International Game Technology, or shortly IGT, probably aren’t as much of a household name in the online casino world as some other companies. The likes of NetEnt, Microgaming, and Yggdrasil have their branding all over the place, including on a huge number of games.
IGT should be better known because they’re the biggest company in the online gambling world.
The company calls itself “the global leader, across all channels”.
The company produces tech, software, games (content), and services.
They call themselves the world’s leading “end-to-end gaming company”. The company is headquartered – via a holding company – in the UK, but is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Its international footprint takes in Rome and the American cities of Las Vegas (where else?) and Providence in Rhode Island. More than 12,000 people work for the company.
We cover online casinos, focusing on online video slots, casino games, live casino games, and instant wins. We also look at bingo, and sports simulations from time to time, but IGT’s brief is so wide that we can’t even cover it all because they work in lotteries too.
International Game Technology sell all this stuff both to end users and to other businesses in real-life settings as well as online on desktop and mobile internet.
Trying to “define the future of gaming” is a big mission for IGT, who are descended from a number of other companies – and have been involved in plenty of takeovers – so let’s see how well they do in that with our comprehensive guide to IGT Casino software and IGT slots.
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Best IGT Casinos – Casinos With IGT Slots
A History of IGT
IGT are big players in the history of slots.
They started out in 1975 as A-1 Supply, which became Sircoma in 1978, and in turn became International Gaming Technology in 1981 when they were first publicly listed.
The company’s big breakthrough had been a video poker machine. This is a major step in the development of slots. Slots had their first iteration as machine versions of poker deals. Introducing video screens to the gaming world was a giant milestone on the road to the online video slot, as it finally broke the bond to physical machinery and opened the doors to the virtually infinite possibilities of the small screen.
From there on International Game Technology continued to grow, picking up companies as it went, including the first player-tracking systems. The company picked up the makers of that in 1984 and it’s now the foundation of the IGT Advantage and sbX systems.
The S-Slot was IGT’s first fully computer-driven slot. Then came the hugely successful Player’s Edge video poker game.
First Progressive Slot
After that the world’s first progressive slot using a wide-area network. This game, Nevada Megabucks, started out with an eye-catching $1 million jackpot. This is a major breakthrough, today’s progressives online build up jackpots of millions from players all around the world, taking IGT’s breakthrough and using the amazing connectivity of the World Wide Web.
IGT opened the 90s with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange, then set up a European division in 1992, working in bricks-and-mortar casinos across the continent. Soon they were also working in Argentina and South Africa.
In 1996 they won again in the progressive market with Wheel of Fortune. In tech news, they released Game King.
1998 was the year when Barcrest Gaming joined the IGT family. Barcrest is a name familiar to every UK gamer and has been making UK slots for decades. IGT also brought Sodak Gaming, an American distributor working in Native American casinos.
New Games
New games kept coming, with 1998’s Triple Play Draw Poker, a standout, marking a new partnership with Action Gaming. The company teamed up with the greatest rock n roller of all time with an Elvis slot. A new system, the S2000 was launched in 1999.
In the 21st century, IGT has continued to grow by acquisition, adding Silicon Gaming, Anchor Gaming, Acres Gaming, WagerWorks, and Cyberview Technology, Inc.
Some of these acquisitions were simply made to make IGT bigger, but lots of them involved snapping up vital tech breakthroughs.
In 2004, IGT started into the lotto market.
At 25 years old, the company celebrated its silver anniversary by buying WagerWorks and releasing its MegaJackpots progressive jackpots games with a game called Fort Knox.
In 2006, IGT introduced multiplayer roulette and baccarat games.
Offices around the world
The company was also busily expanding around the world, adding offices in numerous markets. They also struck up licensing deals, like their long-running deal with Novomatic the Austrian game developer.
Did you know that International Game Technology owns a gigantic empty casino hall? Well, now you do! It was opened in 2008 in Nevada and its 600m2 of empty space that can be filled up with machines for testing by anyone who’ll pay the fees!
In 2009 they opened in China and launched an sbX system that allowed real-life casinos to connect up all or part of their games.
In 2010 IGT won a huge slew of awards in industry ceremonies, including 35 awards in one single organisation’s company, Strictly Slots Best of Slots Awards.
The same year also saw IGT restructure in order to push its online gaming, with a new division formed from WagerWorks and Million-2-1 and headquartered in San Francisco.
