US racing and gaming operator Churchill Downs Incorporated (CDI) has agreed to sell its Big Fish Games social gaming operation to Australian gaming technology firm Aristocrat Leisure Ltd. for nearly $1b.

On Wednesday, CDI announced that it had reached a deal to sell Big Fish Games to Aristocrat subsidiary Aristocrat Technologies Inc. for $990m. The all-cash deal is subject to the usual regulatory approvals but CDI’s board expects the deal to close sometime in Q1 2018.

It was three years ago this month that CDI announced it had paid $885m to acquire the Seattle-based Big Fish Games. Many observers blinked hard at the notion of CDI detouring so far from its race betting roots, but Big Fish quickly became CDI’s biggest revenue contributor.

However, CDI’s most recent earnings report showed the social and mobile gaming division’s earnings tumbling due to rising user acquisition costs. In May, CEO Bill Carstanjen said social casino growth had “slowed and competition has stiffened” but insisted that Big Fish still had “a great deal of unreached potential.”