SkyRocket Entertainment

About the Company

Skyrocket Entertainment provides branded content for the online gaming industry. The company's launch was announced at Cannes Film Festival in May 2018.

Founders Sean O’Kelly and gambling industry veteran Richard Clarke (Ladbrokes, Gala Coral, etc.) formed the venture to secure rights to films for the evergrowing niche of "movie-based" slots and casino games.

The company now has over 100 iconic film titles in its quiver, its own development studios, a remote game server RGS, and cross-platform deals with other developers to get the products to market as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The first big titles come out of StakeLogic, a development studio based in the Netherlands and Malta. The first release, on Feb. 20, 2020, "The Expendables", features Big Time Gaming's Megaways mechanic, making the title a true hybrid of industry cooperation sparked to deliver top-quality content to players in regulated markets.

Followed by Rambo and Hercules, Skyrocket made a great choice of development partners to hit the ground running while making a splash.

We expect the parent firm to broker and relicense content brands throughout the industry to leverage its niche market of branded titles.

With a treasure-trove of iconic old and new movies to draw from they will not only create revenue streams for Skyrocket but deliver "found money" to license holders of films that may not currently be realizing their full value.

However, even without sub-licensing, they seem to have put together the right pieces to bring fresh and invigorating titles to market.

The Games Studio

In late 2019 it was announced that the firm had acquired The Games Company (TGC) from BlockChain Innovations (BCI). Formed in 2012, the London-based firm with studios in Portugal was acquired by Las Vegas-based BCI in late 2018.

Prior to Skyrocket's acquisition of TGC, they first partnered with We Are Casino (Curacao/Portugal) to develop Deal (Burt Reynolds), Gun Shy (Antonio Banderas), and The Last Drop (Billy Zane) slots.

Additional partnerships include a cross-integration deal with Revolver Gaming giving both developers a wider reach and expanded portfolios.

Capacities and Portfolio

The Games Company subsidiary is licensed in Alderney and by the UKGC. The company's RGS has been used by Bede Gaming to deliver content to UKGC-licensed The Rank Group which saw Grosvenor, Mecca, et al online revenues "skyrocket".

The RGS uses Black Cow Technology for Open Gaming Architecture which is augmented with a game development kit. This should allow them to take imagery as well as some licensed soundtrack or score material to create unique games after digitizing the original film content.

Skyrocket intends to make up to 100 games per year with its partners. 

While we see enthusiastic roadmaps from new developers all of the time, there is no reason to believe they won't be able to achieve that between their own lab studio, existing partnerships, and future cross-platform deals.

The intellectual property rights and branded film content is suitable for and desired in the realms of social/virtual money gaming, as well as all verticles of real money gambling such as slots, instant games and scratch cards, bingo, and lotto.

The company is keeping a tight grip on its rights library, and for good reason. First and foremost they want to be able to build anticipation with each new announcement and release.

As well, they wouldn't want a competitor to acquire similar titles and head them off at the pass before their proprietary games had been developed and properly marketed.

We can reveal the following list of a handful of titles:

• Rambo - 2008
• The Expendables - 2010
• Drive Angry - 2011
• Olympus Has Fallen - 2013
• The Legend of Hercules - 2014
• London Has Fallen - 2016

We find two games on the BetConstruct Game Builder: Codename Diablo (Lilly 4k) and The Last Drop Golden Grenade. Please note, that as the company's website presence evolves these links may become unusable.

Existing Portfolio

Property acquired in The Games Company acquisition includes several titles with innovative themes and mechanics.

Furious Furry Fiends is a cascading reels game with a 3*4*5*4*3 reel layout and expanding wilds. The unique layouts with three visible icons on the first reel, building to a crescendo of five in the central reel allow for 720 potential winning lines in the free spins game.

While the base game has 40 fixed paylines, all it takes is matching symbols on adjacent reels from leftmost to right during the feature to create winning combinations.

The low to medium volatility index means the game is long-lasting at low stake-to-bankroll ratios, and the 96.17% theoretical return to player percentage (RTP) is within reach of the avid or rabid fan.

• 3*4*5*4*3 reel layout
• Collectible Mechanic
• Expanding Reels Feature
• Retriggering free Spins
• Detonate Fiends Feature

Mariachi Mayhem

We especially like the feature-rich Mariachi Mayhem. Sure, the theme is always fun but with just 20 paylines, colossal symbols covering whole blocks of the reelset, and medium to high volatility, this game simply excites the thrill-seeking gambler.

Look for free spins, re-spins, reels full of wild symbols, and a colossal symbol that moves across the reels.

• Free Spins
• Mariachi ReSpin
• Wild Reels
• Stepping Colossal

KGB Bears is a 5 reel slot game with 50 win lines. The theme is 1980s Cold War spycraft.

Look for re-triggerable free spins, extra free spins, and multiplier reels, and extreme anticipation builds on this game. The mechanic used is a display of what you will win *if* the third scatter lands. This appears in the excitement build-time after two scatters have landed.

This game was originally distributed through the GECO and Leander networks in Flash and HTML5. Interestingly, GECO (a Playtech company) has also used TGC's Blackcow-powered game creation kit, so it's not a total surpise to see that they have some other things in common.

• 1980s Cold War spy theme
• 50 paylines
• Free spins retrigger
• Extra freespin & multiplier reel
• Heightened anticipation

The Final Analysis

We love to see win/win deals in the industry, but this one goes even further with a win for players (more cool content) a win for the developers (brilliant scooping of a niche), and a win for the existing holders of intellectual property and film licensing rights.

Granted, most IP rights are probably stuffed away in portfolios as small parts of investment vehicles, but some may be held by family members of the producers or other original investors in the films' creations.

Anything that preserves the legacy of film (including bringing little-known titles to light!) can only be a good thing.

One title we might be so bold as to suggest is Metropolis (Fritz Lang). In the right hands that film could become an amazing slot game!