Israel-based mobile games company Playtika has teamed up with the Montreal Canadiens for its first Canadian sponsorship.

The company got into sports sponsorship last year, when it became the main sponsor of the Spanish soccer club Sevilla FC.

Its connection to Montreal is strong. The city is the headquarters of one of Playtika’s most popular games, World Series of Poker (WSOP), a free-to-play app.

“It therefore seemed only natural for us to partner with the city’s most legendary sports team,” stated WSOP general manager Lior Kenan in a March 7 press release.

Of course, Montreal is also the home of Mitch Garber, whose foresight took Playtika from an emerging company to one that’s worth billions of dollars.

Founded in 2010, Playtika was bought by Caesars Interactive Entertainment, whose CEO was then Garber, the following year for US$100 million. Playtika expanded rapidly and acquired WSOP in 2013.

In 2016, Playtika was sold, again under Garber’s leadership, to Giant Interactive, a private Chinese consortium, for US$4.4 billion.

Today, Playtika, which is headquartered in Herzliya, claims over 27 million active monthly users and more than 2,000 employees in offices around the world, including Montreal.