Scientific Games Corporation has bolstered its igaming content offering and production capabilities with the acquisition of European games developer ELK Studios, with a focus on distribution across the North American market.
Based in Stockholm, ELK Studios has a long history of producing successful titles with a mobile-first focus, including Wild Toro II, Katmandu, and Cygnus. Its games also feature the X-iter tool which allows players to jump in through special predefined modes.
The acquisition will see Scientific Games take ELK’s content into the US and Canadian markets while further enhancing its position as a content provider in the UK and Europe.
Barry Cottle, President and CEO of Scientific Games, commented: “Acquiring ELK Studios demonstrates once again our commitment to make targeted, value-enhancing investments designed to advance our cross-platform content capabilities.
“The ELK Studios team is packed with talent and enhances our existing in-house teams and capabilities. The highly synergistic combination of their top-ranked games and our leading OpenGaming ecosystem offers exciting distribution opportunities in the US and Canada. I am thrilled to welcome them to our team.”
ELK Studios will continue to work independently to create new titles, while also utilizing Scientific Games’ resources including commercial scale, market expansion, support in US and Canada, game IP, and data analytics tools.
Dylan Slaney, CEO igaming at Scientific Games, stated: “We have had a strategic partnership with ELK Studios for a number of years and its games have performed brilliantly across the OpenGaming platform.
“ELK is one of the most innovative, and top-ranked studios in igaming. Their passion and enthusiasm for producing games of stand-out quality is infectious. They will play a pivotal role in helping us continue to provide players with even more immersive and engaging experiences.”
Filip Säfbeck, CEO at ELK Studios, added: “This deal is the fruit of many years of hard work by a team that is fully committed to crafting high-quality online gaming experiences. We see it as the perfect time to join the Scientific Games team, given that our ambitions to grow through innovation and into the US and Canada are in total alignment.
“We have experienced first-hand through our OpenGaming partnership that Scientific Games can take our games to the next level. This acquisition offers us a solid base to bring to market a wide range of exciting new slots more smoothly than ever to online casino partners across the globe.”
Scientific Games has made several igaming acquisitions over the past few months, including slot developer Lightning Box and premium live casino solutions provider Authentic Gaming.