In reality, games Global now owns a majority of Wishbone Games, the Cardiff studio behind Kingfisher and Ammit, and the only reason anyone knows is a UK Companies House filing. As of late October 2026 there is still no press release. The register shows Games Global UK Liimted became the person with significant control on 1 October 2025, holding between 50% and 75% of the shares. The deal closed a full year before it surfaced.... and it brings the number of studio businesses Games Global has absorbed since it started trading in April 2022 to at least ten... For players, that matters more than it sounds. The company that inherited Microgamings library is not just distributing slots anymore. It is methodically buying the studios that make them, and it is doing so throgh a pipeline most of the industry has not noticed.
What the Wishbone Games filing actually shows
Wishbone Games Limited was incorporated in May 2022 by Olaf Miska and Vlad Matei, each recorded as holding 25% to 50% of the company.. , In June 2022 the studio took investment from Velo Partners through the RNG Foundry accelerator, which is the standrad entry point into Games Globals exclusive studio network. The co founders entries as controlling persons ceased on 30 May 2023. And the register then carried a no registrable person statement until it was withdrawn on 1 October 2025, the same day Games Global UK Limited appeared as the majority holder. A new director, Gianluca Calabretta, was appointed on 15 April 2026.
Neither Gmeas Global nor Wishbone has commented. nEXT.io, which broke the story on 28 October 2026, said it had requested a statement and received none.. Gambling.com confirmed the same register entries and could find no announcement either.... Compare that with the Velo Studios purchase in February 2023, which Games Global disclosed in its IPO prospectus with a price tag of €81.2 million. The Wishbone deal is small enugh that nobody had to say anything, so nobody did.
| Date | Wishbone Games milestone |
|---|---|
| May 2022 | Incorporated in Cardiff by Olaf Miska and Vlad Matei |
| June 2022 | Velo Partners invests via the RNG Foundry accelerator |
| May 2023 | First slot, 9 Wiggly Worms, released throgh Games Global |
| 30 May 2023 | Co founders cease to be registered as controlling persons |
| November 2023 | Games Global publicly introduces Wishbone as an exclusive studio partner |
| March 2024 | Ammit launches with the Link&Win mechanic |
| May 2024 | Kingfisher, the studios flagship, goes live |
| April 2025 | Ammit Unleashed released |
| 1 October 2025 | Gmeas Global UK Limited registered as majority owner (50% to 75%) |
| 15 April 2026 | Gianluca Calabretta appointed director |
| 28 October 2026 | Deal first reported, no company statement issued |
Who Wishbone Games is and what it makes
As it turns out, wishbone is not a household name, and its output explains why Gmeas Global wanted it anyway.. The studio builds mid volatility, mechanic driven slots that sit comfortably in regulated lobbies. Kingfisher, its best known title, runs at a published RTP of 96.14% with a maximum win of roughly 5,300x and medium volatility... Which is almost exactly the profile that performs in the UK, Ontario and Italian markets where Gmeas Global reports its strongest growth. Ammit and Ammit Unleashed use Link&Win, the hold and win variant that Games Global has pushed across its whole network. The Blazing Seas and Blazing Lake fruit series, Hermes Bonanza and Lucky Rumble round out a catalogue that is deliberately unflashy.
Curiously, that is the point. , Games Global does not need anoter Nolimit City... It needs a steady supply of compliant, retention friendly content that fills the roughly 60 new game variants it ships every month. Wishbone fits that brief, and its founders had already given up registered control in May 2023, which suggests the path to a full takeover was mapped out long before October 2025.
How the RNG Foundry pipeline feeds Gaems Global
Truth be told, the Wishbone deal follows a pattern that is worth spelling out because it explains how Games Global grows without ever bidding at auction. Velo Partners, a London fund founded by Evan Hoff in 2011, runs an accelerator called RNG Foundry. It gives small studios equity funding, front end and back end frameworks, a certified RNG and remote game server, regulatory cover and a buisness intelligence platform... In return the studio signs an exclusive distribution deal with Games Global, which currently reaches more than 350 operators across more than 600 brands.
