Rabinowitz appointed CEO of Mytopia
The founder and former CEO of Amuso joins 888's social gaming company as its new chief executive.
Barak Rabinowitz, the former founder of online cash trivia and bingo business Amuso.com that went into voluntary liquidation in September last year, has joined 888 Holdings’ social gaming company Mytopia as its new chief executive.
At the time 888 chief executive Gigi Levy said the assets would form the cornerstone of 888’s social gaming and mobile strategy. “The acquisition extends 888’s reach and market share in the fast growing social networks and smart mobile devices, such as iPhone and Android-powered handsets, and leaves us well positioned to take advantage of this growth.”
The operator paid an initial $12m plus $6m based on meeting certain milestones related to the mobile and social network games prior to 31 December this year, with the maximum consideration capped at US$48m.
Assets included Mytopia’s games studio developing social games for smartphones, mobile handsets and social networking platforms, its portfolio of games, as well as all platforms and licences for hosting and operating social games on social networks and mobile. Its mobile poker application available for smartphones including iPhone, Android and BlackBerry has been installed by more than one million users, 888 said at the time.
Amuso.com operated for around three years before selling its assets including the official Weakest Link online game to the BBC Worldwide in October 2010 for an undisclosed sum. It continues to work with the BBC on mobile game development under Jackpot Studio that Rabinowitz set up on his own at the end of 2010. Late last year he told eGaming Review he was working on new projects in the Facebook and mobile space which he said were “still in their infancy”.
“What we tried to do at Amuso.com was to innovate new formats to reach a more mainstream audience for gambling products so I’m going to continue to focus on innovative ways to acquire consumers and create value.”