Delaware North, a world leader in hospitality and food service and an innovative operator of regional destination casinos, announced its acquisition of Ruby Seven Studios – a top social casino developer.

With Ruby Seven Studios, Delaware North is just about launching its own mobile and online social gaming platform to extend customer engagement and complement its land-based casino portfolio. Plans are to market the platform to Delaware North’s customer database of millions of patrons who once a year flow during the company’s owned properties, including TD Garden, gaming venues, restaurants and hotels.

The acquisition also positons Delaware North to supply social casino solutions to other gaming and media companies, including Ruby Seven’s current clients, Tropicana Entertainment Inc., Coral Interactive within the U.K. and the Pechanga Resort & Casino in California.

“The combination of Delaware North’s brand reach at the side of Ruby Seven’s successful social gaming experience will enable Delaware North to successfully enter the social casino market and convey a brand new level of innovation and technology to the company,” said E. Brian Hansberry, president of Delaware North’s gaming business.

“This acquisition primes Delaware North to continue its innovations on an international scale while allowing us to explore new territory by working with the Ruby Seven Studios team. We glance forward to compelling this new a part of Delaware North’s overall business,” Hansberry said.

The acquisition comes six months after Delaware North had formed a strategic partnership with Ruby Seven Studios. With greater than 100 employees in both Reno, Nevada, and Kochi, India, the corporate offers Delaware North a possibility to expand into the $3.4 billion social casino industry, that's predicted to grow to $4.4 billion by 2017, in line with Eilers & Krejcik Gaming Research.

“Delaware North is uniquely positioned to assist us service our ever-expanding land-based casino partners in addition to expand into new avenues of distribution around the company’s 500 million annual customer touchpoints,” said Michael Carpenter, CEO of Ruby Seven Studios, which he co-founded in 2012 with Jugul Thachery.

“Our companies are both involved in something – providing a perfect customer experience. That made this partnership and acquisition a very easy choice for Ruby Seven Studios,” Carpenter said. Within the acquisition, Delaware North acquires 100% of Ruby Seven Studios’ equity, which was previously backed by Rush Street Gaming and others. 

Read More... [Source: eGaming]