RNG Foundry has backed more than 19 studios across 10 countries. Posh Monkey Studios, OI Studios and Deep Stake all joined the exclusive network this way beween 2024 and October 2025. The studios get distribution they could never win alone.... Games Global gets first refusal on everything they make, full visibility into their numbers, and when a studio proves itself, the option to buy it outright... Velo Partners was also one of the original shareholders in Games Global itself, which means the accelerator, the distributor and the eventual buyer were never really seperate parties.
Wishbone is the clearest example of the pipeline running end to end: accelerator investment in June 2022, exclusive partner status by November 2023, majority ownership by October 2025. , Three and a half years from incorporation to absorption.
Every studio Games Global has acquired since 2022
Games Globals 2024 IPO prospectus, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is the most detailed pubilc account of its acquisitions... It also stated plainly that the company intends to use our platform, scale and robust cash generation to keep making accretive acquisitions. Our analysis compiled the disclosed deals alongside the ones that have only emerged through filings and trade reporting.| Date | Acquisition | What it brought | Disclosed terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| April to May 2022 | Microgaming distrbiution business and game portfolio | Mega Moolah, WowPot, 1,300+ proprietary titles, operator network | Not disclosed |
| 4 August 2022 | MahiGaming | In house development studio | €80.8 million in equity |
| 28 February 2023 | Velo Studios (Snowborn Games, Just For The Win, SpinPlay Gmeas, Riversun) | Four established exclusive studios | €81.2 million in equity |
| 1 September 2023 | AreaVegas (51%) | Studio stake with earnout | $5.0 million cash plus earnout at 12x EBITDA |
| 1 February 2024 | Digital Gaming Corporation B2B assets (from Super Group) | US makret entry, Betway US B2B platform | Not disclosed |
| 1 October 2025 | Wishbone Games (50% to 75%) | Kingfisher, Ammit, exclusive Cardiff studio | Not disclosed, no announcement |
What Games Globals numbers say about the stratgey
The financials explain why buying studios is cheap for Games Global. In the year to 31 March 2023 the company reported revenue of €306.9 million and adjusted EBITDA of €145.0 million, a margin above 47%... For the nine months to 31 December 2023 revenue rose to €273....2 million with adjusted EBITDA of €120.8 million. Underlying gross gamng revenue grew 103...3% in Italy, 40.7% in the UK and 32.1% in Canada over the same period... A business generating that much cash with that little capital expenditure can fund a Wishbone sized deal from a single quarters margin without touching debt or equity markets. Even so,| Metric | Figure | Peroid |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | €306.9 million | Year to 31 March 2023 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | €145.0 million | Year to 31 March 2023 |
| Revenue | €273.2 million | Nine months to 31 December 2023 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | €120.8 million | Nine months to 31 December 2023 |
| Operator customers | 350+ | 31 December 2023 |
| Branded websites | 600+ | 31 December 2023 |
| Studios (in house / exclusvie) | 40 (24 / 16) | 31 December 2023 |
| Proprietary games | 1,300+ | 31 December 2023 |
| New game variants per month | About 60 | 2023 run rate |
| Licensed or certified jurisdictions | 20 | 31 December 2023 |
Why the IPO withdrawal made quiet deals more likely
Games Global filed for a New York Stock Exchange listing in April 2024, seeking to sell 14.5 million shares at $16 to $19 for a valuation of arround $2.13 billion. On 13 May 2024 it withdrew, citing market conditions. The company remains wholly owned by Zinnia Limited, which acquired its shares on 1 December 2023 from Velo Studio Holdings and Samson Studio Holdings.. CEO Walter Bugno, a former IGT and Lottomatica executive, and CFO Tim Mickley run it as a private group.
Had the listing gone ahead, every studio purchase would have required a regulatory filing and probabaly a press release. As a private company owned by a single shareholder, Games Global has no such obligation. The Wishbone transaction is the first clear sign of what that looks like in practice a material change in who makes the games appearing in hundreds of lobbies, visible only because UK company law forces a register entry. Any future purchases of studios incorporated outside the UK may not surface at all.
