Who Are Evolution Gaming & What Do They Do?
When the possibility of playing live streamed online casino games first became widely available a little over a decade ago, it seemed like a miracle of technology. It was now possible to get closer to the real live atmosphere of a real life casino, whilst sitting at home on your PC or Mac. And, if the boss wasn’t looking, on your office computer too.
In truth though, compared with today, it wasn’t such a great experience at all. Broadband was hardly supersonic, Wi-Fi could be hit and miss, and mobile technology had yet to reach the level where you could successfully play on a phone. Even if you had a strong signal and connection, which was by no means a certainty in those days.
Today, things are quite different. You can play live games pretty much anytime, anywhere, on any device. And the experience is so much more realistic too, even on your smartphone or tablet. It’s been quite simply a revolution in technology in just a few short years.
One company has had more influence on this astounding pace of development than any other. That company is Evolution Gaming. They are without doubt the leaders in this field – peerless operators in what is becoming an increasingly crowded market. They have had, and continue to face some strong competition, but these truly international operators continue to be the acclaimed market leaders.
Evolution Gaming – A Look At Its History
The company was founded in 2006. Live casino gaming has always been their focus, and it didn’t take long for them to get things off the ground. Casino operators of the time were eager to offer their players something new and distinctive, and the prospect of playing live games certainly provided that.
Thus by the following year, several top notch high street sports betting chains were among the operators who had snapped up Evolution’s new service for their online casinos. These included Gala Coral and William Hill amongst a number of other pioneering operators. The early service was an immediate success. By the end of the decade, further deals had been struck with the likes of Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Sporting Bet and 888 Casinos.
In fact, so strong was demand that the company’s purpose built live studio, based in the Baltic state of Latvia, had to be more than tripled in size to cope. In 2010, further studio development enabled licensees to operate their own dedicated studios, enabling them to personalise their service purely for their own players. Yet even this expansion proved inadequate to cope with the exceptional clamour for more live gaming from both eager operators and their players. As a result in 2011, the company’s live studios were totally re-located to brand new purpose built facilities in Riga, the Latvian capital.
Evolution Gaming has never been the type of organisation to rest on its laurels however. It is this characteristic of constant innovation which has enabled them to maintain their position as market leaders throughout their existence. Hence in 2012, the company introduced its first mobile games. The following year, the company’s studio became officially the largest single site casino in Europe, as it opened its hundredth table. It also expanded the variety of games on offer by introducing some additional Poker formats.
The company continued to win industry awards and introduced still more games as the plaudits poured in. Further studios were opened in a variety of locations across the European continent, including in Bucharest in Romania, Tbilisi in Georgia, Casino de Spa in Belgium and on the Mediterranean island of Malta.
In 2015, the company achieved a provisional listing on the Stockholm NASDAQ stock exchange, reaching full status in 2017. Its shares were initially priced at around 18 SEK (around £1.40). At the time of writing, Evolution Gaming shares are valued at around the 600 SEK (about £50), which represents an impressive rate of return for those early shareholders.
Between then and now, the expansion of the company has never stopped or even slowed down. The company’s history is one of continual innovation and growth. It now operates more live studios, in more countries and live streams a greater variety of games than anyone else. No other operator comes close.
What is more, it has achieved this position of pre-eminence not simply by using its market leading status and its resulting financial muscle, but by simply providing the very best service. It is by far the most popular live streaming operator amongst both casino operators and their players. Its position as unrivalled market leader is acclaimed by the entire industry. In 2019, it won the industry’s top award once again as it was crowned Live Casino Supplier of the Year for the tenth year in succession.
Games
Evolution Gaming really are the kings of live streamed online gaming. They can provide just about every kind of casino game, in more varieties of formats than any other provider, by far.
Whether you, as a player, can actually play them however, is down to the particular casino you are playing at. If only you could open up a direct account with Evolution, things would be much simpler, but it’s against the regulations. Evolution can only act as the supplier to casino operators; they are not allowed to provide games to players directly. So in effect, it’s the casino operators who have the first choice, not you!
Casino operators can choose from literally hundreds of different live streamed games. There’s the standard traditional casino fayre of Baccarat, Blackjack, Poker and Roulette of course, all provided in dozens of different forms. There really is something for every player, no matter what the preferred table format, game variant, style or budget. But there is so much more on the table too. There are less commonly seen card games like Dragon Tiger, plus some excellent dice games, including Sic Bo.
Things don’t just end with conventional casino games either. There’s a football themed studio to bring a true stadium atmosphere to your play, plus live board games like Monopoly. The live wheel format is also a winner: Dream Catcher and Crazy Time are well worth a spin if you’re looking for something different. Then there’s Mega Ball, which is more of a lottery style game. Or, if you’re looking for some real live TV style glamour, why not try Evolution’s live streamed Deal or no Deal? It’s created jointly with the game’s originators, Endemol.
Evolution Gaming in Summary
At the time of writing, Evolution Gaming operates from studios in eight different locations across Europe and North America. The company can provide native speaking live dealers for any of around thirty different languages, and promises to source dealers for any language requested by its casino operator licensees. With worldwide demand for its excellent live streaming services continuing to increase, and Evolution’s track record of constant expansion, there is sure to be more of everything soon. There certainly seems no sign of the company’s unrivalled record of growth coming to an end in the foreseeable future.