Penn National Gaming, Inc., on Monday said it has established an in-house content development team to create exclusive iCasino content for its customers, known as Penn Game Studios, or PGS.
Penn National is acquiring HitPoint Studios, Inc., and its spun-off real money gaming company, LuckyPoint Inc.
HitPoint is an independent game design and development studio founded in Massachusetts in 2008.
HitPoint said it has created more than 50 games for large publishers and brands, including Microsoft, Ellen DeGeneres, EA/PopCap, Disney, Google and NBCUniversal.
In 2019, HitPoint spun out LuckyPoint to focus on real-money game development and the creation and operation of a remote gaming server (RGS). In addition to traditional online casino table games and slot machines, the LuckyPoint RGS brings a variety of gaming styles to desktop and mobile devices, including retro-style arcade games and puzzle games.
Penn National said the acquisition is expected to close in the near term, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
Upon completion, approximately 30 designers, artists and engineers from HitPoint and LuckyPoint will be integrated into Penn National’s wholly-owned interactive division, Penn Interactive.
“We are incredibly excited to be launching Penn Game Studios, which is another important step in our company’s evolution into retail and interactive gaming, sports betting and entertainment,” Jay Snowden, president and CEO of Penn National, said in a statement. “We now will have the ability to create exclusive content for our audiences, further leverage the Barstool Sports brand and our database of 20 million mychoice customers, and create cross-marketing opportunities with our brick and mortar facilities.”
Paul Hake, CEO of HitPoint, added, “We are thrilled to be joining Penn National and bringing our expertise to the company’s interactive division. We look forward to adding our creativity, design and engineering skills to an already well-accomplished team at Penn National.”
