Game Taco has announced the acquisition of the publisher WorldWinner, which allows users to place bets and earn real money in mobile and browser games on popular quizzes and IP. The previous owner of the company was Sony. Now Game Taco and WorldWinner will work together to develop a single platform for organizing gaming tournaments.Game Taco announced this yesterday in an official press release.
Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, however, GamesBeat notes that we are talking about an eight-figure sum.
What is WorldWinner?The company develops and publishes its own titles, but its main specialization is the organization of gaming tournaments.
After registering on the site, users can choose an available competition and place a bet on a match with their participation.
First of all, we are talking about games that test different mental abilities of users. It can be quizzes, card games or puzzles. Among the titles presented at WorldWinner are Solitaire Rush, Bejeweled Champions, Scrabble Cubes, Angry Birds Champions, Wheel of Fortune and Catch 21.
The matchmaking system selects opponents depending on their skills and the results of previous games. The winner receives a monetary reward. WorldWinner claims that the total prize fund for the entire existence of the platform (since 1999) amounted to $ 1.5 billion.
Why did Game Taco decide to buy the company?Like WorldWinner, Game Taco specializes in organizing online gaming tournaments in mobile titles.
The company owns the rights to popular IP, including Atari games such as Breakout, Asteroids and Centipede.
With the help of the deal, Game Taco wants to expand its portfolio of titles that can be played through a special application. It will also significantly increase the audience, since WorldWinner has both a popular gaming portal and separate applications for different games on iOS and Android.
Game Taco founder Joshua Barrow will become CEO of WorldWinner. “WorldWinner is a leader in the field of browser games, it has a great team and rights to well-known IP. All this makes it stand out from other companies,” he said.
This deal will also help the company compete in the market of “skill” games — especially with the Skillz platform, whose valuation after going public was $3.5 billion.