Softwares
What are casino game providers?
If you are a gambler who has recently entered the online casino market, you will not know what the first casino games looked like. In fact, they have changed a lot from the past thanks to the hard work of game developers around the world.
So what are game providers? They are the companies that laid the foundation for the development of online casinos, or in other words, they make betting on betting platforms possible through their products. To your knowledge, the casinos themselves do not produce any games. Instead, they partner with software providers to bring exciting games from those studios to players. So the games are always the same at every casino you choose.
However, as you know, casino games are very diverse from genre to feature to create a tremendous entertainment value for you to enjoy. They clearly demonstrate the characteristics and strengths of each developer. Each developer will have a unique style and advantage, evident in the games they launch.
Every year, the world's top developers engage in a fierce race to create new, more engaging, and dramatic titles. If they are successful in introducing their products to the casinos' operators, they will be partnering with those online casinos and reaping a substantial profit when their games are available on these sites.
On the user side, they are the ones who benefit the most from the competition between developers. The more vendors present in the market, the more exciting games you will have for entertainment. However, the popular choices of gamblers still mostly revolve around products from the top game developers in the world as their games offer unsurpassed quality.
In today's article, we will introduce you to the giants in the casino games manufacturing market. They are providers that have made a name for themselves in the games they produce, and you can find their titles at the most active online casinos today. Check out the list below to get an overview of the characteristics of each developer and learn more about them if you've played through one of their games.
Popular Casino Software Providers
Today's leading software vendors have taken full advantage of modern technologies to make their games more attractive. With excellent visuals and sounds, exciting gameplay, and unique bonus features, their products easily capture the players' attention and make them bet more and more on them. The following is a list of popular providers that you often hear about at online casinos for your reference.
Real Time Gaming
Real Time Gaming, or RTG, was one of the first companies that contributed to the explosion of online gambling. Born in 1998 in the US state of Georgia and relocated to Costa Rica in 2007, their company has flourished with the large number of games they offer as well as their popularity in other online gambling platforms.
Currently, they are one of the largest companies that supply US online casinos. Their list of games is around 120 titles, with the majority of them belonging to slot machines. Some of their featured games include Aztec's Treasure, Diamond Mine, and Incan Goddess. Besides, they also produce a few games based on the popular Star Wars TV series like Return of the Rudolph or fun Christmas-themed games like Santa Strikes Back.
Also, one of their significant competitive advantages is that the games they offer have a more impressive RTP (Return To Player) rate than many other providers. As a result, their players can expect a higher rate of return when playing the games they produce.
Playtech
Playtech is truly a giant in the online gambling industry. With over 5,000 employees and twelve offices in other locations worldwide, such as the UK, Bulgaria, Estonia, Israel, and Ukraine, they are considered the largest casino software provider among all providers. This argument becomes even more plausible as they are the largest casino software company traded on the London Stock Exchange.
This company is famous for running the very successful proprietary iPoker network. At the same time, they also offer a large number of casino games at the platforms they partner with. Currently, their library is filled with over 500 diverse titles, and it is further supplemented by the fact that they release new games almost every week.
They operate the successful iPoker network as well as provide a large number of online casinos with games. The selection of games they have developed is varied, but they are perhaps best known for their incredible variety of slot machines. One of their most popular slots series is based on characters from the Marvel comics.
What makes Playtech successful lies in the quality of its products. Although their frequency of new game launches is quite fast, all of their products deliver excellent visual effects and sound quality that is far above average. That's why more and more players are looking to their games for fun.
Some of this provider's impressive slot games include Gladiator, Beach Life, and Gold Rally. Alternatively, you can try out some variations of the popular table games they produce, such as Blackjack, Baccarat, Pai Gow Poker, Roulette, Craps, and Caribbean Poker.
Microgaming
If one had to choose a champion among software vendors, the name chosen would be none other than Microgaming. They have been consistently producing innovative and unique games for the past 25 years and receive a steady stream of awards from prestigious organizations as a result. Most prominent among their achievements are the Global Gaming Awards, B2B EGR Awards, International Gaming Awards, and Casino Players.
This company is currently the creator of 800 casino games, 350 of which are available to mobile users. Their top games are Mega Moolah and Jungle Jim El Dorado, which provide players with an impressive chance of winning a progressive jackpot. Besides, these games come in more than 1,200 variations, which effectively keep your favorite games from becoming boring and stale. Furthermore, they also produce a network called Microgaming Poker Network (MPN), which includes more than 26 affiliated poker rooms. This network has been around since 2003, and it is one of the oldest poker rooms in existence on the Internet.
Microgaming is well known as a longtime pioneer in the gambling industry. They have been the new trendsetter in recent years with virtual reality games that they first produced in 2016. Consequently, they have completely changed the iGaming market and made other companies have to chase with all their might if they don't want to be left behind in the race.
IGT (International Gaming Technology)
IGT, whose full name is International Gaming Technology, is founded in 1971. After that point, they started supplying game machines to land-based locations and gradually diversified into online gaming. Although that transformation has only happened in recent years, they are already well known online for the excellent quality of their products.
1996 marked a strong breakthrough for IGT with the Game King slot. It is ubiquitous in land-based casinos these days. That was also the year they introduced the Wheel of Fortune progressive jackpot slot, known as the most popular slot machine game of all time.
Like other software providers, most games in IGT's collection are slot machines. After acquiring WagerWorks in 2005, their collection has grown to over 100 diverse titles. IGT's strength lies in its online games that offer progressive jackpot bonuses, which account for more than 75 percent of its products. Currently, IGT is the record holder for the slot machine game with the largest progressive jackpot in the world.