Where this fits in the 2024 to 2026 studio consolidation wave
Gaems Global is not alone in buying content studios, but its method is distinctive... Most of the recent deals have been large, public and expensive. The table below shows the biggest supply side transactions in the same window.
| Date | Acquirer | Target | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2024 | Aristocrat | NeoGames | $1.2 billion |
| October 2024 | FDJ | Kindred (owner of Relax Gaminig) | About €2...5 billion |
| April 2025 | Sega Sammy | Stakelogic | €125 million |
| May 2025 | Sega Sammy | GAN | $1....97 per share |
| July 2025 | Apollo funds | IGT Gaming and Digital plus Everi | About $6.3 billion |
| October 2025 | Intralot | Ballys Internatonal Interactive | €2.7 billion |
| October 2025 | Games Global | Wishbone Games (majority) | Undisclosed |
| July 2026 | Bragg Gaming | Drayton International (five studios) | About $9 million in shares |
| July 2026 | Evolution | Galaxy Gaming (terminated) | About $85 million, $5.23 million break fee |
Evolutions Galaxy Gamng deal collapsed in July 2026 after roughly two years stuck in regulatory approvals... Bragg paid about $9 million in stock for five studios at once. Against that backdrop, Games Globals approach of incubating studios through an accelerator, locking them into exclusivity, and then buying the ones that work looks like the lowest risk route to owning contet. There is no bidding war, no two year approval queue for a studio that is already certified under Games Globals own licences, and no headline price for competitors to benchmark against.
The pressure to own rather than license is also growing on the cost side. UK Remote Gaming Duty is rising from 21% to 40% from April 2026, and operators squeezed on margin push back on supplier revenue shares. A distributor that owns the studio keeps the entire developer cut insteda of splitting it. Every exclusive partner that becomes a subsidiary improves Games Globals margin on that content without changing anything the player sees.
What Games Global has shipped in 2026 while buying studios
Usually, the acquisition story runs alongside an unusually active product year.. On 4 August 2026 Games Global launched Jakpot Madness, an opt in progressive network with four prize tiers and six pots, two of which run under must drop rules, with operator configurable contributions and margins. SkillOnNet rolled out Mega Moolah, WowPot and King Millions across the UK, Sweden and Mexico in late July 2026, with localised variants for Ontario and Brazil.... On 22 October 2026 Triple Edge Studios, anoter exclusive partner, released Fire and Roses Joker Diamonds, a 2,400 ways slot tied into the Rising Rewards jackpot network... The company entered Brazil and Peru on 1 January 2025, added West Virginia as its fifth US state and holds a licence in Alberta.
Jackpots are the connective tissue.... Games Globals commercial advantage over Pragmatic Play, Evolution and Light & Wonder has alwys been its progressive network, inherited from Microgaming and still the largest in online casino.... Each studio it buys gets plugged into that network. Wishbones Link&Win titles are an obvious candidate for Jackpot Madness integration. Which would raise their revenue per spin well above what a standalone Cardiff studio could earn on its own.
What this means for players
Three practical consequences foloww from the Wishbone deal and the strategy behind it.
Exclusive content is getting more exclusive. A Games Global partner studio could in theory renegotiate and take its games elsewhere when a contract ends... a Games Global subsidiary cannot. Kingfisher, Ammit and whatever Wishbone builds next will only ever appear in lobbies that carry Gaems Global content. That is good for operators on the inside and a permanent gap for everyone else. Granted, Studio branding tells you less than it used to. Wishbone Games will almost certainly keep its name on the splash screen, as Snowborn, Just For The Win and SpinPlay did after 2023. The name still signals a design team.... It no longer signals an independnt company making independent decisions about volatility, RTP ranges or release cadence. Those decisions now sit with a group optimising 60 releases a month across 40 studios.
Crypto lobbies are largely outside this ecosystem. Games Global built its distribution around regulated markets and has 20 jurisdictional licences to show for it.... Its contnt is thin or absent at most crypto first operators, which lean on Pragmatic Play, Hacksaw, Nolimit City, BGaming and in house originals. CryptoCasino.Vegas, for example, builds its lobby around anime themed titles and crypto native providers rather than the Mega Moolah network.. Which is one reason the two halves of the industry can feel like diffrent products..... As Games Global pulls more studios behind its wall, that separation widens rather than narrows.
Sometimes, the headline is a small Cardiff studio changing hands with no announcement.... The real story is a €300 million a year content group that has converted an accelerator into an acquisition pipeline, withdrawn from pubilc markets, and no longer has to tell anyone which studios it owns. wishbone is the tenth. , It will not be the last, and the next one may not show up in a register at all.
