About a decade ago, MGM Resorts International’s former CEO took notice of a Las Vegas startup called PlayStudios.
Led at the time by Jim Murren, MGM became an early partner with PlayStudios, which creates free-to-play mobile and social platform casino games in which players can earn real-world Las Vegas comps at hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues.
That foresight by Murren and then-MGM president Bill Hornbuckle paid off in perhaps its biggest way yet this month when PlayStudios, now valued at over $1 billion, announced its plans to go public.
The move—PlayStudios will be listed on the Nasdaq Composite index once the deal is approved by regulators, which is expected to happen later this year—was made possible in part because of an announced merger between PlayStudios and Acies Acquisition Corp.
Acies is a blank-check company that Murren, who stepped down as MGM’s CEO after a dozen years in early 2020, founded with a group of other investors with backgrounds or interests in gaming.
Blank-check companies, also known as “special purpose acquisition companies,” do not have commercial operations, but rather exist to raise money through an initial public offering for the purpose of buying an ownership interest in a specific firm.
Because of the longstanding partnership between PlayStudios and some of MGM’s top Strip resorts, Murren said the announcement would help strengthen the “connective tissue” between brick-and-mortar gaming resorts and the digital space.
“The market that [PlayStudios] is in is so vast, so much larger than the casino gaming business,” Murren said. “Jurisdictionally, and in terms of its growth potential, the casino business is very limited. The world of PlayStudios is vast and growing by double-digit rates.”
Often seen on Facebook through its myVegas-branded options, the PlayStudios collection of virtual games range from casino classics like blackjack and various slots offerings to a colorful concoction called “Kingdom Boss,” which boasts of a “3D kingdom of heroes and magic.”
The games are free to play, but only to a point. Once a player runs out of free play options, he or she can either purchase additional credits or wait for more free play credits to be loaded.
Loyal players—whether playing free or not—can build up rewards points that can be used for stays and deals at MGM resorts in Las Vegas. On average, PlayStudios officials say its gamers play in its spaces for about an hour per day.
PlayStudios also makes money off advertising and through outside partnerships, like the one with MGM.
With about 400 employees companywide—about 75 of those jobs are based in Las Vegas—PlayStudios figures to keep growing, said Andrew Pascal, a former Wynn Resorts executive and co-founder and CEO of PlayStudios who also serves as an adviser to the Acies board.
As part of the announcement, an injection of $250 million in private capital from a handful of firms, including MGM, will help with those growth targets.
“This is going to allow us to really accelerate the growth of our business now,” Pascal said. “I think our ceiling is going to be a function of our creativity and how open we will be to opportunities that will drive our business.”
In addition to MGM, PlayStudios partners with about 275 entertainment, retail, travel, leisure and gaming brands. Loyalty points can go toward anything from a stay at the Bellagio to a cruise or concert tickets.
“Nobody else in our industry has a loyalty program like what we have,” Pascal said. “I think that’s a reflection of the collective that founded the company, people who came out of leisure and hospitality and brought decades of institutional knowledge around loyalty marketing mechanics. We’ve applied that to games.”
Pascal still credits Murren and Hornbuckle, Murren’s successor as CEO of the company, with having a belief in the vision that he and his partners had back in 2011.
“From the very beginning, Jim and Bill Hornbuckle bought in,” Pascal said. “People are now engaging with our games and, in turn, with MGM’s brands every day. People take advantage of the benefits that they can earn. They want to take a vacation at the Bellagio.”
In an increasingly digital world, Murren has essentially doubled down on what he calls the trend of the day.
“This company is at the epicenter of the most important trend in entertainment today, which is the convergence of live entertainment and digital entertainment,” he said. “It’s what everyone wants to talk about today. Andrew saw this back in 2011 and I think it’s so great that this is a Las Vegas-based company that was born here, lives here and is growing so rapidly.”