Toronto-based Spin Master is bolstering its revenue-driving digital games division by bringing in 20-year Electronics Arts veteran Marc De Vellis as SVP of digital operations and strategy.

Reporting to digital games president Fredrik Loving, De Vellis will focus on running Spin Master’s digital studios Toca Boca and Noid (both based in Sweden), Originator (San Francisco) and Sago Mini (Toronto), which all make games for kids.

Over the course of his two-decade run at EA, De Vellis worked his way up from producer to head of operations.

Spin Master faced a revenue decline in 2020 as the pandemic took hold, but an enhanced focus on digital IPs and ventures has since helped the company come back strong. In Q4 2021, its digital games revenue increased by 57% to US$50 million, compared to the same period the year before. Spin Master has been able to parlay this gaming success into its TV business, inking a deal in April with Apple TV+ for preschool series Sago Mini Friends, based on the Sago Mini game franchise.

Last October, it launched Spin Master Ventures—with an initial US$100-million budget—to invest in tech companies and startups as a strategy for accelerating the growth of its own games business. In the months since, the division has put money into Stockholm-based indie mobile game Nørdlight and Canadian edtech platform Hoot Reading.