Aristocrat Leisure has today (12 November) entered a binding agreement to sell its Plarium Global mobile gaming business to Stockholm-based gaming group Modern Times Group (MTG) for up to $820 million (£640 million/€772 million).
MTG will pay an initial $620 million to take ownership of Plarium and Aristocrat will be due up to an additional $200 million should Plarium achieve certain financial targets between 2025 and 2028.
Of that initial $620 million, $20 million will be deferred to 2026, MTG said in its statement on the agreement. The additional $200 million meanwhile will be based partly on Plarium’s group revenues in 2028, as well as the 2025 revenue for Plarium’s popular RAID: Shadow Legends game.
The deal comes amid a strategic review for Aristocrat, which will allow the group to refocus on growth across land-based gaming, real money gaming and social casino.
Acquired by Aristocrat in October 2017, Plarium develops free-to-play and social mobile and PC games, with more than 500 million registered users worldwide. Its portfolio of 20 games includes titles, including Mech Arena and Vikings: War of Clans.
Should the sale complete, Aristocrat will use the proceeds to fund its longer-term growth strategy in line with its capital allocation framework. The group added that the transaction will also strengthen its revenue growth rate and margins going forward.
Subject to closing conditions, including receipt of regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close in H1 of calendar 2025.
For the year ending 30 September 2024, Plarium contributed approximately $615 million in revenue and $137 million in adjusted EBITDA to Aristocrat’s Pixel United segment.
MTG to benefit from tech and marketing expertise
MTG said of the acquisition: “The transformative acquisition of Plarium enables MTG to significantly increase its relevant scale and accelerate its strategic execution, creating a best-in-class platform to power future organic growth.
“The deal establishes the combined group as one of the world’s leading operators of highly profitable and cash generative mid-core games with strong and well-known titles and strengthens MTG’s already highly successful casual games portfolio.”
It expects to benefit from Plarium’s technology stack and expertise in live-ops, marketing and monetisation to drive to further improve the group’s performance over the long term.
Aristocrat leans on regulated gaming and social slots strengths
Commenting on the sale, Aristocrat CEO and managing director Trevor Croker said it follows a strategic review that launched in May 2024. This focused on casual and mid-core gaming assets, with Aristocrat seeking to instead focus on regulated gaming and social slots.
“With the expanded Aristocrat Interactive business now sitting alongside Aristocrat Gaming and our market leading mobile social casino business, we are increasingly focused on opportunities to lean into Aristocrat’s strengths in regulated gaming content and social slots,” Croker said.
“Aristocrat has incorporated a range of Plarium’s strategic capabilities and mobile content know-how into its core gaming operations. We are benefitting from digital marketing and UA (user acquisition) management capability, enhanced live operations, and scaling and growing our combined social casino business.
“Ownership of Plarium has helped to drive our digital transformation. It has extended our track record of successfully acquiring businesses to accelerate our strategy.”
Big Fish Games review remains ongoing
Meanwhile, Aristocrat has issued an update on its wider strategic review of casual gaming assets. It said its review Big Fish Games, excluding the Big Fish Social Casino assets, is still ongoing. The group acquired Big Fish Games from Churchill Downs Incorporated for $900 million in January 2018.
Also in this segment, Aristocrat said it intends to take a goodwill impairment charge related to Big Fish Games in its FY24 results. This will amount to $110 million but again excludes Big Fish Social Casino assets.
Aristocrat notes Big Fish Social Casino continues to perform well and is a “core component” of the Product Madness social casino business.
The group continues to “actively engage with third parties and assess all options to maximise shareholder value”.
Its FY24 financial results are scheduled to be released on 13 November.
