When Tapinator, which develops mobile games, announced Thursday (Nov. 13) that it had acquitted InAppFuel, a mobile casino business, it had interesting implications for payments. Although in-app purchases in gaming represents serious dollars, the online gambling world represents serious payments difficulties, with some cards refusing to process gambling proceeds that are illegal in many states.
As befitting such an unusual acquisition, the terms were also non-traditional: “InAppFuel was cofounded by Tapinator’s CEO, Ilya Nikolayev, who was a minority owner of the company. By unanimous consent of Tapinator’s board of directors and majority consent of the InAppFuel owners, Tapinator purchased InAppFuel for consideration comprised of the assumption of IAF’s existing promissory notes and an earn-out from one half of InAppFuel’s net income until such time as InAppFuel’s previous owners have been paid out per the terms of the agreement. Mr. Nikolayev received no upfront or additional consideration.”
The two companies said the goal of the merger is to be able to more efficiently deal with the market’s specifics. “InAppFuel’s vision is to allow any developer to quickly integrate a casino layer mini game into an existing game. This will greatly aid gaming companies by efficiently optimizing in-app purchase monetization and improving user retention. This unique B2B product not only brings Tapinator a new product line, but it also paves the way for expanding relationships with other developers and studios as IAF grows, thus creating additional acquisition and partnership opportunities in the gaming business,” the statement said. “Social casino properties are among the best at mobile gaming monetization.”
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