Game King video poker machines, as mentioned above, along with the Monopoly Progressive Jackpot slot, are the two most popular games from this studio. In addition, they are also the creators of many games familiar to other gamblers, such as Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, Price is Right, and Transformers.
NetEnt
Net Entertainment, commonly referred to as NetEnt for short, is one of the most successful companies in the field of online gambling game development in the world. They were founded in 1996 by a large land-based casino operator in Scandinavia and has been growing ever since.
The company currently has more than 1000 employees whose main task is to research and develop creativity in games and create original game content. Their dedicated efforts have made NetEnt a success, as they currently operate over 170 casinos and still growing, with 220 quality games that are continuously improved for better compatibility with mobile devices through their Touch software platform.
The operator of NetEnt claims that they maintain the highest quality standards at all times throughout their library of games. Sacrificing quality for quantity is only a temporary solution when the vision and potential of this company allow them to do both.
Players have always loved titles from NetEnt with their flawless graphics and sound. If you want to check it out, try Guns N'Roses, Motorhead, and Jimi Hendrix. They are considered one of the company's most successful games.
Besides, NetEnt proved to be not an outsider in the trend of virtual reality games. In 2011, they released the game Gonzo's Quest VR using their Touch technology. It is still considered the most successful virtual reality game today based on its coverage across casinos.
Evolution Gaming
Evolution Gaming is the leading expert in providing live casino games. Although joining the race later than other giants when this company was founded in 2006, they still showed their potential when they quickly won contracts with many famous casinos worldwide. Some of their most notable partnerships include 888 casinos, William Hill, Unibet, Ladbrokes, Mr. Green casino, and Bwin casino.
Understanding the growing demand of the iGaming market for live casino games, Evolution Gaming's development team has focused on this genre to attract the attention of operators. Their products are known for being extremely eye-catching due to their superior video quality in high definition. That gives this studio a competitive edge as their games create a favorable environment for players to watch what's happening at the table and place bets.
The achievements achieved by this supplier are also worth mentioning. They have been the owners of the EGR Operator award for eight years in a row, an impressive number to show how strong this company is.
If you are interested in Evolution Gaming's live casino games, you can experience some of the top titles and variations released by the company, such as Dream Catcher, Caribbean Stud Poker, and Ultimate Texas Hold 'em. In addition, they are also famous for a special feature called Multi-Game play, which allows you to play up to four of these games simultaneously.
WMS (Williams Interactive)
WMS Industries is a company with a very long history. They made their debut in the 1940s and made their mark on the pinball industry at the time. The company continued to develop a number of popular video games in the 1990s and recently established Williams Interactive as a subsidiary to focus on online gambling games.
By 2009, WMS Gaming began its trending transition to the online gaming industry. They started by providing games to online casinos based in the UK and then brought their products to online casinos worldwide through their subsidiary. Their Williams Interactive.
Producing slot games is the forte of this studio. Although they don't have a huge amount in the collection, some of their games have become globally famous, which confirms the company's quality. Zeus, Raging Rhino, Dancing in Rio, Hercules: High and Mighty, The Wizard of Oz, Bruce Lee, I Love Lucy, and Star Trek are their flagship product and is considered by many players to be the most impressive slot games they have ever experienced.
Not only that, but WMS Gaming is also very successful in introducing the Monopoly branded slot machine game. This series of games has created great interest among gamblers ever since it launched with huge progressive jackpots. To this day, Monopoly remains one of the most popular slot machine games in online casinos around the world.
Betsoft
Betsoft is the provider of some of the most advanced casino games found on online casinos today. Their games are famous for their amazing 3D graphics and animations, making the turns more enjoyable. They are really groundbreaking, and they also develop a lot of video games and board games. Currently, this company is a software supplier for 169 online casinos in the world, a number that confirms their growth.
Betsoft's main interest is in creating casino games like video poker or slot machines. In its collection, this studio owns 26 variations of video poker, 71 three-dimensional slot games, 21 table games, six classic slot games, 3-D poker, and a 3-D virtual racebook.
Featured products from this developer focus on holographic slots and holographic poker games. They are called Slots3 and Poker3, respectively. 2010 was the year that marked Besoft's breakthrough, with their first 3D slot being released. This game was one of the first titles on the market to adopt 3-D graphics, making the player experience much more enjoyable and breathtaking.
NextGen Gaming
NextGen Gaming appeared in 1999, in the midst of the boom of online casinos. Since their inception, they have quickly established themselves as a powerhouse by providing software to 231 partners across the globe, including popular platforms like Guts Casino, Casumo Casino, and BetVictor Casino. The huge growth of this studio is also marked by the many awards they have won, all related to their quality products.
The developer insists that table games and video poker are not his concern but rather the lucrative market of slot machines. Today, their impressive game collection has reached 2000 titles. They all offer a great user experience, with beautiful graphics and innovative bonus features. The most prominent of them are Superman and 300 Shields.
In addition, this company also chooses a different way of development compared to the giants in the market. That is, they sell their products to other software vendors. NextGen has supplied games to hugely popular gaming companies like Bally Technologies and Aristocrat Gaming. Although the customers of these companies will never know that the game they are playing is a NextGen game, the company has found its own way to huge profits with tested quality games.
Final Verdict
We've worked hard to create as detailed a list as possible so that you get to know the people behind your favorite slot games. However, the reality is that this race is not only limited to 9 contestants. Many other software vendors like Rival Gaming, PlayNGo, Novomatic, or Pragmatic Play still show their steady growth with new products almost every week. All of these studios work hard with the sole aim of optimizing your experience at online casinos.