Playtika eyes casual games market with latest acquisition

Playtika has acquired Israeli games developer Jelly Button Games in an effort to expand its portfolio into the casual games space, the company announced today.

The price paid runs into the tens of millions, according to Playtika CFO Arik Sandler, but no specific number was given.

Jelly Button is best known for its two games Pirate Kings and Board Kings, which have been downloaded more than 80 million times.

Playtika said the transaction would help it expand beyond its social casino core into the wider casual games market.

Aristocrat recently gave a similar rationale for its $500m takeover of Plarium.

“Since our first acquisition in 2012, Playtika has been successful at identifying promising products and teams and leveraging our marketing, monetization, and analytics capabilities to materially grow our acquired businesses,” Robert Antokol, chief executive officer and co-founder of Playtika, said.

“Jelly Button has exactly that – a great team and great products – and we are excited to take Jelly Button’s games to the next level.”

Jelly Button CEO, Ron Saranga, added: “As an Israeli company and a mobile games company, we have long been amazed by Playtika’s success. This is an incredible opportunity to leverage their resources and expertise in monetization and combine them with our creativity. Ultimately, the biggest beneficiaries of this transaction are our players.”

Jelly Button has 80 employees at its Tel Aviv headquarters.