Merkur Acquires White Hat Studios To Accelerate Its US Omni-Channel Gaming Expansion
The most interesting part of Merkur Group’s latest deal is what it deliberately left on the table.
Merkur Group has agreed to acquire White Hat Studios, the US-facing slots supplier that became the first provider to go live across all seven regulated iGaming states. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and is structured to capture content only. The White Hat Gaming platform and white label business are excluded and remain under existing ownership. The move continues an acquisition run that has already reshaped the group’s UK footprint, following Merkur Casino UK’s purchase of Victoria Gate Casino in Leeds.
The Assets Changing Hands
White Hat Studios launched in 2021 and now runs a portfolio of more than 150 titles, releasing at least six new games every month. Its assets include the House of Brands licensed collection featuring The Goonies, Peaky Blinders, Ted, Flintstones and Deal or No Deal, the award-winning 7s Fire Blitz series, and Jackpot Royale, a progressive network with over 40 contributing games feeding local operator pots.
Andy Whitworth stays on as President and framed the move around omni-channel ambition and product innovation. Lars Felderhoff, Chairman of the Merkur Management Board, pointed to White Hat’s growth trajectory since launch. Michael Gauselmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, tied it back to Merkur’s Blueprint acquisition in 2012, the group’s original route into online.
Those quotes matter for one reason. Merkur is not describing this as a US entry. It is describing it as the completion of a sequence that started fourteen years ago in Europe.
The Gaming Arts Connection
Merkur acquired Nevada-licensed Gaming Arts earlier, giving it land-based game and machine capability across the US. White Hat Studios adds the online-first content engine on top of it.
Read together, these are not two acquisitions. They are one strategy executed in two moves. Land-based cabinets and online slots under a single supply relationship is a proposition very few groups in the American market can credibly offer today. That patience is characteristic of a company that has spent decades compounding small bets into scale, a history traced in full inside the Merkur empire, from jukeboxes to global gaming.
The Deliberate Platform Carve-Out
This is where the deal gets instructive. Merkur had the option to take the platform and white label business. It chose not to.
Platform infrastructure in regulated US iGaming has commoditised faster than most people in the industry are willing to admit publicly. Aggregation, wallet, and integration layers are now procurement decisions, not strategic ones. What has not commoditised is regulatory clearance across seven states, a release cadence of six titles a month, and licensed entertainment IP already approved for those markets.
Merkur bought the scarce thing and declined the replaceable thing. That is the entire logic of the transaction.
The Read For Operators And Founders
For operators, consolidation has moved up the value chain. Content studios with multi-state certification and recognisable IP are strategic infrastructure now, not vendors to be squeezed on rev share. Expect the negotiating dynamic to shift accordingly as more studios end up inside well-capitalised groups.
For founders building supply-side businesses, the message is sharper and less comfortable. Valuation follows scarcity, and scarcity in US iGaming currently means regulatory reach, content velocity, and brand licensing that competitors cannot simply commission an alternative to.
Merkur has just told the market exactly which half of the White Hat business it considered worth paying for. The other half is still available.
Source: Merkur Group