In 2011, IGT bought a poker network called Entraction. And it went into social gaming via Double Down, the Facebook gaming company.
Corporate shenanigans in the early 2010s ended with IGT being bought by Gtech, an Italian company, which paid $6.4 billion! The company’s official name became International Games Technology, and the headquarters was set up in the UK.
What Does IGT Do?
IGT is a massive company. They offer products and services to businesses across the online casino and gaming sector. The end user is you – the online slots fan, for example – but often the actual customer is a business.
IGT makes gaming products, games, systems, offers services, and builds cabinets (real-world, traditional gaming machines).
The company makes lottery products and also has a number of brands in that area, which we won’t look at in detail in this article.
They make a load of products under the Play banner: PlayDigital, PlayAnywhere, PlayLottery, PlaySpot, PlayPlatform and PlayService.
They do make sports betting products too.
IGT Games
IGT games offer – to its customers, who aren’t you, remember – popular titles with big, popular jackpots.
They say that their games are made with so successful with “customer intelligence”, “investment in innovation”, and popular brands.
IGT has paid out – as of this article – $6 billion in prizes.
IGT Casino Systems
Some of what we’re covering in this article might feel academic. IGT’s products are largely sold to casino operators rather than to end users like you. Some of these systems – and games – are built around bricks-and-mortars casinos rather than the online casinos that are our main focus.
This is an interesting case study on how the industry views customers, which is something every online casino player should know.
You are the casino’s profit.
So when IGT sing the praises of their casino systems as things that “raise your ROI [return on investment]” they aren’t talking about your money, they’re talking about the casino owners’ money. That’s when they’re talking about the investment, in another sense they do mean your money, because your money is the “return” in this equation.
IGT Casino Services
Again, casino services are offered to casino owners rather than you, and many of them are aimed entirely at real-world casinos. However, you’re the person who will use them.
IGT says it works in partnerships with its customers to offer services. They can run casinos for you. Provide support services. They also deliver real-life parts to machines, send service people out to fix them, text machines, offer training and more.
IGT Casino Cabinets
IGT games are available both on and off-line.
These worlds do cross over these days. The introduction of TV-style screens as an alternative to actual reels was one of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of online slots.
It wasn’t a big deal originally, but breaking the connection between machinery and symbols made games an infinite blank canvas. Now, these possibilities are being fulfilled, and online games can be offered on screens in cabinets – and loaded or unloaded as the owners’ see fit. And off-line games can very easily be offered online.
The titles International Game Technology was pushing in May 2019 were their big titles and breakthroughs like AXXIS True 3D, and Crystal Curve. These are systems developments and cabinet designs. Among their famous titles are Megabucks and Wheel of Fortune.
Other Services
As we don’t really cover lottery and sports betting on this site, we’ll skip over IGT’s offering in those areas beyond saying it’s big and popular.
IGT Online Games: IGT Play
IGT’s online offering is offered via the IGT Play brand, which is itself split into a number of brands, including IGT Anywhere.
This includes the PlayCasino, PlayPoker, PlayBingo, and PlayInstants brands that are the focus for most of our players.
PlayCasino includes slot games.
IGT Slots and Casino Games
There are too many IGT games to list in full here. We’re talking hundreds and hundreds of titles, made by the company itself and falling into a lot of categories. The company also works with a number of other games companies to produce titles in partnerships.
Here we’ll look at some of them.
IGT Slots
According to some reports, IGT has around 3.5% of all games in UK casinos. When there are more than 200 game makers that’s a very big market share. Not many fewer games of theirs are in casino lobbies, which means they’re on the front page and are likely to be the first games that players choose.
The top IGT slot game titles in terms of popularity in that market are: Wolf Ridge, Cleopatra, Da Vinci Diamonds, Scarab, Pixies of the Forest, Wild Fury Jackpots, Elephant King, MegaJackpots Cleopatra, Pixies of the Forest, and Cleopatra PLUS.
Notable in their offering are big tie-ins with well-known entertainment brands and big progressive jackpot games.
Tie-ins include the likes of Baywatch, Ghostbusters, and Harley Davidson motorcycles.
Big jackpots are often branded with the company’s “MegaJackpots” name.
