Nazara Technologies Acquires Controlling Stakes in Bluetile and BestPlay

Indian gaming company Nazara Technologies has acquired 50% controlling stakes in two Barcelona-based gaming firms, Bluetile Games and BestPlay Systems, for a combined $100.3 million.

Regulatory filings (via Mobilegamer) confirm that Nazara paid $88.4 million for its stake in Bluetile and $11.9 million for its share in BestPlay.

The deal, executed through Nazara's UK subsidiary, is the largest acquisition in the company's history.

It also comes with an option to buy the remaining 50% of both companies by 2028, which could push the total deal value to as high as $340 million, including earn-outs.

So what exactly is Nazara getting here? Quite a lot, actually. Bluetile, formerly known as Playvalve, runs a portfolio of casual and social mobile games that includes titles like Yatzy, Domino Legends, Mahjong Voyage, and Spade Stars. The studio currently has 17 live games, nearly 375 million downloads to its name, and around 22 million monthly active users.

Those are solid numbers for a casual gaming outfit, and they reflect a company that has been growing fast.

According to regulatory filings, Bluetile shipped five games in just six months by using a reusable AI-powered game template, a workflow that reportedly cuts development time by around 50%.

BestPlay adds another dimension to the deal. It is a rewarded play platform that offers players vouchers and other incentives for engaging with mobile games. The app sees roughly 1.2 million downloads per month and has about 2.2 million monthly active users.

Financially, as per the company's investor presentation, Bluetile and BestPlay posted combined revenue of $153.6 million and EBITDA of $27.7 million in 2025. That is a sharp climb from $82.1 million in revenue in 2024 and $50.1 million in 2023, showing consistent upward momentum over the past couple of years.

Nazara will pay $59.7 million at first close, with the remaining $40.6 million due within six months. The company plans to fund the deal primarily from its existing cash reserves and also retains the option to pay up to 25% of each instalment in equity.

Nitish Mittersain, joint MD and CEO of Nazara Technologies, pointed to Bluetile's AI-first approach as a key factor in the decision. In a press release, Mittersain said, "Nazara UK's acquisition of Bluetile and BestPlay brings proven strengths across game development, player engagement and distribution, and will add meaningful synergies to our global gaming platform." He added, "The team has embedded AI at the core of its operations, not just as a tool, but as a competitive advantage across development, marketing and live operations."

Bluetile was founded by Raymond Stauffer, an MIT alumnus with prior experience at Google, and its broader team includes veterans from Zynga, King, Voodoo, Moonactive, and Meta.

The strategic logic goes beyond just adding more titles to a portfolio. Together, Bluetile and BestPlay give Nazara what its investor presentation describes as an "integrated content and distribution platform at scale." Bluetile brings the games and the audience. BestPlay brings the tools to grow and retain that audience. For a company trying to build a globally scalable gaming business, that combination is clearly attractive.

This acquisition also comes at a meaningful moment for Nazara. The company took a significant hit after India's online gaming regulations led to a blanket ban on real-money games, resulting in a roughly 914.7 crore rupee writedown on its Moonshine Technology investment. Shifting focus toward global casual and social gaming makes strategic sense in that context.

Nazara has previously acquired Curve, the UK publisher behind Human Fall Flat, and Fusebox, the mobile studio behind Love Island: The Game.