Mobile social casino developer Playstudios is set to go public following a merger agreement with Acies Acquisition Corp.

As per the agreement, the companies will be known as Playstudios when merged and listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange under MYPS. The SPAC deal will value Playstudios at approximatly $1.1 billion.

Additionally, Playstudios will be the first mobile games company that offers real-life rewards to go public. The awards scheme currently features more than 80 partners with 275 brands across games, entertainment, leisure, retail, and travel. To date, its community has cashed in on 10 million rewards, coming to a total value of around $500 million.

Playstudios was founded by Andrew Pascal, who also serves as company chairman and CEO. Following the merger, he will continue to lead the company and maintain a significant equity share.

Growing market

"Within today's vast and growing games market, Playstudios is unique in offering their audience the opportunity to play for fun and earn for real," said Acies Acquisition Corp chairman Jim Murren.

"They know how to make engaging and enduring games, and stand apart in having harnessed the power of a robust and full-featured loyalty program. The focus is now to take Playstudios platform and super-charge its growth.

Pascal added: "From our inception, we set out to create wonderfully compelling games that were free-to-play and offered real-world rewards. We've now demonstrated the positive, long-term impact of this value proposition with our current portfolio of apps, and we're poised to carry that success into new products and new game genres.