Hyper-casual leader Voodoo expands into the casual gaming market by partnering with Beach Bum, a world-class developer of evergreen tabletop and card mobile games.
Voodoo, one of the world’s leading mobile games publishers, announced today the acquisition of Beach Bum, a casual games studio headquartered in Israel.
Since its inception in 2015, Beach Bum has set out to bring popular traditional tabletop and card games, known and loved by millions around the world, into an exciting, head-to-head mobile environment. The company quickly became a leading player in the ‘evergreen’ games market, with over two million monthly active users. Both Backgammon – Lord of the Board and Spades Royale have reached the top 25 evergreen games by revenue worldwide, as well as #1 in the Backgammon and Spades categories respectively. Beach Bum’s most recent release, Gin Rummy Stars, also hit #2 in the Rummy category this year. The company generated gross revenues of approximately US$70 million in the last 12 months.
The acquisition of Beach Bum marks an important new milestone as part of Voodoo’s games portfolio diversification. Earlier this year, Voodoo announced its ambition to expand into the casual gaming market and increase the share of the group’s non-advertising revenues thanks to in-app purchases. Moreover, the transaction is expected to deliver meaningful synergies through the combination of Voodoo’s growth and ad monetization expertise and Beach Bum’s experience in in-app monetization and its proprietary gaming platform.
Alexandre Yazdi, Co-Founder and CEO of Voodoo, said: “Shachar, Keren, and Gili have created a leader in their category, and built a strong, lean and very high performing team. This is exactly the type of company we like to partner with. Beach Bum and Voodoo share the same business philosophy and the same unlimited ambition to create a worldwide leading and inspiring mobile gaming company. Being together is a major step towards that direction.”
Gigi Levy-Weiss, Co-Founder and Active Chairman of Beach Bum, added: “I am super proud of the Beach Bum founders and team who built a phenomenal category leader. This is the outcome of both great talent and hard work and I couldn’t be happier for the team. I believe that the combination of Voodoo and Beach Bum creates a super power in the gaming world and I am very proud to be a partner in this exciting future!”
Shachar Schalka, Keren Marom, and Gili Levy, Beach Bum Co-Founders and respectively CEO, COO and GM of Backgammon, concluded: “This is an important milestone for the Beach Bum family; one that puts us closer to the company’s founding vision of creating the world’s leading mobile games studio in the traditional board & card game categories. We are very proud of what the Beach Bum team has accomplished to date, and we can’t wait to bring the next level of casual gaming experience and entertainment to audiences worldwide thanks to Voodoo’s scale and global reach.”
Tadmor Levy & Co. and Weil Gotshal & Manges Llp acted as legal advisors to Voodoo. KPMG Somekh Chaikin provided financial and tax transaction services to Voodoo in connection with the transaction. Raz, Dlugin & Co. and Gil Mizrahi & Co. served as legal and tax advisors, respectively, to Beach Bum.
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