Ruby Seven Studios, based in San Francisco, California & Kochi,India & co-founded in 2012 by Michael Carpenter (former PopCap Games executive as VP of Social Product Operations) and Jugul Thachery (founder of one of the leading Indian casual games developer, ChaYoWo Games) have announced an investment of up to $3.5 million by an affiliate of Chicago gaming company Rush Street Gaming. Through the investment, Ruby Seven will leverage its proven social gaming success and live operations capabilities with Rush Street’s land-based and online casino industry expertise.
With social casino industry revenues forecasted to reach $2.5 billion by 2015, Rush Street foresees immense growth through partnership with Ruby Seven Studios. Michael Carpenter, CEO, Ruby Seven Studios, commented on the investment: “With this investment, Ruby Seven and Rush Street will explore unique opportunities within the rapidly converging social, land-based, and online casino industries. Together we have the ability to create breakthrough game experiences for players within all three realms.”
Ruby Seven and Rush Street share a core value of creating compelling player experiences. With the growth of innovation in the social and mobile gaming space, there is huge opportunity to explore new ways to play. Richard Schwartz, President of Rush Street’s online gaming division (Rush Street Interactive), expressed a forward-looking position regarding the investment:
“There are dozens of talented game designers in the casino industry who have compelling social game design ideas, but lack the capital resources or engineering and marketing capabilities to develop and operate them successfully. Due to Ruby Seven Studios’ innovative suite of services aimed at lowering the execution risk involved in social game development and operations, Rush Street believes that Ruby Seven Studios is uniquely positioned to partner with such designers to help them to successfully develop, deploy, and operate their games across all major social platforms.”
The investment by Rush Street is Ruby Seven’s second foray into real world casino collaboration this year. In May, Ruby Seven announced partnership with land-based casino game design studio Bluhare Studios. Together the two studios released TimeQuest Slots (iOS, Android, Amazon, Facebook), a top-rated, time-travelling slots adventure.