bwin.party acquires Orneon as part of social gaming push
Developer acquired as part of social gaming strategy - former Mytopia CEO Barak Rabinowitz understood to be heading up new division.
bwin.party is to acquire social games developer Orneon in a deal thought to be worth US$15m, eGaming Review can exclusively reveal.
Based in Vinnystia in the Ukraine Orneon acts as an outsource developer for other social operators without owning the intellectual property to any of the games. It was reportedly involved in the development of 888’s recently resurrected social gaming subsidiary Mytopia’s core Bingo Island brand, and is understood to have worked on mobile versions of Playtika’s Solotomania product.
The deal is set to be announced at the operator’s social gaming strategy presentation in London tomorrow morning at 11am.
Barak Rabinowitz, former CEO of Mytopia, is expected to be confirmed as heading up the division during the same presentation. Prior to joining Mytopia, Rabinowitz founded and ran online trivia and bingo operator, Amuso, which went into voluntary administration in September 2010. He was CEO of Mytopia for less than a year.
When contacted by eGR bwin.party declined to comment.
The formation of a social gaming division was first announced in March this year, with co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger (pictured) heading up the project. Following the company’s interim management statement for the first quarter of 2012 Teufelberger revealed the operator was “very close” to implementing its social strategy.
“We are very close to completing the whole plan. This is not only a fairly small acquisition but encompasses many other activities,” he said at the time.
The rumoured $15m acquisition cost fits with Teufelberger’s insistence that the deal would be less high-profile than other, more disruptive social purchases such as IGT’s $500m acquisition of Double Down Interactive, and Playtech’s planned acquisition of CTXM and Viaden Gaming from founder Teddy Sagi, which was later changed to a product licensing agreement.
“[The acquisition] will be for a fairly low amount, and we are not doing it in the traditional way. Don’t expect an aggressive acquisition similar to the ones our peers have done,” he explained at the time.