US-listed IGT announced today that it has sold its gaming handicap studio DoubleDownInteractive to South Korea's DoubleUGames for $825 million, a deal that is part of a new strategic partnership between the two companies on social gaming.

The deal is great for IGT, as the company acquired DoubleDownInteractive for $500 million in 2012 when the latter had only 70 employees, but by then had become the leader in social gaming on the Facebook platform, and in recent years DoubleDown has released a gaming handheld game of the same name DoubleDownCasino has been ranked relatively high in the US revenue charts in recent years.

In a statement, DoubleUGames CEO OGa-RamKim said, "This transaction represents a unique and valuable partnership to combine DoubleUGames' excellent operational experience with IGT's world-class slot game content. Through this partnership, we are very confident in DoubleUGames' future as a global leader in social gaming".