either.
Red Tiger Gaming – The Rising Star
Red Tiger Gaming has been on the rise since it was founded in 2014. At first, they released smaller slots with curious themes and one or two big features to keep players interested. Then they continued much along the same lines, becoming more innovative and giving us surprise hits here and there.
And finally, they introduced their Must Fall Jackpots, which catapulted the company and their games into the heart of slot fans.
Red Tiger is one of our favourite slot developers because they make great-looking innovative slots that are truly fun to play. The company is straightforward with what you can expect to win on a slot (perhaps 800x your bet, or perhaps 10,000x your bet) and they give us realistic RTPs (often around 96%, rarely much more).
We have rarely reviewed a slot from them that we didn’t at least like and many that we loved.
So, are we surprised that online game developer giant NetEnt AB snatched them up? Not really.
The Deal
It seems common practice these days that game developers are buying each other up. Microgaming has acquired so many small slot developers lately that we lost count. But Scientific Games has also been prolific in acquiring other game developers.
Now, NetEnt AB decided to reel in the smaller company. The initial deal sees them pay £200 million to Red Tiger shareholders in cash and another £23 million in 2022 based on performance.
That also means that Red Tiger isn’t simply being swallowed up into the NetEnt machinery. It is much more likely that the company will, for the most part, remain a reasonably independent provider of slot games. That hopefully means we continue to get the same high-quality games that we’ve become used to.
Happy Partners
NetEnt and Red Tiger alike seem to be quite happy with the deal. Says Therese Hillman, Group CEO of NetEnt: “I am very pleased to welcome Red Tiger into the NetEnt Group. The acquisition combines two of the leading and most innovative companies in the online gaming industry. We look forward to working with Red Tiger’s fantastic team to enhance our combined global reach and to offer further value to operators and players.”
Gavin Hamilton, Red Tiger’s CEO, on the other hand, said: “This is an exciting new stage of the Red Tiger story and we are delighted to become part of the NetEnt group. Accessing NetEnt’s unparalleled distribution network and geographic footprint will unlock new opportunities for Red Tiger and will further accelerate our growth.”
And the rest of us? We just want to keep chasing those daily jackpots. Why don’t you head on over to PlayOjo to give it a shot?