SHFL Entertainment has announced a deal to acquire Chinese games developer ProTec Games. The artist formerly known as Shuffle Master signed the deal in order to expand their product offering in the uber-lucrative Asian market that will continue growing over the coming years. The two have been working together for over a year as they developed software and various graphical programs and this was in addition to ProTec testing SHFL’s slot machines and various other products.
Gavin Isaacs, CEO of SHFL, added: “We have been working with the ProTec team for quite some time and have been very happy with their work. To support and enhance the global growth of our slots, e-Tables and iGaming businesses, we decided to fully integrate the ProTec team into our business. We are confident that this acquisition will enable us to scale efficiently to support our growing product footprint.”
The release also added that having a studio in China will make it a lot easier to tailor content for the Far East gambling industry, which is both “fast-evolving” and “promising”.
SHFL famously dropped its vowels back in October when it became the brand it is at the Global Gaming Expo in Vegas. Since then they’ve been going trigger happy with deals and instead of acquiring Ongame decided to sign a distribution deal with its new owners Amaya Gaming Group – costing them the princely sum of $2million.
This isn’t the first time SHFL have been mentioned in the same breath as China, with a whole brouhaha surrounding them erupting during last year’s G2E Asia conference held in the gambling enclave, Macau. LT Game, a Macau game manufacturer, had called Macau customs to complain about copyright infringements in Shuffle Master’s live dealer baccarat product. It meant their products being covered up for a short time before they were again showing them off later in the day.
The new deal gives them a more steady footing in the region and is likely to be a very shrewd one due to the backdoor it gives them into the Chinese gambling market.
