Casino Software Providers

A Brief History of Casino Games

We can easily say that gambling has been around for ages. Some evidence dates gambling all the way back to the Paleolithic era, but the earliest written evidence can be found in ancient Mesopotamia, as far as 3,000 BCE. Gambling houses were incredibly popular across China, while dogs or even cock fights can be traced back to classical times.

As far as online gambling goes the first online casino was launched in 1994 by Microgaming. Named the Gaming Club, they proudly carry the title of the world’s 1st online casino and they are still in business even today. After Microgaming’s success, new companies started to launch their own online casinos and soon this became a billion-dollar industry. Today there are thousands of online casinos across the world and hundreds of software providers, driving the iGaming industry forward.

Are the Games made by the Best Software Providers Always Trustworthy?

Of course, if they weren’t you can be sure that the company would’ve been out of business a long time ago. The truth is that in the long run, every casino game will bring a profit for the casino. This is ensured by the RTP value, the variance, and the RNG (Random Number Generator). So, no company needs to cheat to earn a profit.

All of the games a software provider releases go through a licensing process and scrupulous testing. If the criteria and the RTP value of the game are met it’s approved and can be publicly released. Some casinos also employ the services of independent testing agencies like eCOGRA, TST, and iTech Labs, which confirm on a monthly basis that the games are fair and random.

Popular Software Providers in 2024

As a founder of the online gambling industry Microgaming held the throne for a very long time. They have great games and millions of loyal players even today. But when NetEnt released a new collection of slots, they took the iGaming industry by storm. They released many great games and we saw a rise of NetEnt casinos by the hundreds. Many other providers hold a notable piece of the market today, some of the most popular ones being Pragmatic Play, Play’n Go, Evolution Gaming, Quickspin, and Elk Studios. A common detail for all of them is their great games, but this is not generic software. They all differ in many ways, making for a versatile game portfolio at the leading online casinos.

Microgaming

We already mentioned that for a long time Microgaming was the leading software provider in the iGaming industry. They are still one of the leading ones even today, with a massive number of loyal daily players. The most notable detail about this provider is its jackpot slots. They have a big jackpot collection, including the most popular one of them all, Mega Moolah. This slot can payout millions of dollars in a single spin, which is why thousands of players flock to its reels daily.

NetEnt

Today NetEnt is considered to be the leading software provider when it comes to slots. Their games can be found at pretty much every online casino and they brought a number of innovations to the industry. They managed to bring thousands of daily players to their games and that was the main reason for the acquisition of NetEnt by Evolution Gaming. The agreement came at a hefty price of $2.1 billion, but considering the revenue the company rakes in on a yearly level, it was well worth it.

Play’n Go

For a long time, Play’n Go was a B2B supplier. They had a small, but solid collection of video slots and slowly started attracting more and more players to their games. They worked hard to expand their portfolio with new and exciting slots. One of their most popular slots is Book of Dead, a slot with a great bonus round and the potential for some hefty payouts.

Pragmatic Play

Pragmatic Play came online in 2015, so they are a fairly new kid on the block. But the company managed to note a massive expansion in a short period of time. They launched a big number of great video slots and also have excellent live casino software. Their “Bonus Buy” slots are incredibly popular among regular players and casino game streamers. They are constantly releasing new games on the market and, so far, none of them disappoints.

Evolution Gaming

Evolution Gaming was founded in 2006, with headquarters in Riga, Latvia. From the start they knew that they had to bring something new to the table, to have a fighting chance to beat the fierce competition. So, instead of creating slots like everyone else, they released live dealer casino games. The company built a live casino floor and the tables were streamed in HD quality via cameras, allowing the players to interact with the dealer. Needless to say, it was a massive success and today most reputable online casinos offer live dealer games, mostly from Evolution Gaming.

Other Casino Software Providers

We covered the most popular software providers in the iGaming industry, but we also have to mention some of the other ones as well. We have to state that we don’t consider these providers to be bad ones, on the contrary. Many of them have great games on offer, but they are simply smaller companies fighting to make a breakthrough in the market. Here’s a list of some of the most popular ones:

Types of Casino Software

In the past pretty much all software providers relied on the download platform. To play at a casino you would first need to download their software and install it locally on your computer. Then when you opened the casino and the game it would connect to their server and you’d be ready to play. This was mostly due to slow internet speeds and frequent crashing of the web browser. But once internet speeds hit broadband and the HTML5 protocol was introduced, casinos moved to the instant play and mobile play format.

Today it’s almost impossible to find a download casino, other than the Playtech and Realtime Gaming ones, but even they have a stable instant play platform. The instant play format has many benefits. It allows for hassle-free gameplay, custom casino sites, and a high level of security. Even the live casino software is instant play, which just shows how far technology has advanced this sector.

Comparing Software Providers

By now you know that not all software providers are the same. But how do you compare them to one another and how can you determine which are the best ones? Well, there are many ways to do this, but in this section, we will cover the most popular ones.

Overall Reputation

This one’s easy. The best software providers are also the most popular among players. All you need to do is spend a few minutes for some basic research about the company and the games it offers. Gambling forums are a great place for this, as nothing beats the first-hand experience of real players. You can find some great recommendations there about the games from that provider, or even games from other providers.

RTP Transparency

The leading providers in this industry are also very transparent. Some providers don’t reveal the RTP value or even the volatility of their games. This makes it harder for you as a player to know what to expect from the games. You are basically going in half-blind, and even though they are games of chance, the info can help you build a strategy on which games to play. All of the leading providers are very transparent, clearly stating the RTP value, the volatility, or even the hit frequency of their games. You can easily find the info in the games or on the game provider page.

Visual details

The best providers in the industry pay a great deal of attention to the visual details of their games. They want to make them as attractive to the players as possible. If you open a game and it doesn’t catch you at first glance you can easily move on to games from another provider. This results in a loss of revenue and none of the leading providers wants to see that happen.