Tencent is in talks to acquire Israeli mobile gaming studio SuperPlay from Playtika, in a deal that would value the company at between $1 billion and $1.5 billion. The negotiations come less than two years after Playtika bought SuperPlay outright, and mark a reversal for a business that was originally billed as Playtika’s entry point into faster-growing casual gaming.
A costly success story
Playtika acquired SuperPlay in November 2024 for $690 million in cash, paid to founders Elad Netzer and Gilad Almog. The deal also carried an earnout of up to $1.25 billion tied to SuperPlay’s financial performance between 2025 and 2027, with payouts recalculated each year based largely on revenue growth.
That structure has become an expensive problem. SuperPlay generated $573 million in revenue in 2025, about 67% above the baseline used to set the earnout, and one of its Disney-branded Solitaire titles is estimated to bring in roughly $300 million a year on its own. As performance has outpaced projections, Playtika’s estimated liability has climbed accordingly: from $734 million in its 2025 annual report to $829 million by the first quarter of 2026, with further increases possible if growth continues at its current pace.
Why Playtika wants out
Under the terms reportedly being discussed, Tencent’s purchase price would not cover the outstanding earnout obligations — Tencent would instead assume that liability directly, freeing Playtika from a commitment that could otherwise run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The timing lines up with broader balance-sheet pressure at Playtika, which faces about $2.3 billion in debt maturities in 2028 and 2029. Much of that debt was raised when interest rates were near zero, and refinancing it is expected to be markedly more expensive. The company has already suspended its dividend this year to preserve flexibility, and it has flagged to investors that future cash flow may not be enough to fully cover the SuperPlay earnout without refinancing its credit facility before 2027.
The accounting treatment compounds the issue: SuperPlay’s operating results flow through as operating cash flow, but earnout payments are booked as investing outflows, and increases in the estimated liability hit the income statement as an expense even though they’re excluded from adjusted EBITDA. That dynamic contributed to a roughly $309 million net loss for Playtika in the fourth quarter of 2025.
A weakening core business
Playtika’s legacy titles are also under strain. The company has stopped disclosing revenue for Slotomania, once its flagship product, and Bingo Blitz revenue fell 3% sequentially and 5.5% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026, to $154 million.
Even so, first-quarter revenue rose 10% year-over-year to $745 million, and Playtika raised its full-year 2026 revenue guidance to $2.75–$2.85 billion. Investors remain unconvinced: the stock has lost roughly two-thirds of its value over the past three years and trades at a market cap of about $1.5 billion, around 80% below its peak. Playtika first disclosed it was reviewing “strategic alternatives” in April, following earlier talks with prospective partners in Asia and the Gulf.
What it means for Tencent
For Tencent, adding SuperPlay would extend an already sprawling gaming footprint. The company owns Riot Games outright and holds stakes in Epic Games, Supercell and Ubisoft, alongside major businesses in advertising, fintech, cloud and AI. Tencent has faced its own regulatory headwinds in China in recent years, including gaming restrictions and tighter data-security rules, but remains the world’s largest gaming company by revenue.
Playtika is controlled by Alpha Frontier Limited (about 52% of shares), with businessman On Chau holding roughly 21% and founder-CEO Robert Antokol at 4.8%.
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