We all dream of hitting the jackpot when we play slots on line or buy our weekly Lottery ticket but they guys over at casino Grounds got the second best thing when it was announced on Friday the 8th December that LeoVentures ( an investment arm for Leo Vegas ) had agreed to quire a majority stake of 51% in Casino Grounds ( GameGrounds is actually company name ) for a purchase price of 30 million SEK with a potential maximum earn out payment of a further 15 million SEK based on their performance during the period January – June 2018. This amount comes to roughly €4,500,000 – not a bad win for the Casino Ground team!
Casino Grounds has become on of the leading streaming platforms for live casino play across Twitch and Youtube and has an extremely active and engaged social community and forum. It was announced that CasinoGrounds generated close to €400,000 in revenues during the 3rd quarter of 2017, showing good profitability.
Gustaf Hagman, LeoVegas’ Group CEO, comments: “In CasinoGrounds we see a new behaviour in which persons interested in casino are watching others play casino via YouTube and Twitch. CasinoGrounds has created a new niche through its live streaming and social platform, which are highly appreciated by players. The combination of proprietary content and the moving picture format create exciting opportunities going forward and is in line with LeoVegas’ strategy to be an innovative and entrepreneur-driven company. LeoVegas has had successful cooperation with CasinoGrounds since 2016, and we know their team well. Our ambition is now to scale up existing operations to more markets.”
This deal really goes to show just how far the Youtube and Twitch casino niche has grown over the last 12 months and shows the potential value streamers and content creators have for operators. This new way of interacting with slots and casino enthusiasts creates a new dynamic for Casinos and affiliates to engage with their audience, something Casino affiliation had really lacked in the past. Creating communities of like minded players adds an extra layer of authenticity and acceptance within the casino niche.
It will be interesting to see how the deal affects the business nature of casino grounds and what plans they have for 2018 to continue creating great content. We imagine it will only go on to serve them well, having such a brilliant operator behind them as the foundation and back bone of their business.
Its a win any streamer would dream of and has certainly given us here at Fruity Slots a great deal of admiration and desire to try and replicate such a terrific achievement!
