Mobile Premier League (MPL) Buys German Game Studio GameDuell
India’s homegrown esports and skill gaming company, Mobile Premier League (MPL) makes inroads into Europe by acquiring Germany-based game studio, GameDuell for an undisclosed amount. With this deal, MPL will now have a presence in Europe, Asia and North America. It forayed into the United States in July last year. The acquisition also marks MPL’s entry into the mobile free-to-play (F2P) gaming segment.While the financial details of the deal were not presented, it is confirmed that all the employees currently working for GameDuell will become a part of the MPL team.
“We are excited to expand our operations to Europe after having successfully ventured into Indonesia and the U.S,” said Sai Srinivas (CEO, MPL) as reported by ET.
“We believe our collaboration with GameDuell will give us the right strategic support and expertise to take this new journey forward and help us continue to offer exemplary gaming experience for both India and the world. We welcome the incredibly talented GameDuell team onboard, and together we look forward to creating best-in-class gaming experiences and growing the Mobile F2P segment.”
Founded in 2003, GameDuell says it offers more than 40 casual online skill games including community card and board games in seven languages. It has raised a total of over $17 million from investors such as Wellington Partners and Burda Digital Ventures. MPL’s expansion to Europe reinforces its commitment to the growing gaming sector and a strong intent to cater to the global markets. The deal will provide MPL with skilled developers with expertise in building multiplayer games like board, action arcade, and puzzle games.
“We are thrilled to embark on this new journey with MPL and believe the complementary strengths between both teams will enable us to grow our GameDuell games communities even bigger across the world,” said Kai Bolik, CEO, GameDuell.
“Given GameDuell’s expertise and experience in the segment coupled with MPL’s global distribution and ambitious vision, we look forward to further building our vision of bringing people together to have a good time with games on a global scale.”
MPL was valued at $2.3 billion after raising a reported $150 million in September last year, which also marked its entry into the unicorn club. Started in 2018 by Srinivas and Shubh Malhotra, MPL offers over 70 games across categories such as fantasy, quizzing, esports and casual games on its Android and iOS apps. It claims to have over 90 million users across India, Indonesia and the United States. The company says it has tie-ups with multiple gaming studios and developer partners that publish games on its platform.
