Software is no longer a barrier to casino gambling start ups

At the start of online gambling a major part of the business and a major investment was writing the software and this provided a barrier to entry for many would be participants but as far as online casinos are concerned everything has changed. In online sports gambling there is still competition amongst companies to have software which is faster and which offers more options but casino software writing is in the hands of relatively few companies. Today there no online casinos that would even consider writing their own casino software. Casino gambling online is a fairly new experience to many Irish casino players and indeed playing casino games at all is new to many as without online casinos it would still not be possible. The casino software business therefore is also fairly new but more and more new companies are trying their luck but of course they need an online casino to showcase their wares but fortunately there are far more online casinos than there are casino software developers so they can usually find a casino. Then fact that we now have specialist casino software developers means that many more casino games are available and they have become much more advanced and enjoyable to play but at the same time barriers to entering the online casino market have been lowered as software is no longer a consideration.

Entering the online casino market is still an expensive and risky business  as casino software remains expensive as development of the programmes still needs to be paid for by somebody and those programmes are getting more and more sophisticated to cater for the needs and wishes of the customers. Sports gambling software is following the same path but in that case each company takes care of it for themselves which could partly explain why there are far fewer sports gambling sites than online casino sites and also why there has been so much amalgamation in recent times. Casino slots in particular have become more and more complicated whereas casino software for original casino games such as roulette or blackjack have changed very little over time. The casino software market is controlled by several major players and also a few good smaller ones. Online casinos make their choice of software with one or two electing to use a variety of suppliers in combination rather than a single supplier which can give an even greater choice of games to play. In no particular order the major players in the casino software market are NetEnt, Microgaming, Wager works, Playtech, and Chartwell.

Microgaming is one of the older ones having been around since 1994 which was pretty much the start of online casinos. The company is based in the Isle of Man which is one of the major bases for online gambling along with Malta and Gibraltar. Microgaming has a number of popular casino slots such as Jurassic Park™ and Thunderstruck II™ and they have signed an agreement for exclusive rights to the Tarzan™ name for online slots. Mega  Moolah™  is possibly the most popular of the casino slots presented by Microgaming and it is a progressive jackpot slot which regularly carries jackpots worth millions of Euro. Players are known to have won 6 or 7 million Euro on this slot at Casinoland which although not featuring in the top three at gambling.ie does come in at number 4 and can be found under the casino tab.

The casino gambling software supplier NetEnt was established in 1996 and is registered on the Stockholm Nasdaq. The software is used by a number of online casinos that are listed at gambling.ie including all the top three. The  NetEnt claim to fame is that they offer  a number of casino slots that offer something a little bit different including titles such as Gonzo’s Quest™, Jack Hammer™ and Starburst™ and a strong argument for NetEnt casino slots is that the return to customer is between 95% and 98%. Return to customer is an average measure of the percentage of the staked money which is returned to customers as winnings. The average includes jackpot payouts so on a day to day basis it will be a lower percentage. This is the same for all jackpot slots. NetEnt is also very good in the area of progressive jackpot slots with their most popular Mega Fortune™ being listed in the Guinness Book of Records for having the largest single payout of nearly €18 million. They also hold the current record for a payment from a mobile of over €8.5 million. Clearly these casino slots jackpots are being won.

Playtech was only established in 1999 which was a little later than some of the competitors but today they are one of the major players in the casino software market and indeed in other online gambling markets and their client list includes the likes of Paddy Power, Bet365 and William Hill which clearly makes them major players . Playtech was started in Estonia they were first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2006 on the AIM market and on the main market in 2012. The company now employs thousands of people in many countries mainly developing new games and technologies.

Chartwell  is headquartered in Alberta Canada as was established in 1998 after it acquired a computer software company called Gateway Technology but subsequently was acquired by the Amaya Gaming Group in 2011.

These are the four largest casino software providers but big does not always mean better as has been proved in the online casino market where smaller players such as Fun Casino or CasinoLand are becoming more and more popular. Smaller casino software developers such as Amatic Industries who run casino slots under the name of Amanet® have teamed up with CasinoCasino.com and  by making use of some simple easy to follow casino slots which many people prefer are growing quite rapidly.  Casinoland.com choose to use a mixture of casino software suppliers in an attempt to have something for everyone so for example for the progressive jackpot chasers there are Microgaming slots such as Mega Moolah™ or for lovers of something more unusual there is Gonzo’s Quest by NetEnt together with simple slots such as Electric Sam™ brought to you by the as yet unmentioned ELK Studios.

There are many casino gambling software suppliers and more and more online casinos so you will see the same casino games appearing at different online casinos but don’t let that put you off. Casino gambling is simply good fun.