Aristocrat Gaming Purchases Big Fish

Big Fish, which specializes in the creation and optimization of online social gaming, has been purchased by online casino giant Aristocrat, the company said in a statement.

Aristocrat is known for creating memorable gaming experiences online casino players with hit titles such as The Walking Dead, The Bing Bang Theory, and Game of Thrones. For its part, Big Fish’s expertise extends well beyond the online casino world, encompassing non-gambling games for PC, MAC, iOS, and Android.

Now with the acquisition, Aristocrat will get the best of both worlds, instantly positioning itself as a global leader in all forms of online gaming.

“The acquisition of Big Fish will immediately provide scale across our entire digital platform, following the recent acquisition of Plarium, which expanded our digital business into the fast growing social gaming market,” said Aristocrat CEO Trevor Corker.

Social Gaming Market Critical For Aristocrat

While Big Fish’s huge content library was one reason for the purchase, it was perhaps not even the most important. Aristocrat showed particular interest in Fish’s ability to create engaging and memorable mobile experiences for gamers.

That comes as little surprise to anyone who has been following the online casino or gaming industries closely. Consumers are increasingly turning towards mobile devices to get their entertainment, and companies that don’t adapt to this disruption risk going out of business entirely as the market spend shifts.

“The acquisition of Big Fish will also materially expand our social gaming footprint, positioning Aristocrat to further capitalise on growth in mobile gaming following the acquisition of Plarium,” Corker said.

Aristocrat Meeting New Market Head On

From that perspective, the decision to acquire Fish shows just how seriously Aristocrat takes remaining a leader in a world where change is the only constant.

With such a visionary move being made early on in the tradition, there’s little reason to doubt that Aristocrat will be one of the online casino operators leading the charge into the new world of optimized mobile experiences players are already demanding.

“Through continued optimisation of Big Fish’s existing successful applications, together with Big Fish’s attractive pipeline of new titles across both social casino and social gaming, this transaction ideally positions us to capitalise on the positive growth outlook in each of these mark,” Corker said.