Evolution to acquire Nolimit City in deal rising up to €340 million
Evolution, the iGaming B2B giant, has announced that they have entered a deal to acquire slots game producer Nolimit City before the end of the year for an initial €200 million that could rise up to €340 million with earn-outs.
The initial fee of €200 million could rise up to €340 million with earn-outs. ©Scott Graham/Unsplash
Evolution will pay an initial consideration of €200m, with the add-ons dependent on financial performance over 2023, 2024 and 2025. The deal will be financed entirely in cash from their existing reserves. The earn-outs are payable in 2023, 2024 and 2025, respectively. This deal represents Evolution’s continually rising interest and investment in the slots sector and is their fourth major investment in the space over the last two years.
Evolution impressed with Nolimit City’s innovation
Evolution said in a press release that Nolimit City’s “sometimes provocative themes and a humorous touch” with their game offerings was among the factors that drew them towards this investment. Award-winning games like Mental, San Quentin and East Coast/West Coast are part of the Nolimit City portfolio and contributed to their allure for Evolution.
“With the addition of Nolimit City to the Evolution family we extend our portfolio of truly innovative and cutting edge games from the top brands and game makers in the industry. We have followed Jonas, Emil and their team for a few years and been impressed as they have established a completely new style of slot games. I am proud that yet another of the very best minds in our industry has chosen to join the Evolution network.”– Jens von Bahr, Chairman, Evolution, Press release
Evolution said that they expect Nolimit City’s revenue this year to hit €30 million with the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) projected to be around €23 million. The deal is expected to be fully completed in the third quarter of the year, assuming all required regulatory approvals fall in place.
“I cannot think of a better match between two companies then [sic] between Nolimit City and Evolution, we are fully aligned in terms of people, product, technology and how to get the job done. The slot vertical is under massive change, and we can’t wait to take on the challenge of global expansion together with Evolution, helping out with navigating towards the best slot product offering in the market.”– Jonas Tegman, Co-Founder, Nolimit City, Press release
Big year for Malta-based Nolimit City
For Nolimit City, this is the fourth piece of major news in the year, and the third in under a month. In March, they had secured a license to operate in Ontario. Between late May and the announcement of this deal with Evolution, the Malta-based provider also broke into the Belgian market through a partnership with Gaming1, and made deals with PokerStars and SkillOnNet to increase their presence across major online gaming destinations. Nolimit consists of a team of experienced professionals from the gambling industry, located in Stockholm, Sweden.
Evolution background
Evolution AB develops, produces, markets and licenses fully-integrated B2B Live Casino solutions to gaming operators. Since its inception in 2006, Evolution has developed into a leading B2B provider with 600+ operators among its customers. The group currently employs 13,000+ people in studios across Europe and in North America. The parent company is based in Sweden and listed on Nasdaq Stockholm with the ticker EVO.
Earlier in June, Evolution had announced that it had signed an agreement with Soaring Eagle Gaming for the provision of online casino content from its Evolution, NetEnt and Red Tiger brands in Michigan.
Shortly before that, Evolution had launched XXXtreme Lightning Roulette, a variant of their award-winning slot game Lightning Roulette, which they said combines a live dealer element with a random number generator (RNG) element to potentially multiply payouts for players by 2000x.
