Optimove, the Tel Aviv-based player engagement and CRM platform, has signed an agreement to acquire Smartico, a Bulgaria-founded iGaming CRM company known for combining gamification features with marketing automation. The deal is expected to close in the coming weeks, although financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction marks Optimove’s fourth acquisition since 2018 and highlights a broader consolidation trend in the market for iGaming customer relationship and player engagement tools.
The companies said they will continue operating independently after the transaction closes. According to the announcement, Smartico’s leadership will retain full decision-making authority over the company’s strategic direction and day-to-day operations. That structure suggests the deal is being positioned less as a full integration and more as a strategic combination of two established platforms serving a rapidly growing and increasingly regulated online gambling market.
Two Established Platforms, Two Different Growth Paths
Optimove traces its roots back to 2009, when founders Pini Yakuel and Shachar Cohen launched the business under the name Mobius Solutions. Before building the software platform now associated with the company, the founders ran a consultancy focused on helping businesses develop customer analytics models. In 2012, they launched the Optimove platform, expanding from analytics into software-led CRM and player engagement.
The company bootstrapped its operations for its first five years. It later raised $20 million in 2016 from Israel Growth Partners at a reported $100 million valuation, followed by a $75 million growth equity round in 2021 led by Summit Partners. Optimove says it has been profitable since inception. Today, it employs more than 550 people across offices in Tel Aviv, New York, and London.
In iGaming, Optimove has built its offering around AI-powered player segmentation, multichannel campaign orchestration, and predictive modeling. Its commercial positioning emphasizes data-driven personalization, including capabilities delivered through the company’s OptiGenie AI toolkit and Opti-X personalization engine.
Smartico, by contrast, was founded more recently, in 2019, by Arman Gal, Sergey Kobitskiy, Anton Antropov, and Yuval Mechoullam. The founding team brought prior experience from major iGaming technology firms including Playtech and 888. Unlike many venture-backed software startups, Smartico remained fully bootstrapped, building its business without external fundraising.
Why Smartico Stood Out
Smartico’s main product insight was that CRM and gamification should not be treated as separate layers of the operator stack. Historically, many online gambling operators used one set of tools for customer communications and retention campaigns, and another set for game-like engagement mechanics. Smartico argued that the two functions were deeply connected and should be unified into a single workflow.
That strategy helped define the company’s market niche. Its product suite includes CRM automation alongside gamification features such as missions, levels, badges, and tournaments. It also offers free-to-play mini-games, a bonus engine, customizable jackpots, and AI-powered predictive modeling tied to player lifetime value. The combined approach gave operators tools not only to communicate with users but also to shape engagement loops in a more integrated way.
Optimove CEO Pini Yakuel said Smartico distinguished itself by being the first to combine gamification and CRM marketing into a category that iGaming operators broadly adopted. In his framing, the market now effectively contains two leading platforms in that category: one developed directly by Optimove and another that will now be backed by it.
Consolidation During a Period of Market Expansion
The acquisition comes as the global online gambling market continues to expand. The report cited figures showing the sector reached $95.3 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $185.17 billion by 2033. For software vendors serving the industry, that growth is not simply about a larger user base. It also reflects the increasing operational complexity facing licensed operators across multiple jurisdictions.
Both companies argue that the expansion of regulated markets and rising compliance requirements are increasing demand for more advanced CRM, segmentation, retention, and player engagement infrastructure. As operators enter new jurisdictions, they need tools that can support more tailored communication, better customer lifecycle management, and more measurable campaign execution. In that context, platforms that combine analytics, automation, and engagement mechanics may gain stronger strategic importance.
The transaction therefore appears to be about more than adding features. It also strengthens Optimove’s footprint in a market where operators want more unified software environments but still value differentiated product philosophies. Smartico’s gamification-heavy design and Optimove’s AI-led segmentation and orchestration approach serve overlapping needs, yet they emerged from different product assumptions and company histories.
Independence as a Deliberate Strategy
One of the more unusual details in the announcement is that both companies intend to keep developing competing products even after the acquisition closes. Rather than framing overlap as a problem to be resolved, management is presenting internal competition as a deliberate strategy. The idea is that parallel product development can create stronger outcomes for iGaming operators by preserving speed, experimentation, and market responsiveness.
For Smartico, operational independence was described as especially meaningful. Co-founder Arman Gal said the ability to retain that independence mattered to the team, while the partnership with Optimove would provide additional resources to scale faster and continue innovating in player engagement. That positioning suggests Smartico sees the deal not as an exit from its existing identity, but as a way to accelerate growth without giving up control over product direction.
For Optimove, the structure could allow it to broaden its reach across different operator preferences while maintaining flexibility in product development. It also gives the company a stronger strategic presence in a segment where CRM functionality is increasingly intersecting with gamified retention systems, AI-assisted prediction, and lifecycle monetization.
Optimove’s Ongoing Acquisition Strategy
Smartico is Optimove’s fourth acquisition. The company previously acquired the DynamicMail business from PowerInbox in 2018, bought data integration company Axonite in 2020, and acquired no-code gamification platform Adact in March of last year. Taken together, those deals show a pattern: Optimove has been steadily assembling complementary capabilities around messaging, data infrastructure, gamification, and player personalization.
That strategy is consistent with the direction of the broader software market serving gaming and betting operators. As the category matures, vendors are under pressure to deliver broader platforms while also preserving the specialized tools that operators have come to rely on. Acquiring Smartico allows Optimove to deepen its position in a segment where the line between CRM, retention, loyalty, and entertainment mechanics is becoming increasingly blurred.
With the deal expected to close in the coming weeks, the key question for the market will be whether the independent-operating model can deliver on its promise. If it does, the acquisition may become a notable case study in how software consolidation can occur without forcing full product assimilation. At minimum, it signals that player engagement technology in iGaming is entering a new phase—one defined by scale, specialization, and strategic consolidation.