Their biggest prize machines include the likes of Fire horse, Miss White, Black Widow, and Bubble Prize, all of which have advertised top prizes of 25,000,000 coins. (Remember to check top prize limits and coin values at any site you’re playing at.)
IGT Casino Games
The provider has three current casino game simulators in its catalogue: Blackjack, double bonus spin roulette, and roulette.
IGT blackjack is a six-deck game that’s really aimed at the mobile market.
IGT Roulette is a standard single-zero game.
And IGT Roulette Double Bonus Spin is a double-zero game with a bonus game that puts a jackpot bet into every game.
IGT Video Poker
IGT video poker was how the company really got started in the online slots market. They still offer a great range of games, with 11 titles currently on the market.
These include bonus poker, double bonus poker, jacks or better, and more.
IGT Mobile Games
All IGT slots and IGT casino games are available to play on mobile devices. In fact, the company now prioritises mobile design. Like most companies in the online slots industry, it is simply acknowledging the fact that most players are now using mobile devices to play games on.
You should have no problem with technical issues with IGT games or slots if you are using one of the mainstream mobile brands or operating systems.
IGT EVA
IGT EVA games are simply a branding label and needn’t concern end-users.
PlayPoker
Away from the classic casino portfolio, IGT produces a poker network software suite called PlayPoker.
These systems can now be played on desktop devices and mobile and tablets.
Again, PlayPoker is advertised to customers as a way of maximising the value to the site of its customers – ie, you.
PlayBingo
The bingo world is both in the gambling world and slightly removed from it. There’s an interesting social and sexual history behind this if you have the time and inclination to dig into it.
The upshot of that history – a strong following from working-class women players in many markets, for example – is that bingo has developed with a stronger community element that most online casino products.
IGT PlayBingo is sold to bingo sites to offer a number of versions of the game: 90-ball, 80-ball, 75-, 50-, and 30-ball games.
International Game Technology provide the chat rooms too, as well as the side games (usually cut down versions of popular slots, again with a particular character) that are a way to get more “value” out of players.
IGT bingo is available around the world in loads of currencies and features all of the company’s gambling and banking innovations.
PlayInstants
Finally, we have instants. Instants are an online version of scratch cards, and they’re pretty much the simplest form of gambling to have much of a following. This is raw, random event stuff. You reveal a set of symbols and get rewarded for matches, with some big prizes.
IGT Gambling – IGT Spot and Real Money Gaming
A couple of innovations in the IGT portfolio are worth covering.
IGT Real Money Gaming is eye-opening.
The pitch on the company’s website opens like this: “Around the globe interactive wagering is being considered and regulations are in the works.”
So this is a way of working with new laws and regulations around online gambling. This is what is called a “white label” site, and it’s an issue within the industry.
A white label site is set up by independent operators, but it is all but run by one of the big casino software providers – like our friends, IGT here. Perhaps the best way to explain this is via franchise businesses, like some fast food companies, or pub chains in the UK: a pub might look like a unique and lovely place, but you go inside and find exactly the same beers as every other pub in town.
International Game Technology then has a large number of what are effectively IGT sites: they will have their games, and run on their systems, but they won’t (necessarily) be branded as an IGT site.
There’s nothing at all illegitimate about this – let alone illegal – but it does mean that a lot of choice in the gambling industry is a bit of an illusion.
This is what IGT real money is doing, with its: “hundreds of proven titles, game variations, tournaments, and robust game development.”
PlaySpot – a new front
IGT PlaySpot is an interesting new development because it takes the online world back into the real-world casino realm.
This system allows players in real-life casinos to use their mobiles to interact with the real-life games there.
The Final Words
International Game Technology are massive and massively popular, probably without you realizing it.
You can carry on quite happily in this ignorance if you wish! A lot of sites won’t let you know that they’re an IGT site up front. That’s not any reason to think that they’ve got something to hide, it’s just that you can play at any site without worrying about the nuts and bolts.
If you do know IGT are behind a site, or you see a site on an IGT casino list you can be sure that the site can be trusted on the most basic level. You’ll get a fair game with good quality games and payment systems, customer service and the like, that you can rely on to work.
You can also expect IGT to be delivering a good service to the people who buy these systems, and a good service for them means keeping you around (that’s kinda good because it means making you a satisfied customer) and spending your money!
IGT can be trusted, offer a great choice of games, and work well, so enjoy their games and their sites safely and responsibly.